MAJ. GEN. MICHAEL C. Thompson

Maj. Gen. Michael C. Thompson graduated from OSU with a master’s degree in natural and applied science in 1998. He earned his bachelor’s degree in corrections and criminal justice from Langston University in 1995 and a second master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College in 2007. Thompson is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the United States Secret Service Executive Seminar.

Thompson joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard in 1983. He was later commissioned to second lieutenant in 1986 through the Oklahoma Military Department Officer Candidate School. In previous assignments, Thompson commanded at the company, battalion and brigade levels. He was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2008.

As a citizen soldier, Thompson had a distinguished 28-year career with the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS). Thompson joined DPS as an Oklahoma State Trooper in 1990. He concluded his DPS career by serving as commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety and Cabinet Secretary for Safety and Security from 2011 to 2017.

In 2017, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin appointed Thompson as adjutant general for the Oklahoma National Guard. He served as the top military advisor to the governor and commanded the Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard from November 2017 to November 2021.

Thompson was inducted into the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame in 2019 and received the Governor George Nigh Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. He also served as the deputy director for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in 2022.

Thompson and his wife of 38 years, Debbie, have two children who are combat veterans of the U.S. Army and the Oklahoma Army National Guard. Their oldest son, Brandon, is a West Point graduate. Their youngest son, Jared, flew helicopters in Afghanistan and graduated from the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine. They also have a daughter-in-law who is a combat veteran and is currently a major with the U.S. Army.

It’s a restaurant on the surface, serving different international cuisines each week, but it’s also a business. And at the heart of it is a business class — restaurant operations — one that every student in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) is required to take because food will be involved anywhere an HTM grad goes to work in their field.

The learning lab is part of the unique curriculum HTM students experience in their time in Stillwater. The school not only teaches the next generation of hotel and restaurant managers, but also managerial roles in other industry segments such as resorts, clubs, events, beverage, casino and gaming, theme parks, cruise ships, and property and real estate management. Anything involving people paying for a service falls under hospitality and therefore, HTM.

“In order to be a manager, you have to walk in the shoes of frontline employees,” said Dr. Brij Thapa, professor and head of HTM. “So, we require every single student to do three or four food related courses. Regardless of the interest in hotels or theme parks, you’ve got to understand the food service business because food is a common denominator in everything that defines hospitality. It’s the great equalizer. Food is really the window to the soul of a culture.”

HTM is one of the oldest programs at OSU, dating back to 1937 as the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration (HRAD). For 82 years, HRAD was a campus institution but bounced around from college to college. In 2019, it found its current home in the Spears School of Business and renamed itself to HTM to reflect its core identity as a business program. It has now been reimagined to focus on the business of hospitality and tourism.

Thapa arrived in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting the HTM industry hard. It has since bounced back, but being prepared for the worst is among the reasons students in the program are taught finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, analytics — everything it takes to run a business. The degree program has evolved and is now a Bachelor of Science in business administration, hospitality and tourism management.

“Our students have the skill sets to really work in any sector that deals with people,” Thapa said. “Our focus is on learning by doing and is triangulated with content-based lectures, experiential learning through our signature events, and an immersive experience with a mandatory internship. Also, students are involved in actually operating a business via our labs — Taylor’s Restaurant, Planet Orange Cafe and Planet Orange Express. Students are equipped with a myriad of skills and are ready to take on the challenge upon graduation.”