Personally Committed

Numbers that Matter

The Vision

For Nola Urban ’86, ’09G, life has been defined by teaching numbers and honoring commitments. Her giving to USM shows how one person’s generosity over time can create lasting strength. Her recurring gifts provide dependable support USM can count on today. Her endowment gifts are invested to benefit students for generations. Together, they allow Nola’s commitment to the University to keep working far into the future.

The Impact

Naturally, Nola chose 8/13/21 for the date of her retirement party because it contains three consecutive Fibonacci numbers, a sequence in which each number is the sum of the two before it. It was a fitting celebration for a lifelong math teacher and learner who marks life by numbers and measures it in people.

Her commitments began with the things she loved. One of six children, Nola lived at the St. Louis Home – a Catholic orphanage and school in Scarborough, Maine – after her mother was hospitalized. There she mastered Biz Buzz, a numbers game, until a nun stopped letting her play because she was too good. Even amid upheaval, she found joy and steadiness in numbers.

Nola earned one bachelor’s in mathematics, and then another in computer science at USM in 1986. While teaching both subjects at an area high school, an administrator told her she did not belong in education. She proved him wrong by finding another school and teaching for another 25 years.

Her dedication to education became a commitment to her students. When fellow teachers questioned whether a 14-year-old eighth grader was ready for AP Calculus, Nola found the resources he needed to level up. He earned the exam’s highest score. “My job was to pave the way for students,” she said, “and sometimes to get people out of their way.”

In her 40s, Nola returned to USM for a master’s in statistics. She graduated in 2009 and stayed as an adjunct professor for a decade-deepening a relationship with the University that would extend well beyond the classroom.

Nola and her late husband, Rick, supported each other throughout their 40-year marriage. Early in their relationship, Nola discovered he had not balanced his checkbook in two years. Alarmed, she reconciled it to within 14 cents and took over the finances. When a friend asked whether coffee-free Nola was “like that naturally,” Rick replied, “Yes, but I drink copious amounts to keep up.”

Nola’s commitment to USM is also like that naturally. She has given to USM in 33 of the 40 years since earning her first USM degree, accumulating one of the longest giving streaks in the University’s history. She directs her annual gifts to endowed funds, including the Promise Scholars, because she wants to see her giving grow.

Nola’s gifts aren’t just numbers. They’re a lifetime of commitments that have become her promise to the future.