Joan and Joe Lipic

Joan and Joe Lipic met as undergraduate business students at Saint Louis University. Both majored in marketing and were involved in numerous campus organizations.

Joan was involved in cheerleading and a member of Sodality and the Kappa Beta Gamma sorority. Joe was involved in student government, served as statistician for the men's basketball team and even led a fundraising drive among students to raise money for the construction of Pius XII Memorial Library. They were married by former University President Paul Reinert, S.J., after graduation, raised five children and are now spoiling 16 grandchildren. While Joe ran his own promotional products firm, Joan gave much of her time to various causes around the St. Louis area.

"The Jesuits freed me up as a thinker, especially with my spirituality. They opened doors," Joe said about his SLU education. "They also instilled in me that if you think you can do something, then you do it."

"SLU changed my life," Joan added. "The Jesuits conveyed to me that I was on a mission with my life and that I must go forward to fulfill that mission."

That Jesuit-inspired drive has inspired their successful lives. In recognition of his career, Joe received the Alumni Merit Award from the John Cook School of Business. And Joan's outstanding volunteer efforts have earned her a "Woman of Achievement Award" from a St. Louis newspaper and radio station.

In recent years, Joe and Joan have become strong supporters of the research efforts at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. This followed treatment that Joan received at the University's Liver Center and more recently the care provided by SLU physicians to their daughter following her massive stroke in 2006.

"Those doctors saved our daughter's life," Joan and Joe said.

Because of their admiration for Saint Louis University, Joan and Joe have remembered SLU in their estate plans.

"We met at Saint Louis University, received a tremendous education and built lasting friendships," they said. "We are pleased to see the University grow under the presidency of Father Lawrence Biondi and his commitment to a Catholic, Jesuit education that is mission driven. Saint Louis University gave us our roots and our wings and it has spread its wings throughout our family."

"For all that the University has meant to us, we want to stir other people to give to SLU."