His extensive service at Ohio State University (26 years) is honored with a larger-than-life bronze statue by Erwin Frey[5] of President Thompson in academic dress, positioned in front of the eponymous William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library on "The Oval" (the central green space on the Ohio State University campus).

He is known for being involved in students education and social lives, presiding over the Ohio State win over Oxford University on October 10, 1924, in intercollegiate debate.

Thompson also served as President of the university during World War One, which saw a massive drop in student attendance for 1917-1918 as many left to join the military or other war-related activities.

In 1907, he introduced a motion to determine if the Board had "the power... to establish separate schools for the white and black races and to compel the children... to attend."

In 1926, Thompson was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.