Mary Ellen and Thomas O'Laughlin Photo by Thompson-McClellan

"I've always had great affection for the University of Illinois and decided I would do something for the institution if I could."

"Mary Ellen and I are proud contributors to the endowment fund being built by Campaign Illinois and pleased to join that long list of grateful alums who have figured out just what they got from the university. Maybe a non-binding financial pledge should be asked of every student before graduation -- not large, but something, before they scatter across the country and old connections loosen. Besides, informal obligations like that improve memory."

This last statement voices a strongly felt conviction for Tom and Mary Ellen O'Laughlin and they have acted on that conviction by leaving their entire state to the University of Illinois. Because Tom is a successful entrepreneur, endowing a fund in support of entrepreneurial studies in the College of Commerce has great appeal to him and his wife, who has been a sales associate with Merrill Lynch for 25 years. Their gift will support student scholarships and a visiting lecture series. Because the O'Laughlins place a high priority on education and since they have no children of their own, they are eager for these scholarships in the entrepreneurship program to help needy students get the education that will allow them to pursue successful business careers. Of equal interest to him is a desire to establish in the college a visiting lecture series that will focus on the principles and value of the free market. Describing himself as a "stout conservative," O'Laughlin hopes these lectures will expose a wide spectrum of faculty and students to this point of view.

In 1959, three years after graduating from Illinois with a degree in biochemistry, Tom moved to California to take a job with General Dynamics. Assigned as a research engineer aboard the Manned Rotating Space Station simulator (MRSSS), he produced several published reports and papers, one of which he presented at the annual meeting for Aerospace Medicine in Washington, D.C. In 1969 he quit GD, took a job in publishing, and in 1975 formed a small publishing enterprise that would serve an important niche in the lodging and hospitality industry. Two years later, the business was merged with San Diego-based The Meeting Manager. During these years Tom acted as author, publisher, and CEO of the publishing side of the business. The company published over 90 specialty books and Resort Management Magazine, an international business journal. The company went public in 1986. In 1988, O'Laughlin sold his interest in the meeting business to one of his two partners. Since that time he has co-edited the Organized Stockbroker and written commentary for the San Diego Daily Transcript and the San Diego Union.

In 1994, the O'Laughlins moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where Tom represents Thomas Publishing Company and Mary Ellen continues her career with Merrill Lynch.