Alumni Impact

Paying It Forward by Paying It Back

Three days into his freshman year at Wareham High School, Robb Almy ’93 got a phone call that changed his life. Encouraged by a family friend, Almy had applied to Tabor the previous spring. He was accepted but was told there was not sufficient financial aid for him to attend.

“The tuition was like eight or nine-thousand dollars back then,” Almy says, “but I knew we couldn’t afford that. My parents had been divorced for some time and were blue-collar, working-class folks. My mom was a nurse’s aide. When she wasn’t doing that she was waitressing. My dad drove a truck for Wonder Bread.”

Almy was born and raised in Wareham, one town over from Marion. After he received his admissions acceptance, he wrote a heartfelt letter to Jay Stroud, Tabor’s then head of school.

“I just thanked him for the offer and explained that I wouldn’t be able to come due to funding issues. But I also said that if funding ever became available, I’d be very interested in attending.”

When Almy’s phone rang at the start of his freshman year, it was Stroud.

“He told me that some money had become available and if I was still interested, he’d like to see about me coming to Tabor.”

Almy transferred the following week. The opportunity came from the Harry J. Decas ’82 Memorial Scholarship, a fund set up by the Decas family and awarded to students from Wareham in memory of Harry’s enduring spirit. To call Almy’s four years at Tabor impactful would be an understatement.

“I learned so much there,” he says. “Not just academically but ethically and morally in terms of hard work, perseverance and proper behavior. As a child whose parents were divorced, my dad was still in my life, but it was never the same. I had some male role models who taught me about respect and dignity and treating other people well.”

When Almy graduated from Tabor, he took these life lessons with him. He attended college in Virginia where he met his wife, Diana, and entered the ministry. He’s been an ordained United Methodist pastor for over twenty years and currently teaches at Fredericksburg Christian School. He’s also found success as a real estate investor, which has allowed him to achieve a long-held dream.

“I’ve always tried to give to Tabor’s annual fund on a regular basis. And I’ve always had it in my heart that one day I wanted to give back what I had received so that maybe somebody else that might not have all the means to go to Tabor could do so.”

When Almy talks about giving back what he received, he means it quite literally. He recently pledged a gift that matches all of his financial aid while at Tabor. Poetically, these funds will be used to support the Decas Scholarship.

“The way I’ve kind of thought about it,” Almy says, “is that I’m trying to pay it forward by paying it back.”