{"id":13877,"date":"2026-08-18T08:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T08:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=13877"},"modified":"2026-08-18T08:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T08:38:14","slug":"this-philanthropic-couple-died-8-days-apart-after-giving-away-more-than-20m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=13877","title":{"rendered":"This philanthropic couple died 8 days apart\u2014after giving away more than $20M"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Roy Thompson, who built his fortune as a publican and property developer, died on Aug. 7, only eight days after his wife, Nola Thompson, had passed from Stage 4 ovarian cancer. The couple was married for 69 years, had eight children together, and donated tens of millions of dollars to charity, particularly in the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis prognosis was a broken heart,\u201d their son Peter Thompson told Sunshine Coast News.<\/p>\n

While no confirmed net worth figures exist for the couple, they were often described as multimillionaires who deliberately avoided a luxurious lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 87, can\u2019t live forever, can\u2019t take it with you, so why shouldn\u2019t you give it to people where you\u2019ve made the money?\u201d he told the Catholic Leader in 2021. \u201cI\u2019ve made a lot of money here and why not give it back?\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2018, they had donated $15 million to the University of the Sunshine Coast, including a $7 million building to house the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience\u2014Thompson Institute, a mental health research center. Their gifts locked in scholarships and bursaries for students through 2075. The institute also houses the Nola Thompson Centre for Advanced Imaging, named for his wife.<\/p>\n

Their generosity extended well beyond the university. In 1979, Roy launched the Sunshine Coast Rescue Helicopter Service. The couple gave $2 million toward the Wishlist Centre, affordable accommodation for patients and families across from the Sunshine Coast University Hospital. And in April 2021, they entrusted more than $5 million to the Buderim Foundation to establish the Thompson Charitable Fund. Roy Thompson was also recognized in the Order of Australia for his service to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoy and Nola in very real, humble ways, helped to change the face of philanthropy on the Sunshine Coast,\u201d Brendan Hogan, CEO of hospital charity Wishlist, told Sunshine Coast News.<\/p>\n

The couple was also named Queensland Higher Education Philanthropists in 2017, but they shunned the spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not social people,\u201d Nola told My Weekly Preview when Roy was named to a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2018. \u201cYou won\u2019t see them swanning around the social circuit\u2014despite their standing as two of the Sunshine Coast\u2019s biggest philanthropists,\u201d the outlet noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Living humbly and paying it forward<\/p>\n

Roy encouraged others of means to follow suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people that have a lot more money than they need and I think it\u2019s up to them to start giving,\u201d Roy told My Weekly Preview. \u201cLet\u2019s face it, they can\u2019t take it with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple lived humbly, which was a nod to Roy Thompson\u2019s beginnings. He grew up in a single-income household with a father working in local gasworks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThings were not much better for the Thompsons in the 1970s, when Roy and Nola brought up their eight children on a modest builder\u2019s wage,\u201d said House of Representatives Member Andrew Wallace in 2018 remarks. \u201cBut in the end Australia rewards hard work, imagination and commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy Thompson went on to work in real estate and \u201chad a great deal of success creating or transforming a host of Sunshine Coast landmarks,\u201d Wallace added, including Chifley\u2019s Hotel, which was a famous landmark and entertainment hub in the 1980s. He built the hotel in 1972 and sold it in 1978 to Stewarts Hotel Group, then bought the Mooloolaba Hotel and other Sunshine Coast developments that ultimately cemented his fortune, much of which went toward philanthropy.<\/p>\n

Roy\u2019s son said gratitude drove the giving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety percent of all his donations were distributed on the Sunshine Coast,\u201d Peter Thompson told Sunshine Coast News.<\/p>\n

#philanthropic #couple #died #days #apartafter #giving #20M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roy Thompson, who built his fortune as a publican and property developer, died on Aug….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[5447,19589,5329,9395,4843,6702,3790,3128,1131,3542,19588,438],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}