Inspiring Stories

Growing up in Paradise Valley, Arizona, Cal Holman ’79 was interested in military history. On College Day at his high school, Cal’s father took him to visit representatives from his own alma maters, Stanford and Harvard, along with several other Ivy League Schools.

Brigadier General (R) Jack Pellicci ’60 was participating in a corporate coaching program some years back when he received feedback that changed his perspective on leadership and on giving. “Jack, you’ve had a great career in the military, and you are having a great career at Oracle,” one participant said. “Now you need to go from success to significance.”

In these times of financial uncertainty, a charitable gift annuity provides the security of fixed payments to support retirement income—and retired LTG and Rhodes Scholar James M. Thompson, Class of 1950, is one of many graduates who have taken advantage of that strategy to make a gift to the West Point Association of Graduates in gratitude for his Academy education and career as a military officer.

Martin L. Bowling, Jr. ’68 (Marty) and his wife Barbara believe deeply in the mission of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which is why they have created an estate plan that includes the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG).

Michael Colbert was a senior in high school when he attended an Army v. Boston College football game in 1968. His father was a proud B.C. graduate, but Michael’s neighbor in Dedham, Massachusetts, was COL Jack Dewar ’61, who encouraged his young acquaintance to consider the Academy.

Rick Wilber ’69, a businessman and investor who got in on the ground floor of several successful businesses, says that being a West Point graduate helped him get his foot in the door many times during his career. In gratitude, he and his wife Mayra established an Irrevocable Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust that will pay them income for life and eventually provide $10 million to the West Point Association of Graduates for the Superintendent’s Endowment.