Roy Thompson died on Aug. 7, eight days after Nola Thompson died from Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Their deaths close a 69-year marriage that helped push more than $20 million into charities, research, scholarships and services across the Sunshine Coast.
The couple had eight children, and their giving reached the University of the Sunshine Coast, Wishlist and the Buderim Foundation. Roy once said, “I'm 87, can't live forever, can't take it with you, so why shouldn't you give it to people where you've made the money?”
University of the Sunshine Coast
By 2018, Roy Thompson and Nola Thompson had donated $15 million to the University of the Sunshine Coast. That package included a $7 million building for the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience–Thompson Institute, and the gifts locked in scholarships and grants for students through 2075.
The institute houses the Nola Thompson Centre for Advanced Imaging. Brendan Hogan, the CEO of Wishlist, said, “Roy and Nola in very real, humble ways helped to change the face of philanthropy on the Sunshine Coast.”
Wishlist Centre
Roy Thompson and Nola Thompson also gave $2 million toward the Wishlist Centre. In April 2021, they entrusted more than $5 million to the Buderim Foundation to establish the Thompson Charitable Fund, extending a pattern of giving that had already shaped local health and education projects.
Roy launched the Sunshine Coast Rescue Helicopter Service in 1979. He also built Chifley's Hotel in 1972, sold it in 1978 to Stewarts Hotel Group, and later bought the Mooloolaba Hotel and other Sunshine Coast developments.
Roy Thompson and Nola Thompson
The couple were described as multimillionaires, yet they deliberately avoided a luxurious lifestyle. Nola said, “We're not social people” when Roy was named to a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2018, a remark that matched the low-key public image they kept while giving away money at a scale that reached well beyond one institution.
Roy was recognized in the Order of Australia for his service to the community, and the couple were named Queensland Higher Education Philanthropists in 2017. Their deaths leave eight children, a long list of funded projects and scholarships already set to run through 2075, and one unresolved point: what caused Roy Thompson’s death.
