To them, slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a local farm boy

JEWELL, Iowa — To the world, Brian Thompson was the leader of a major corporation, a brilliant executive whose death last week on the streets of New York City has the city's police force embroiled in a massive search for the masked gunman who laid in wait, then shot him from behind.

But in Iowa, people knew Thompson in a different way — as a friend, neighbor and classmate who grew up among them in southern Hamilton County.

The late UnitedHealthcare CEO, 50, was raised on a farm between the small town of Jewell and the even tinier town of Stanhope and graduated from the communities' shared South Hamilton High School in 1993.

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On Saturday, Taylor Hill sat on a bench outside South Hamilton Elementary School in Jewell. Gazing toward the nearby middle and high schools, he recalled the time he and his childhood best friend spent there before Thompson departed for the University of Iowa, then ascended through the ranks to head the Minneapolis-based health insurance company, one of the largest in the nation.

"He was one of the smartest kids, if not the smartest, and I would say the smartest person I've ever known," Hill said. "He was probably smarter than half our teachers. And the thing with our teachers is they knew it, too."

"Ever since kindergarten, you know, we roamed these grounds," he said, then pointed to the middle and high school building across the street. "Then we moved over to that school there in fifth grade, and roamed there through 12th grade."

In their elementary school years, the duo would attend each other's birthday parties and run around the playground together.

In their middle and high school years, they became the closest of friends. They played golf, basketball and baseball together, trading sports cards and making mix tapes of the hits they listened to while growing up.

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Hill's fondest memory is a summer weekend when he and Thompson traveled up north to Clear Lake with his dad.

"My dad knew we loved to play golf, so he got us a membership at this par three course in Clear Lake," Hill said with a laugh. "And, you know, he marked Brian down as my brother so we could just use it as a family membership so it wouldn't cost him more."

In the winter, the two would ride snowmobiles through the pine trees and catch air on the snow drifts.

"As soon as it would snow, instantly, he'd want to be like, 'Can we go snowmobiling? Let's go. We need to go,'" Hill said with a small smile.

Thompson was the valedictorian of the class of just under 60 graduates. He and Hill parted ways as Thompson went to pursue a degree in accounting at UI, where he again would be valedictorian in 1997, while Hill went off to Mason City to study at North Iowa Area Community College.

The two would cross paths and reunite over the summers between semesters, playing in the Jewell men's golf league.

Eventually, Hill transferred to the University of Iowa, but the two rarely crossed paths.

Busy with their adult lives, they lost touch until Thompson reached out to him via a text message.

"Just in the last few years, Brian was able to get my number from another one of our friends that we had growing up with here at South Hamilton, and Brian contacted me," Hill said. "From that point, you know, it was good reminiscing on old things."

But they never had a chance to reunite. Taylor said that when another friend told him Wednesday of Thompson's murder, he was in disbelief.

"At first I didn't think it was true," Hill said. "I got this message from a friend, and I was like, 'Oh, that can't be, that can't be, right? This, this is, like some Facebook thing, something that isn't correct, you know?'... And then it's on the news. ... Then just, just memories came back.

"That's this guy who I grew up with, and he's gone."

Brian Thompson was a farm boy from a 'stellar' family

Between Stanhope, population 350, and Jewell, home to about 1,200, is a small pond containing few fish but many memories for those who grew up in the area.

"To go out to a place like that early in the morning, before school or before church started, the point wasn't to catch any fish," Hamilton County Supervisor Rick Young said. "It was to sit around... it's peaceful."

It was part of the childhood landscape for Thompson, the son of a father who, according to his 2023 obituary, loved to fish with his two sons.

Young, who knows the family as a small-town neighbor, said they farmed corn, beans and pigs.

"Brian and all these kids (in rural Iowa), they grew up as early as they could hold a pitchfork or bale hay or walk beans," he said.

"Brian was a good kid when he was here — Absolutely no doubt. And the family is stellar," he said. "They've just been part of the community. ... It's just what people do here.

"If there is a heaven, Brian and his dad are fishing today," Young added.

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Thompson is survived by his wife, Paulette, originally from Webster City, Iowa, his two sons and his mother, Pat.

"I'm very close to his mother. I see his face every day," close family friend and Stanhope Mayor Kelly Wirtz said while at a community fundraiser for the local fire department Saturday. "Being a mother myself... it's scary. It's very scary.

"It's shocking news. It's disappointing news that the family has to endure this," she said. "We talk about it every day. ... We're going to be there for (Pat), no matter what capacity."

In Stanhope, there's a shared sense of loss and tragedy for those who knew Thompson.

"It's a small community, but a big hurt," Wirtz said.

Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a smalltown Iowa farm boy