Life lessons, like memories, travel well.
Jeff '83 and Tish (Stiles) Gobble '84 have kept their St. Ambrose lessons with them on a 30-plus-year sojourn from Davenport to various and interesting destinations around the United States.
The Gobbles have reached a mountaintop of sorts in Buena Vista, Colo., a century-old city nestled in the Rocky Mountains, nearly 8,000 feet above sea level. It is a comfortable place to call home and comes with a beautiful view -that's the literal Spanish translation of buena vista, after all.
Following Tish's graduation, the Gobbles entered the financial sector, a field that suited their business administration degrees. They worked with various companies and the work took them around the country.
Salt Lake City. Chicago. Denver. They briefly traded the Colorado cold for Palm Springs, Calif., and then swapped the desert heat for the high elevation again in 2009, settling in Buena Vista, where they now operate a small financial firm that specializes in providing financial advice to businesses
The Gobbles trace their success to their time at St. Ambrose.
"It was such a great foundation," Tish said. "There's a good level of confidence you build. You can go where you want to go as long as you're willing to put the effort in."
Tish spent much of her time as a Bee involved with academic honors programs. She played intramural basketball and swam during lunch breaks in the now-closed pool in LeClaire Hall. Jeff competed in cross country and track - club teams at the time.
"We started with nothing," he remembered of those programs. "You got what you could get, and everybody kind of chipped in. It was kind of a grassroots approach."
Athletics and recreation bonded the couple from the beginning.
"She saw me coming across the quad there before track practice," Jeff said. "We slowly started talking through friends."
"He dated one of my suite mates," Tish said, with a laugh.
"That didn't seem to quite work," Jeff said, also laughing.
Finally, a pizza date started a still-going love affair between two active Ambrosians.
"We're so athletic and outdoorsy," he said. "We've always maintained that."
That's one reason their planned estate gift will assist several St. Ambrose programs, but will focus primarily on the Fighting Bee track and field teams that soon will benefit from the new Wellness and Recreation Center.
"Not many people go into professional sports," Tish said, "and running can be a team or an individual activity. It's something good for the person and the people around them."
The Gobbles continue to live the lessons they learned on campus.
"We are very proud of St. Ambrose," Tish said. "It means so much to us. The school encouraged us to be involved in doing things for other people. They foster that in people to continue that in the future, to pay it forward. That's one of the most important things to me."
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