Bruce R. Thompson

Bruce Rutherford Thompson was born on July 31, 1911, in Reno, Nevada. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada, Reno (A.B., 1932) and his law degree from Stanford Law School (LL.B., 1936). Admitted to the Nevada bar in 1936, he entered private practice in Reno, where he built his career over the following decades. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada from 1942 to 1952 and as a special master for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada from 1952 to 1954, while maintaining his Reno practice through 1963.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy nominated Thompson to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 6, 1963, and received his commission on August 16, 1963. He served on the federal bench for the remainder of his life, assuming senior status on August 31, 1978, and continuing to serve until his death on February 10, 1992.

A respected figure in Nevada's legal community, Thompson was honored with the naming of the Bruce R. Thompson United States Courthouse and Federal Building in Reno. His judicial oral history was preserved through the University of Nevada Oral History Program, reflecting a career that spanned more than half a century of Nevada law and jurisprudence.