By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
On Friday, Robert and Ellen Thompson were back on the lawn in front of University Hall. This is where it started for them.
Back in June 1954 when Ellen Bowen graduated with an education degree from Bowling Green State University, commencement ceremonies were held here as they were a year later when Robert Thompson graduated, also with an education degree.
They were Falcon Flames, having met at a fraternity-sorority mixer. His future wife, Robert Thompson said, was engaged to a doctor, but she broke that off to marry an unemployed construction worker. One, he said, who struggled because of dyslexia — he took freshman English three times.
She started teaching as did he until he went into the Air Force. When he came out, he returned to construction. They bought a company with her savings, and over the decades made millions building roads. Then decades later when the Thompsons sold the business, they made national headlines because they shared $128 million of the proceeds from the sale with the company’s 550 employees, turning some of them into millionaires.
The Falcon Flames never forgot where their road started. Over the years Robert and Ellen Thompson have given $30 million to BGSU, and have made further commitments, said Dave Kielmeyer, the university’s chief information officer.
Much of that money has gone into scholarships.
So on Friday the couple was back on the lawn outside University Hall to celebrate the naming of the space the Bowen-Thompson Quadrangle.
The quadrangle is, President Rodney Rogers said, the most iconic space on campus, bounded on the east by its first building, University Hall.
“This is a special moment,” he said. Because of the Thompsons’ gift, thousands of students have had and will continue to have “access to a world class education.”
The Thompsons are “two individuals who serve as role models for all of us, beacons for what it means to live a life of meaning and service.” Rogers concluded his remarks echoing the theme of BGSU current comprehensive fundraising campaign: “You are truly changing lives for the world.”
In attendance were a couple hundred students wearing orange t-shirts signifying them as Thompson scholars. “The Thompsons have impacted a huge number of our students, and these are only a portion. There are many more,” said Pam Conlin, vice president for university advancement.
In fall 500 students will be receiving the $5,000 continuing scholarships, that are matched by university funds, and plans are underway to expand that to 1,000 students.
Even that doesn’t capture the full extent of their philantrophy. The Thompsons, Rogers said, support programs for elementary and high school students in Detroit.
One of them Ashlee Norman spoke at the dedication. She attended the University Preparatory Academy in Detroit, which is supported by the Thompsons. When she arrived at BGSU she joined the Presidents Leadership Academy with a Thompson scholarship.
The lessons of learning and service stayed with her, she said, as she went on to do graduate work at the University of Michigan, and continues to do community service.
The Thompsons, she said, “believed in a young girl from Detroit more than she believed in herself.”
Bonnie Bailey received a Thompson working family scholarship. She took time off to start a family, and when she entered BGSU to continue her education she had only one year left on her post-9/11 GI Bill. The Thompson scholarship allowed her to persist.
“Because of this scholarship,” Bailey said, “I have been able to show my children that hard work and dedication pays off no matter how late you start.”
She and her daughter sit at night doing their homework together. Her daughter is as serious about her third grade school work as her mother is about her college assignments.
“Knowing she is growing up with a love for education gives me hope that she will walk these halls just as her father and I have before her,” Bailey said. “I know with your gift my children will have a better future.”
Janae Johnson said it’s not only the money that matters. The staff administering the scholarships helped her find a campus job that fits with her major in finance. They helped her connect with clubs that have enriched her time on campus and land internships. Instead of having to work multiple jobs, she is able to get a full college experience.
“There’s not a single doubt in my mind that this scholarship has been and continues to be the absolute best part of my college experience,” Johnson said.
Andrew Klinger, who receives assistance through the Thompson Military Scholarship Program, said he plans to continue to serve others following the example of the Thompsons. He presented them with a challenge coin, a military recognition of meritorious service.
Johnson presented the couple with a basket full of notes from Thompson scholarship recipients.
In his remarks Robert Thompson said his wife reads all the letters they get. They want to hear not just from current students, but from graduates well after they leave campus. “The real test is where you are two, five, or 10 years from now.”
Thompson said: “Ellen and I have been truly lucky in this world. Everything we’ve done for Bowling Green really pales to what Bowling Green did for me particularly, and I hope you can say that for yourself … that Bowling Green changed my life for the better. Without Bowling Green I wouldn’t be who I am today.”
