George J. Thompson
Verbal Judo founder and trainer
George J. Thompson founded the Verbal Judo Institute and taught Tactical Communications, a method for calming conflict through language.
1 summary 20 min of listening
Died 2011
About George J. Thompson
George J. Thompson, known as "Doc Rhino", was an English professor who also served as a police officer on an urban beat. He created verbal judo and tested it in real street work. In 1983 he developed Tactical Communications, a training program that uses language to calm disputes and steer people's behavior. He founded the Verbal Judo Institute and personally trained more than 700,000 people before he died in 2011. He wrote four books on the subject, including Verbal Judo. Thompson graduated from Colgate University in 1963. He then studied English at the University of Connecticut, where he finished both a master's degree and a doctorate in 1972. He also did post-doctoral work in rhetoric and persuasion at Princeton University.