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Rick Thomas, a student at Virginia Military Institute in the late 1960s, wanted to play football and attend a coed university. A football scholarship brought him to UT.

Hundreds of miles away, Sandy Baldwin, an art student in New York, studied The College Blue Book in her junior college counseling office, looking for someplace where the warm wind blew. The promise of sun brought her to UT.

Neither would have guessed how their choices at 20 years old would affect not only themselves for their lifetimes but benefit their new university for generations to come.

Rick and Sandy met on campus; graduated (both in 1972, he with a management degree, she with a bachelor's in art); married; and started the business of raising children and launching a company. Sandy became president of two statewide nonprofits, including one that advocated for healthy pregnancies and babies. Rick joined the Board of Trustees in 1983. He served for more than 20 years, eventually earning chairman emeritus status.

The company, built from the start on life insurance policies sold to football buddies and their parents, became Thomas Financial, now a leader in insurance, asset management and group benefits. Today, Rick and Sandy are retired, and their daughter, Lauren Thomas Compton MBA ’04, is Thomas Financial’s CEO. She says she most enjoys working with second- and third-generation clients, a fitting specialization for the second-generation Spartan.

Compton remembers growing up going to UT basketball games and her dad talking about UT “all the time.” “UT was a big source of pride for him,” she said.

Compton did her undergrad at Southern Methodist University in Texas and when it came time to pursue her MBA, she knew her parents’ alma mater in her hometown was the place.

“At that point, UT had the Sykes College of Business,” Compton said. “And it just made a lot of sense to come back. I don’t know if I could even get in now — it’s just such a great school.” Compton also has a Master of Studies in Law from the University of Southern California.

Compton and her parents are all members of the Legacy Society, the recognition society for donors who have included the University in their estate plans. While the impact of those final gifts is meant to be a long way off, the UTampa community already enjoys another generosity from the Thomas family every day in the Rick Thomas Parking Garage.

A cornerstone of campus, the garage is home to one of the University’s most coveted and elusive items — a place to put your car. It’s unglamorous, a simple ramp that switchbacks seven stories to the sky, but anyone who has found an available spot there knows the joy a humble parking garage can give.

Sandy Thomas said the parking garage was more than a naming opportunity for her husband, who donated to the University to make it happen. The site and what it represents are part of their core memories of being Spartans.

When Rick and Sandy were students, the Florida State Fair took place on and near campus. The football team and other student groups would make money — and have a lot of fun — by parking cars for the fair, and the parking lot was about where the Thomas garage is now.

“He wanted the garage,” Compton said. “He felt like this was just full circle.”

Compton drives past the garage every morning when taking her teenage daughter to school. It’s something she says gives her daughter a sense of pride, starting each day with their own full-circle moment.

If you would like to include the University of Tampa in your estate plans, please contact Schezy Barbas, associate vice president of development and university relations, at (813) 258-7480 or sbarbas@ut.edu.