A Lifetime of Care, A Legacy of Opportunity: JoAnn & Bob Thulin
JoAnn and Bob Thulin with former CT State Manchester CEO, Dr. Nicole Esposito at the 2025 MCC Foundation Donor and Volunteer Recognition Reception.
When JoAnn Thulin joined the MCC Foundation Board in 2009, she expected to serve in a traditional volunteer role. What she didn’t expect was a call — just six months later — asking if she could step in to save a class.
When the instructor for the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program resigned unexpectedly, JoAnn raised her hand. A nurse by profession, she was used to stepping in and up when things got tough. That decision marked the beginning of a deeply personal, hands-on commitment to Manchester Community College (now CT State Manchester), one that would shape the next 16 years of her life and the lives of countless students.
Beginning in 2010, JoAnn, who had retired almost two decades earlier, was actively involved in both the CNA and Medical Office Assistant programs — initially teaching five days a week and later two — but never losing sight of the students in front of her. “We had such a diverse group — new Americans, working parents, students for whom English wasn’t their first language,” she recalls. “Hands-on learning matters. You can’t do everything online.”
Her classrooms were demanding by design: daily quizzes or exams, the constant practice of clinical skills like taking vitals to assess physical health and detect illness, and clear expectations rooted in real-world care. The payoff came not just in credentials earned, but in confidence built — reflected in graduation day pride, handwritten thank-you notes, and students who persisted because someone believed in them.
That front-row view of student life also shaped JoAnn’s leadership on the Foundation Board. “Being on campus three or four days a week, I could see what students needed —beyond tuition,” she says. “Transportation. Childcare. Food.”
JoAnn and Bob began their philanthropy in 2014 with a pledge to support Allied Health programming at MCC. In 2020, they deepened that commitment by establishing an endowed scholarship — “the gift that keeps giving,” Bob notes — while continuing to make annual contributions. Their generosity also helped name and equip the Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) suite, a space that advances hands-on learning and proudly bears their name.
Manchester residents since 1957, JoAnn and Bob, now in their nineties, have built lives rooted in service. JoAnn’s career as a nurse — supporting Occupational Health at UPS and working as a school nurse and an advanced nurse practitioner in private practice — and Bob’s engineering career at Pratt & Whitney reflect a shared ethic of care. Married for 69 years, singing in their church choir for more than six decades, they see community not as an idea, but as a responsibility.
Bob adds, “When you give, you get involved—and that involvement strengthens the ties between the college and the town.”
Recognition has followed their commitment — campus celebrations, ribbon cuttings, and a recent Foundation award in 2025 naming them Benefactors of the Year — but for the Thulins, the true measure of impact is student success.
“What do we hope our giving says?” Bob smiles. “That town residents believe in you.”
Joanne’s answer is simpler—and perfectly fitting: “Just do it!!”
Together, they repeat, “Just do it!”
Local impact. Hands-on learning. Opportunity that multiplies.
JoAnn and Bob’s story reminds us that when care meets commitment, students — and communities — don’t just succeed. They thrive.
