Fred Thompson holds degrees from the College of Graphic Arts and Photography (now Print Media) at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. He began his career in publishing as the design and production manager at the University of Georgia Press. Six years later he co-founded Graphic Composition, Inc. (GCI) in Athens, Georgia. He started GCI with two employees and sold it in 1995 when the company had 50 full-time employees, 25 part-timers, and 100+ major accounts. For the last 30 years, Thompson has owned Book Production Resources (BPR), a project management company offering complete services from manuscript editing through printing and binding for corporate, academic, museums, historical societies, arboretums, and private publishers.

As his senior project to complete a bachelor’s degree from the College of Graphic Arts and Photography at Rochester Institute of Technology, Fred Thompson persuaded his major professor, Alexander Lawson, to allow him to typeset and print the autobiography of his great uncle, Memoirs of a Statesman. He typeset the 180-page book on a Linotype machine and printed it in 8-page signatures on a Vandercook proof press. The project was the beginning of a half-century career in book design and production. Thompson went on to earn a second bachelor’s degree in the editorial sequence at the School of Journalism, University of Missouri–Columbia, where he later did graduate work. He founded two companies for the design and production of fine books.

Horn Man: The Polish-American Musician in Twentieth-Century Detroit. Laurie Palazzolo. Detroit: The American-Polish Music Society, 2003.

Fishes of Alabama. Herbert T. Boschung, Jr. and Richard L. Mayden. Illustrations by Joseph P. Tomelleri. Washington: Smithsonian Books, 2004. (764 pp., 10 × 11 inches, 4-color, printed in Italy. BPR did the page make-up on every page of this title with the exception of title page, and the front- and backmatter.)

Ordinary Mysteries: The Common Journal of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, 1842–1843. Edited by Nicholas R. Lawrence and Marta L. Werner. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2005.

The Library of Benjamin Franklin: An Annotated Bibliography. Edwin Wolf 2nd and Kevin J. Hayes. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia, 2006.

Lacrosse: Technique and Tradition. David G. Pietramala and Neil A. Grauer. Baltimore: The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 2006.

Tupperware Cooks! Favorite Recipes of Notable and World Renowned Chefs. Orlando: Tupperware Brands Corporation, 2006. (9 × 10.875 inches; 4-color; printed in Hong Kong in an edition of 50,000 copies. Coordinated and supervised a $125,000 food photography budget and a $500,000 budget for typesetting, printing, and binding. Arranged and supervised the translation of the manuscript into five languages. Arranged and coordinated shipping to destinations in Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asia.)

A Tiger Walk Through History: The Complete Story of Auburn Football from 1892 to the Tuberville Era. Paul Hemphill. Foreword by Vince Dooley. Tuscaloosa: Pebble Hill (Univ. of Alabama Press),2008.

Nature’s Bounty, Nation’s Glory: The Heritage and History of Hanover County, Virginia. Martha W. McCartney. Ashland, Va.: Heritage and History of Hanover County, Inc., 2009.

Astronomy in the Maya Codices. Harvey M. Bricker and Victoria R. Bricker. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2011. (945 pp., 10 × 12 inches)

The Letters of Rowland Whyte. Edited by Michael G. Brennan, et al. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2013. (680 pp., 7 × 10 inches)

The Tower of the Winds in Athens. Pamela Webb. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2017. (192 pp. 8.5 × 11 inches)