Dottie Brown and Bill Daggett

Bill Daggett and others have donated for 48 years

Sept. 12, 2024

By David M. Krakow

When Bill Daggett made his first gift to USF, the university was 21 years old, and Daggett had yet to graduate. 

Fast forward to 2024. USF is 68 years old and Daggett, Sociology ’81, has never stopped giving. He has now given for 48 consecutive years, one of around 10 donors quickly approaching the half-century mark. 

Why, you ask?

“I can,” Daggett says. “I was a police deputy making decent money.” 

His wife, Dottie Brown, was happy to elaborate. “His family taught him to appreciate what they had and to give back,” she says.

Daggett started his USF journey in 1969 as an architecture major before a change of heart led him to sociology in his sophomore year. His on-campus activities included the soccer and karate clubs as well as the Sigma Nu fraternity, which became a lifelong association. 

While still a student, Daggett got married and started a family, putting school on a back burner as he went to work, first in construction, then law enforcement. He retired as a lieutenant in the Temple Terrace Police Department. 

He made his first gift in April 1977, donating to the development office for faculty and staff scholarships. His most recent, in April 2024, went to WUSF.  Along the way, he became USF Alumni Association Life Member #2716. Altogether, he has given more than $45,000 to the university. 

His wife, a 1970 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, is also a dedicated supporter of USF — two of her sisters are graduates. She has racked up four decades of gifts and is also a proud member of the Herd.

The Loyalty Herd recognition program was established in fall 2023 to celebrate those who have given to the university three or more consecutive years, a milestone Daggett surpassed early in the Reagan administration. Donors need not be alumni to be included in the program, which boasts over 20,000 members whose collective gifts total more than $36 million to over 200 programs among all colleges and campuses.
 
Daggett and Brown cite the university’s progress and work in the Tampa community as motivations to donate. “When I originally came here, it was just dirt,” Brown says, recalling how few buildings existed then. “They are a major benefactor to the city of Tampa so for us, that connection was always there.” 

She’s also proud of USF Health’s additions to the downtown skyline and the university’s national reputation in medicine and general research as points of pride and reasons to continue giving. 

Daggett isn’t concerned where the university uses his money. “I just do a general donation at the end of each [academic] year,” he says. “They know where it’s most needed.”

Brown earmarks many of her gifts for the WUSF 89.7 radio station. It’s her favorite, she says. Years ago, she recalls, she was buying a new car and the dealer offered to help program the radio.

 “After he programmed WUSF he asked me what other stations I wanted and I said, ‘Thanks, that’s all I need.’”