Married 69 years, this philanthropic couple died 8 days apart—after giving away more than $20 million from a hotel-and-property fortune

Two of Queensland, Australia’s most prominent philanthropists died within just days of each other .

Roy Thompson, who built his fortune as a publican and property developer, died on Aug.

7, only eight days after his wife, Nola Thompson, had passed from Stage 4 ovarian cancer .

The couple was married for 69 years, had eight children together, and donated tens of millions of dollars to charity, particularly in the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland.

“His prognosis was a broken heart,” their son Peter Thompson told Sunshine Coast News .

While no confirmed net worth figures exist for the couple, they were often described as multimillionaires who deliberately avoided a luxurious lifestyle.

“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?” he told the Catholic Leader in 2021.

“I’ve made a lot of money here and why not give it back?” By 2018, they had donated $15 million to the University of the Sunshine Coast, including a $7 million building to house the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience—Thompson Institute, a mental health research center.

Their gifts locked in scholarships and bursaries for students through 2075.

The institute also houses the Nola Thompson Centre for Advanced Imaging, named for his wife.

Their generosity extended well beyond the university.

In 1979, Roy launched the Sunshine Coast Rescue Helicopter Service.

The couple gave $2 million toward the Wishlist Centre, affordable accommodation for patients and families across from the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

And in April 2021, they entrusted more than $5 million to the Buderim Foundation to establish the Thompson Charitable Fund.