Creating a Legacy: Maarten ’83 and Annette ’83 Terry Pay It Forward

Maarten ’83 and Annette ’83 Terry met during their first couple of days as new students at Connecticut College in 1979. They quickly became friends—until their senior year, that is, when they also fell in love.

Across 39 years and a long, happy marriage since, they have shared a deep gratitude for the College’s many contributions to their lives. But it wasn’t until the October 2021 event launching the $300 million Defy Boundaries campaign, the College’s most ambitious campaign ever, that they realized how they wanted to acknowledge Conn’s influence and pay their gratitude forward. That decision has led them to make two major gifts to the campaign and, as Maarten said, “make sure that other students have the opportunity to do what we’ve done.”

The inspiration for the gifts began as Maarten, who is also a trustee, sat with other guests at the campaign launch. He watched as the most generous donors in Conn’s history, including Rob Hale ’88 and Pam Zilly ’75, stepped to the microphone to share their reasons for supporting Conn.

Maarten remembers, “I’m there surrounded by, as I call them, the Mount Rushmore of giving to Connecticut College, and you could just see their commitment and their love for the College and their desire to push it forward. And I’m thinking, if not for the kindness of strangers, I would not have had this experience. I said, ‘We’ve got to dig in.’ ”

Annette, meanwhile, had never forgotten wanting to make possible for others what her parents had done for her. Her father, who was legally blind, was an assistant principal, and her mother was a stenographer. When she told them that she had been admitted to Conn, she says, “I remember Dad going over to his desk and trying to figure out how we’re going to do this. For him, there was never any question that I could not go to the school of my choice. He knew I loved Conn so much, and he really made it happen. I didn’t really understand until I got older the sacrifices he made for me.”

So when Maarten called Annette that night of the campaign launch to discuss the impact of the evening on him, she immediately agreed that they had to act. “I just always thought,” she says, “that if we had the opportunity, I would love to give back.”

By the next day, Maarten and Annette were discussing how they could do more for Conn, since they have long been contributors to the College. They soon decided to make two gifts at once. One was inspired by the recently announced Hale Scholarship Challenge, which alumni Rob and Karen Hale P’20 established with $10 million in funds to match all scholarship gifts of $250,000 or more. Maarten and Annette decided to make a qualifying gift to endow a scholarship for financial aid. The second donation is a legacy gift, through which the Terrys have committed major resources to the College as part of their estate plan.

“This college is worth it; ensuring that its future is secure is worth it,” says Maarten, a founding partner of ConvergeDirect, a direct response media firm. “We need not only to pay back the experience but also to pay it forward. A family’s financial circumstances should not be the determining factor on whether a student attends Conn.”

The desire to give back has long been with both of them because of how meaningful their Conn undergraduate days proved to be. Maarten was a housefellow, active in student government and intramural sports, and served as president of the Black Student organization. At graduation he received the Anna Lord Strauss Medal in honor of his extensive volunteer work, including coordinating the campus relief effort for victims of a major fire in New London.

Annette, likewise, fondly recalls her time as a student advisor, student government officer, and gymnastics team member. “Those memories are near and dear to my heart,” she adds. “But I also have to say, I wanted to give back to Connecticut College because I met my husband there. We have a home and two kids and a 17-year-old dog. We’re just so grateful for everything.”

They also realize, as Maarten says, that “not everyone has a 10-out-of-10 experience” at Conn, including other Black alumni. Looking back on his start at Conn, in 1979, he reflects, “It’s tough being one of the few on a campus that is not terribly representative, where you might stand out a little bit. Sometimes, as a result of that, the experience of a Black or minority or economically disadvantaged student may not be the same as for a majority student. But, nonetheless, in my opinion, and I can only speak for me, the experience, the struggle, the effort, and the result—the opportunities—it’s all worth it.”

If Maarten and Annette have one big hope from their gifts, it’s that they will inspire others as contributors—as Hale and Zilly inspired them. “We know there are a lot of students who have come from difficult backgrounds,” Maarten says, “and, for the grace of God, they’ve been given a lot as a result of the Conn experience. I would say to any alumni, particularly to minority alumni, we need to pay it back.”

And, they say, they’re not done. “It’s humbling,” he says. “We did not think we would be in a position to do this, and yet we hope and expect to do much more in the future as well.”