OKMULGEE, Okla. (IMB) – James Ross Thompson, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Colombia and Ecuador, died Jan. 30, 2025, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He was 85.
Ross was born Feb. 28, 1939, in Macon County, Mo., to the late Charles and Marjorie Thompson. He graduated from Atlanta (Missouri) Public School and received the Bachelor of Science from Northeast Missouri State Teacher’s College, Kirksville, and the Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
James Robert “Ross” Thompson (IMB Photo)
While growing up, he recalled riding a panel truck school bus sent by Atlanta Baptist Church each Sunday to bring him and some of the neighbor children in his rural community to Sunday school. In 1953, he accepted Christ as his Savior and was baptized a few weeks later. During his senior year in high school, he felt God calling him to be a minister. In college, he spent much of his time at the Baptist Student Center and attended Student Week at Glorieta conference center twice. During this time, he dedicated his life to missions.
In 1961, he married Laveta Jones. After graduation from college, they moved to Kansas City, where he enrolled in seminary. He also pastored during this time. While seeking missionary appointment he wrote, “While in seminary, during a Missions Day Service, in response to the invitation following a message by Dr. B.J. Cauthen, we committed our lives together to foreign mission service if the Lord would open the way.”
In 1968, the International Mission Board appointed Ross and Laveta missionaries to Colombia. They also served in Ecuador. They served as field evangelists for more than 30 years.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Laveta Thompson; daughter Teresa Rowland (Bill) of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and son Charles Thompson (Amy) of Urbana, Maryland; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral service was held Feb. 6 at Atlanta (Missouri) Baptist Church, with burial in Woodlawn Cemetery in Macon, Missouri.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.