Alum’s $3.5M donation largest in USF Sarasota-Manatee history

In his shy, shambling, soft-spoken way, Sarasota’s Bill Mariotti reminds one of the late actor Jimmy Stewart, who often played ordinary characters who sometimes felt they had to do extraordinary things and didn’t want any recognition when they did.

“Bill doesn’t like the limelight,” Byron Shinn, chairman of USF Sarasota-Manatee’s Campus Board, said moments before a reception to thank Mariotti was held in the Rotunda at USF Sarasota-Manatee on Monday evening. “But he is a big time contributor toward improving our quality of life here in Manatee and Sarasota counties.”

A few moments later, it was announced that the 56-year-old Mariotti, a USF Sarasota-Manatee alumnus, had decided to donate $3.5 million, representing much of his estate, to USF and USF Sarasota-Manatee after he dies.

The donation is the largest individual contribution in the history of the school, said Judy Genshaft, President of the University of South Florida.

Asked why he did it, Mariotti, president of Bill Mariotti Site Development, Inc. of Sarasota, had an answer that sounded like it could have come from Stewart’s most beloved character, George Bailey, who saved the town of Bedford Falls from old Mr. Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“This is our hometown university,” Mariotti said. “It’s important to support it. I wanted to do that. This is my legacy.”

Mariotti actually enrolled at USF in Tampa in his 20s but left school to help with the family business when his father was injured at a work site.

Longtime friends, like Ted Bogusz, kept urging Mariotti to return to college, which he finally did about 30 years later.

In December 2015, Mariotti earned his bachelor of science degree in general business with a concentration in management and marketing from USF Sarasota-Manatee.

Mariotti said he came to the decision to make the donation over the past year after reflecting on his life and talking with friends and family, including his sister, Debbie, who co-owns the business with him. He has no children.

Mariotti stipulated his donation be allocated to nine funds, including new funds named for him, his father and his mother.

The largest share, 40 percent, will go toward the support of buildings on USF Sarasota-Manatee’s campus and another 30 percent will support a fund named the Bill Mariotti Endowed Chair in Business at USF Sarasota-Manatee’s College of Business.

Additional funds will establish a visiting scholar program at USF’s College of The Arts and a fund to support construction of buildings on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Other funds establish a visiting scholar program at USF Sarasota-Manatee and well as support to the Sigma Nu Fraternity. The funds also support scholarships for student-athletes, business students and other students at USF Sarasota-Manatee and USF in Tampa.

“Bill’s gift isn’t just one lump sum gift to one area,” Shinn said. “It is sprinkled throughout the system here in Sarasota-Manatee in multiple ways. We think it will attract new faculty and students and will provide the students opportunities through scholarships. So, he has really put his heart into developing this significant fund that he put together that will endow for lifetimes to come.”

“It’s all about quality,” said Genshaft, who attended the reception. “It’s going to bring up the standards. We will have access to professors that we didn’t have before.

“And he has put everything in the right places,” Genshaft added. “He’s just a very thoughtful, dynamic, giving back type of person and we appreciate him.”

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Alum’s $3.5M donation largest in USF Sarasota-Manatee history."