Obituaries : Vernon Thomson; Former FEC Head
Vernon W. Thomson, a former Wisconsin governor, member of Congress for 14 years and Federal Elections Commission chairman, died Saturday at George Washington University Hospital, a spokeswoman said. He was 82.
Yvonne Hiott, the hospital spokeswoman, said the cause of death was respiratory arrest. Thomson lived in the Washington suburb of McLean, Va.
Thomson, a Republican Speaker of the Wisconsin state Assembly for three consecutive terms, served as Wisconsin’s governor in 1956 and 1957. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November, 1960, and served through 1974.
After leaving Congress, he joined the FEC and remained there until 1979, serving in 1976-77 as its chairman. In 1981, then-President Jimmy Carter called Thomson out of retirement to serve a year as interim member of the commission.
Born in Richland Center, Wis., Thomson attended Carroll College and the University of Wisconsin Law School before serving as Richland County district attorney in the 1930s.
After serving in the state Legislature, he was elected state attorney general in 1950, 1952 and 1954 before being named governor for two years. He lost a reelection bid to the Statehouse.
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