Alumni Association Receives Gift from Inspired Alum

Mark Mays (’69) considers himself a fortunate man and he’s sharing his good fortune with the SDSU Alumni Association.  After a recent visit to campus that included a tour of the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Holly, he made a gift of $10,000 to the organization.

Mark Mays ('68) on a recent visit to the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center.

Why the Alumni Association?

"Just purely to give back,” Mays explains. “I just felt that if I can help promote the university so that young people can have the experience I've had, well, it's a continuum and I'm just doing what I can to help keep it going."

Mays parlayed his San Diego State business degree into a successful San Diego insurance agency.  But he says the university has always played a role in his life that extends beyond the boundaries of his professional career.

"I really wouldn't be where I am now if it wasn't for San Diego State on many different levels: career-wise, socially and friendship-wise,” he says. “Later in life I’ve realized how much the university has meant to me and I've always had an affinity for the school, but it really has magnified in recent years.

"I think, overall, it's just a sense of being grateful.  As we get along a ways we're grateful for the good things in our lives and San Diego State was one of them for me."

(l-r) Karen Mays, Mark Mays ('68) and SDSU Alumni Association Executive Director Jim Herrick tour the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center.

For his generosity, Mays will have his name engraved on the donor wall inside the foyer of the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center.  His gift, according to the SDSU Alumni Association’s associate director, Tammy Blackburn, will help fund the building’s operation and the Alumni Association’s student internship program.

“Mark Mays appreciates what the Alumni Association is trying to accomplish and his generous gift makes a huge difference for us,” says Blackburn.  “We can’t thank him enough.”

In addition to his lifetime membership in the SDSU Alumni Association, Mays is also a fan of Aztec athletics and remains active in his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.  Although he visits campus frequently, he says his first tour of the alumni center was an eye-opening experience.  

"It's phenomenal,” he says. “What a great place for alumni to come and be proud that they're part of it in some way."

(l-r) SDSU Alumni Association Associate Director Tammy Blackburn tours the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center with Mark Mays ('68) and his daughter, Holly McGlinn.

Mays urges any former student who hasn’t returned to Montezuma Mesa in a while to visit the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center, to take a walk across campus and to find a way to reconnect with the university.

"I would encourage any graduate to take the time to see what's here and to find some way to give back because they're still doing great work here," he says. "I feel like I belong and I feel like I was part of it.  

“Even with all the new buildings, I feel very comfortable when I walk on campus.  I get this subconscious feeling that this was a really good place for me.  I think it enhances the feeling to see what's going on here; it's just nothing short of magnificent what they've done.  This is truly a special place."