Milledgeville judge named Ga. Supreme Court’s chief justice | Local & State | Macon.com

Hulane George has known Hugh Thompson for the better part of 40 years, but she saw his true character two years ago in the Cairo airport as they waited for a flight out of Egypt amid heavy political unrest.

George, a Baldwin County Superior Court judge, and Thompson, a Georgia Supreme Court justice, were among a group of nearly 50 travelers, mostly from Milledgeville, who visited the north African country about the same time as Egyptian uprisings during the Arab Spring. The airport had no food, water, ATMs or cellphone service, essentially trapping the Milledgeville tourists for more than a day.

“When you spend 27 hours in the Cairo airport together, you get to know a person,” George said. “There was pushing and shoving, and I’m surprised nobody got hurt.”

But Thompson “stayed calm,” she said. “He’s not one to panic.”

Those qualities are among the reasons George says Thompson will make a good chief justice of the state Supreme Court. The other justices elected Thompson unanimously to that position, according to a Thursday news release from the high court.

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