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Mowry Alumni Center
61 S. Sandusky Street
Delaware, OH 43015
Leading with Gratitude
A letter from Carrie Thomas
Dear Classmates,
This is a story about someone special in my life who has been on my mind lately as our 50-Year Reunion approaches.
She graduated from high school just one month after celebrating her 16th birthday in 1936. Four months later she excitedly entered her freshman year at the local liberal arts college. Out of her element, a “townie” living at home and two years younger than her freshman classmates, she failed to find her footing academically and socially.
She flunked out, losing the vital scholarship aid upon which her education depended.
Her parents’ dream was that their only child would become the first college graduate in the family. The challenging issue was that this dream could only be achieved if an admitting university provided scholarship aid, which now seemed in doubt since their daughter had an academic failure on her record.
Through his Ohio sales territory, her father was familiar with the state’s many liberal arts colleges. He guided his daughter to apply to Ohio Wesleyan University, a Methodist school located in the heart of his sales territory—a school that he assured his daughter had a widely recognized reputation for excellence.
The odds seemed stacked against her to be accepted. She wasn’t a Methodist nor was she a legacy. She’d recently failed academically at an OWU rival college. Moreover, her family couldn’t afford full tuition and room & board. Despite these odds, OWU accepted her. Significantly, the University provided the essential ingredient: an alumni-funded scholarship.
This young woman successfully completed her B.A. in sociology, graduating from Ohio Wesleyan in 1941.
By the time she passed away in 1993, she had served as a regional executive director of the Red Cross during World War II, worked post-war to put her husband through law school, chaired numerous non-profit organizations, and still found the time to raise three kids. She attended many OWU reunions, taking her kids in tow to introduce them to her beloved alma mater. Impressed by their mom’s love and support of OWU, her two daughters followed in her footsteps to OWU, as did her oldest granddaughter. Nothing seemed to make her prouder than her familial college legacy.
That woman was my mom—Jo Ingraham Thomas.
Had my mother not been awarded essential financial aid, it is unlikely that I, my sister, and my daughter would have attended Ohio Wesleyan and enjoyed such wonderful educational experiences. Upon her death, my mom’s devotion to OWU was again exemplified by the bequest that she included in her will.
Today such an act is honored by OWU by designation as a member of The Tower Society, a distinguished group that is open to those who make a planned gift or have included Ohio Wesleyan in their estate plans.
The university looks each year to the 50th reunion class to make a leadership gift. Our 1973 Class Gift Committee has set a record goal of $400,000 for our 50-Year Reunion Annual Fund contribution because our class is always primed to achieve the extraordinary. With your help, we can achieve this extraordinary milestone target.
I am thinking of my mom now as I contemplate my own contribution to our Class Annual Fund Gift. It’s made me reflect on the words of a classmate who once asked me, “Why do you give to Ohio Wesleyan? It was a business transaction. They offered a product—an education—that your parents purchased. End of story, right?”
No. My education—and your education—weren’t simple business transactions. Although few of us understood the financial reality of the real cost of our college education at the time, many today recognize that the tuition students’ parents and fellow students themselves struggled to pay did not cover the complete cost of our education. In fact, each of us in the Class of ’73 benefitted from the gifts donated annually by the alumni whose generosity subsidized our tuition monies.
This year, nearly twenty percent of OWU’s entering class are first-generation college students, like my mother, with a higher need for financial aid.
My mom taught me to “lead with gratitude” because your heart will be guiding your words and actions. Hence, it has become a comforting tradition to donate to OWU to honor the alumni whose gifts provided scholarship aid for my mom. My gift is also a quiet tribute to my parents for investing in my education as well an act of thanks to honor the alumni gifts that subsidized my education and that of my sister and my daughter. And I give to honor the friends, professors, and staff at OWU who immeasurably changed my life for the better.
Leading with gratitude has enabled me to understand that my annual gift, no matter the size, is the most important way I can help ensure that the OWU educational legacy endures.
Please join me and the other members of our class gift committee in leading with gratitude by sharing a gift with Ohio Wesleyan to honor all who invested in your education and to support those students who strive to learn at the university that welcomed you—and all of us.
On the extraordinary occasion of our 50-Year Reunion, will you join me in making a gift—not just an ordinary gift but an extraordinary gift? For our class to make a difference, I hope you will. You can use the enclosed reunion gift pledge form or visit owu.edu/1973 to share your thanks through a gift. Visit owu.planmygift.org to learn more about The Tower Society.
With deep appreciation and gratitude,
Carrie Thomas
Volunteer—1973 Class Gift Program
David Ferris
Chair—1973 Class Gift Program
Binney Brown Fouts
Volunteer—1973 Class Gift Program
Jim Kizziar
Volunteer—1973 Class Gift Program
Jim Mendenhall
Volunteer—1973 Class Gift Program
Ann Muenster-Nuiry
Volunteer—1973 Class Gift Program
P.S. If you have not seen it yet, watch our video about why we choose to give. Make your gift and register for our reunion, May 19–21, 2023, while you're there—we want to see you!
Share your gift commitment online or through our printable class form!