It took Jim Agonis a while to get through UConn, dropping out occasionally to wait on tables and earn money for the next semester. Seven years later, he was successful, graduating from the School of Business with a bachelor of science degree.
It took a while to get his career going, too. “I earned more as a waiter in college than I did during the first five years of my professional career,” says Agonis. But he succeeded at that as well, working his way up to group vice president of the Kaman Corp., a Fortune 500 company in Bloomfield, then moving to Florida as a partner for one company, buying another, making it grow, selling it, and retiring as a wealthy man.
Agonis now spends most of his time traveling and fishing around the world with his wife Glenna, and supporting charitable organizations, including an orphanage in Costa Rica, for which he is the principal supporter.
He hasn’t forgotten the tough years, though. “I have tremendous empathy for the student struggling with academics because of a paper route or an afterschool job. It would be my dream to help someone like that get through school,” says Agonis, who with Glenna made a gift of $100,000 to the Accounting Endowment for Excellence in the School of Business.
“I’m extremely proud of my UConn education. It gave me the technical and administrative skills to become a CPA and group vice president of finance at Kaman Corp., and eventually CEO/President of my own corporation, Airkaman Cecil Inc.,” says Agonis. “UConn provided the foundation, and I’ll be forever grateful to its faculty and advisors for my success.”
Agonis is especially grateful for the guidance he received in arranging his course load so if he had to drop out, he could come back and pick up where he left off, without losing a lot of time or credit. He’s also grateful he could start at the campus in Stamford, where he lived, and then transition to the Storrs campus, as a more affordable route.
“It’s exciting to see the direction the University has taken in recent years with the recruitment of top faculty and the physical transformation of the campus,” says Agonis. “During the 70’s, when I told people in Washington, D.C., I went to UConn, they said, ‘It must have been really cold in Alaska.’ Now, everyone recognizes UConn as one of the country’s top 20 public research universities and as a sports powerhouse,” says Agonis, a devoted fan of the woman’s basketball program.
“I was a wise guy in my early days,” he says. “A lot of people never thought I’d graduate, much less achieve what I did. My wife and I make this donation in gratitude for all those at UConn who educated me and put me on the path of success.”
The Accounting Endowment for Excellence is used to support scholarships for existing accounting majors, and professional development, course innovation, and research for faculty, among other things. “Philanthropic support is crucial in the current economic environment,” says Mohamed E. Hussein, professor and head of the accounting department. “However, Jim’s value to our students and alums exceeds even his substantial gift. We can all learn from his professional career, as well as his philanthropic and civic contributions. He is a role model par excellence.”
