Dad and Daughter Share Commencement Day


12/11/2014

Mike Thome considered pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration degree more than 20 years ago. Then, he received news that he and his wife were expecting a daughter.

"Once my wife found out she was pregnant," Thome remembered, "she was like ‘No. Uh-uh. The timing is not right.'"

On Saturday, Dec. 13, at the RiverCenter in Davenport, the timing was perfect. Mike Thome collected that doctoral degree mere moments after Caroline Thome, the aforementioned daughter, was awarded her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Art History.

"It is a unique event," a very proud Caroline said. "How many people can say they graduated with their father?"

The Thomes were among 264 candidates for graduation at the 2014 St. Ambrose University Winter Commencement ceremonies. Allison Ambrose. PhD, associate dean of the College of Business and a professor of accounting, delivered the commencement address.

Some 35 family members from as far away as Minneapolis, Chicago and Kansas City came to see Mike and Caroline Thome receive their degrees.

Mike first enrolled in the SAU DBA program when his daughter was a freshman - in high school. Travel conflicts with his work as an international offset manager for Rockwell Collins, Inc., in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, forced him to miss several semesters.

"I thought for sure I would be done in three to four years," he said. "It all worked out in the end."

Indeed. The delay allowed for some special father-daughter experiences after Caroline reluctantly visited St. Ambrose at her father's urging while considering colleges during her senior year in high school.

"We weren't on the campus more than 20 minutes and she turned to me and said, ‘Dad, this is it.' From that day forward, it was St. Ambrose all the way," said Mike, whose once-weekly DBA classes created additional bonding opportunities.

"We like to visit Whitey's," he said of the popular ice cream shop a few blocks west of campus. "I would pick her up before class, we'd go get some ice cream and we would visit about what was happening for the week."

There weren't many shared study sessions, but, Caroline said, "On long trips, we would find ourselves both working on class reading or assignments.''

Caroline initially was on schedule to earn her degree this past May but she added a second major a year ago, extending the opportunity to make graduation a family affair. Although that had not initially been an overriding goal for the Thomes, DBA Program Director Monica Forret '88, PhD said the possibility crossed her mind when Caroline first enrolled.

"Whenever I would see Caroline on campus, I would ask her how it was going and do some subtle checking on her graduation date," Forret said. "Her dad worked extremely hard on his dissertation to be able to finish this semester. They were inspirational to each other."

Caroline provided a second set of eyes for her father's dissertation while also completing a capstone project of her own this past semester. "It was a united goal of finishing our papers and reaching the finish line," she said.

This was the second straight family affair for the DBA program. In May, husband and wife John and Kelli Mayes-Denker received their doctoral degrees together.

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