CoHo

Brian Thompson went from Jewell, Iowa (population 1,200) to leading 140,000 employees and overseeing $280B of revenue at one of the world’s most important companies. His mom worked as a beautician, his dad at a grain elevator—they were probably really proud when he graduated valedictorian of his 50-person high school class. He played basketball and the trombone, got elected homecoming king, and worked in soybean fields and meat processing plants during summers. While studying at the University of Iowa, he met the woman who would become his wife, with whom he would have two kids. By all accounts, he was smart, hard-working, funny, and a thoroughly decent man. This guy—not the person who murdered him in cold blood—was everything that’s right and good about America, and the American Dream. May his memory be a blessing, and may his example inspire all of us to do better.