Passion-fueled Future Giving: Establishing a Legacy

Peggy Thompson ‘72 and her husband, Wade, have created a life of adventure, varied interests, and generosity.

Thompson, a German major, graduated from Saint Mary’s and moved to Alabama to help with education and development for a retirement community. Thompson met Wade in Alabama and together they built a successful consulting company and then bought a retirement community, which they managed for many years. Today, though, the couple are in what Peggy describes as a “deep, committed relationship with retirement.”

Through the friendships she developed at Saint Mary’s with smart, supportive women, along with an educational environment that cultivated intellectual agility, Peggy learned valuable life lessons.

“Saint Mary’s was a place where I truly learned to learn,” she said. “Because it holds such an important place in my development, it was natural to think of it as a place where monies would be used to lift up the next generation of women leaders.”

As the Thompsons considered their bequest intentions, they thought of the Office for Student Equity at Saint Mary’s as a conduit for furthering their philanthropic passions, including a long-established commitment to addressing gaps in access to opportunity. The Office for Student Equity supports the socioeconomic diverse community, and empowers students to achieve their full potential by providing services and programming to assist with gaps in resources.

“The experience of COVID these last two years has renewed my desire to smooth the path of young women whose tenacity and intelligence have led them to Saint Mary’s, but who may struggle to achieve their goals because of limited resources,” Thompson said. “I see supporting the Office for Student Equity as a concrete way to show these courageous young people that they are recognized and sincerely welcomed into our special sorority.”

April 14, 2022