Ronald Garrett Thompson was born in the townland of Magheraconluce in County Down, Northern Ireland. He was the fourth of five children born to Annetta Hamilton and Reverend Samuel Thompson, a Baptist minister. His parents instilled in him a love for God and a thirst for knowledge which developed into his lifelong joy of learning and teaching. After high school, Ron enrolled at Stetson University; by 1964 he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States and resumed undergraduate education at Florida State University. During graduate studies, Ron’s eyes were opened to the Grace of God. In 1969 after receiving his Master of Arts, he was given a position teaching art at Rollins College. By 1973, Ron became an ordained Baptist minister and moved to New Orleans to study at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. While in Seminary, he was selected for his first preaching position as the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church. Ron remained in New Orleans for nine years and earned his Masters of Divinity and then a Doctorate of Theology. Returning to Central Florida in 1982, Ron started teaching at Pine Hills Christian Academy and soon became a member of the First Baptist Church of Pine Hills. It was during this time, while serving at the church as minister of new members, that he first became involved with several prison ministries, setting the stage for Ron Thompson Jail & Prison Ministry. Later Ron became the pastor of Vineland Baptist and Woodhaven Baptist in Orlando, FL, but he always felt more at home with ministry through teaching. In the late eighties, he became an art teacher at the Orange County Jail and began the development of a Bible correspondence course which is now known as the “Studies in Grace” and “Divinity of Christ” series. The Lord has blessed this ministry, and with the help of others, it continues to reach people here and around the world with the truth of God’s Grace.