COUNTYWIDE : Thompson Retires From County Bench

Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Thompson retired last week after 14 years on the Ventura County bench.

“I think I’m ready to kick back and relax,” said Thompson, who is 67.

Thompson’s legal career began in 1953, when he graduated from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall law school and started working at the Ventura County district attorney’s office. After eight years as a prosecutor--including an 18-month stint as head of the office--he entered private practice.

In February, 1978, then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed Thompson to a vacancy on the Superior Court, but in an election the following November he was defeated by Charles R. McGrath, who was then a municipal judge. Brown named Thompson to McGrath’s old seat on the Municipal Court, then elevated him to the Superior Court in 1979.

In recent years, Thompson has been one of four Superior Court judges hearing civil cases. “It’s a heavy-duty job now,” he said.

Thompson has a reputation for thoroughness, said Steven Z. Perren, the court’s presiding judge.

“You could almost guarantee that if you came in on any Saturday, you would find him here,” Perren said. “He saw the judicial role as a calling more than a profession.”

Thompson’s official retirement date was Nov. 1, but he stayed on the job until a trial he was handling concluded last Wednesday. He said he is the last of the full-time judges to have grown up during the Depression and served in World War II.

He said he will return occasionally as a retired judge but plans to spend time traveling with his wife, Barbara, in their motor home. The couple live in Oak View.

Thompson’s term does not expire until January and it is technically vacant, Perren said. But Municipal Judge Ken W. Riley, who was elected to the seat in June, has moved up to the Superior Court under a temporary appointment, Perren said.