University News

Paying it Forward: Ronald & Audrey Thompson

December 8, 2017

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MACOMB, IL -- It has been almost six decades since Ronald Thompson walked across the stage to receive his diploma from Western Illinois University, and during those 55 years post-graduation, he has devoted his entire professional career with the YMCA. That career, along with solid financial planning, has allowed Thompson and his wife, Audrey, the opportunity to pay it forward to help future Western Illinois University students.

In 2015, the Thompsons approached WIU's Vice President for Advancement and Public Services Brad Bainter with their desire to establish a scholarship.

"We left it up to the institution to determine the final use of the money. The gift is in the form of a second to die insurance policy. Upon the death of both Audrey and myself, Western will receive approximately $450,000," shared Ronald.

In the meantime, the Thompsons have pledged to pay the annual premium. So how did the decision to share their gifts with WIU come about?

Ronald's story starts in 1948, the same year the Cleveland Indians won the World Series, he recalls. That was the year a new YMCA opened in his hometown of Harvey, Illinois.

"The Harvey Tribune had a full page picture of me being the first person to jump into the new swimming pool from the new fiberglass diving board. As it worked out, this was to become the beginning of a long relationship between me and the YMCA," shared Ronald.

Fast forward a few years and one of Ronald's neighbors, who had attended Western, suggested that he visit the campus to see if WIU would be a good fit. Ronald, the youngest of four boys, was the first person in his family to continue his education beyond high school.

"One of my teachers, Dr. Beu, was president at the University and he taught a daily class on a year-round basis. It was refreshing to be able to talk directly with any of your teachers at any time if you needed some help or direction. It did seem to be an extended family that wanted to help me succeed," Ronald recalled.

Ronald majored in physical education, with a double minor in speech and biology. Outside of the classroom, he auditioned and was given a spot in both the concert and the pep band, groups where he met several people who would become his best friends. He also fit in time to help establish the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, and to pay the bills, Ronald applied to the Macomb YMCA and got a job going to a different school every day to teach football, baseball and soccer … a job that was easy to attain since he had previously worked at the Harvey Y during high school. That along with two on-campus jobs, one as a resident assistant and another in the physical education department, as well as scholarships and a few student loans, enabled Ronald to pay his entire way through school.

While in school, he took extra courses which allowed him to graduate in three years. During his summer breaks, Ronald worked for the Chicago YMCA, and before graduating, he completed his student teaching at Colchester High School, where he also coached the baseball team. Thanks to recommendations from two of his mentors, Lou Saben and Joel Collier, Ronald was offered an assistantship at Eastern Illinois University, coaching their JV basketball team.

"This seemed to be my dream come true … college coaching right out of school," he said.

But before he traded his purple and gold for Eastern's blue and grey, a man by the name of Solon Cousins, who later became the president of the National Counsel of YMCAs, came knocking on Ronald's door at Western. Cousins was there to tell Ronald that he had been chosen to work for the Chicago YMCA.

"After telling him what our plans were, he told me that I did not understand -- I had been chosen -- this was like being called to the ministry," Ronald explained.

Cousins pointed out that Ronald had more experience in the YMCA than most people who had worked full time for a decade, pointing back to Ronald's start in 1948 in Harvey as a member and employee until his graduation from Western.

So Audrey and Ronald packed up and headed north. Ronald started in the West Communities YMCA in 1960 and opened a new building there in 1962, while serving as their program director. It was at that time that Ronald made an appointment with the president of the Chicago YMCA, sharing his goal of getting into the administrative side of the Y.

"My friends and co-workers told me that you just do not go to the top of the organization like that and I probably had closed future opportunities altogether. The thing they did not know was that the president was my original mentor at the Harvey YMCA when I was ten years old," he laughed.

That conversation worked for Ronald because just two months later, he was hired as the youngest executive director in the history of the Chicago YMCA. Due to his hard work and accomplishments there, Ronald and Audrey, his high school sweetheart turned wife, decided to relocate to a smaller city to raise their children. So off to Flint, Michigan went the Thompsons where Ronald's assignment was to put the YMCA on an even keel or sell the camp and try to use those funds to reestablish a strong YMCA movement in Flint. He found the situation worse than first thought. Upon arrival, an audit showed that they were overdrawn at the bank and their credit line was totally expended. During his first week on the job, he was unable to meet the payroll for 100 staff members.

"My original plan was to go to Flint for 10 years as our family was growing up and then onto another challenge, but this job became so challenging I found that 20 years had gone by and it was time for me to retire in 1995," Ronald said. At that time, they left the Michigan cold for the Florida sun, landing in Winter Haven, Florida where they are enjoying their retirement years. Left in Michigan are their five children and 10 grandchildren who they are lucky enough to visit on many occasions.

By the time his retirement rolled around, the Flint association had expanded facilities, doubled membership and had become the most solid non-profit in Flint, with a nearly $8 million endowment.

Now, thanks to that professional success, Ronald and Audrey are able to share their good fortune with his alma mater.

"Our reason for choosing Western was that we found the Foundation to be progressive and willing to look at our wishes, and at the same time, being able to provide a great future gift for the University," Ronald said.
According to Ronald, while he and Audrey make other gifts through their foundation, the gift to WIU represents the single largest gift they have made to date.

"We are so appreciative of Ronald and Audrey for their foresight and their desire to help future students by establishing this insurance policy," Bainter said. "This is quite a simple way to pay it forward so that future generations will benefit from this gift. We are grateful that the Thompsons put their trust in the Foundation to determine how to best use their gift."

Posted By: Amanda Shoemaker, WIU Foundation & Development (AJ-Shoemaker@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing