Online
On the SPC Foundation form, choose "Other" for the fund and enter the Robert T. Nugent Endowment by name so the gift is routed correctly.
SPC Foundation giving formAt the college
The Robert T. Nugent Endowment
An endowed fund at St. Petersburg College for the people coming up behind him. Established and funded by James and Karen Harte, Rob’s mother and step-father, and opened on his birthday with $25,000. Built so it never stops paying out.
This is the fund the family is asking people to grow. It is the one place a gift keeps working after it is given.
How an endowment works
The gift is spent once. The award is made forever.
01
The principal stays invested
Money given to an endowed fund is not handed out. The SPC Foundation invests it, and a percentage of the balance is released as scholarship money each year. St. Petersburg College sets $25,000 as the threshold for an endowed scholarship — the Hartes’ founding gift met it on day one.
02
Four awards went out early
Normally a full year passes before an endowment awards anything, while the fund settles. The Hartes did not want a year of nothing, so they contributed an additional $2,000 outside the principal for four smaller awards — aimed squarely at the costs students pay out of pocket and rarely mention.
03
Every gift raises the ceiling permanently
Because the payout is a percentage of the balance, a gift today increases what the fund awards next year and every year after it. The family gives on Christmas and on Rob's birthday. Anyone can give on any day.
What it pays for
Boots, books, exam fees, gas.
The emblem on this fund reads honoring service, investing in the future, and the investment is deliberately unglamorous. Fire academy students carry costs that tuition aid does not touch: turnout gear and boots, textbooks, certification and exam fees, the drive to clinicals. Those are the expenses that quietly end a career before it begins.
That is the gap this fund was built to close — for the kind of recruit who would have shown up early to Rob's shift and stayed late without being asked.
Who it reached
This is who showed up.
The first awards from this fund went to fire academy students at St. Petersburg College. Two of the 2026 recipients recorded this for the family.
Two ways to give
Make sure it lands
in the right fund.
The SPC Foundation administers hundreds of funds. Naming this one explicitly is the difference between a gift that grows Rob's endowment and a gift that goes to the general pool.
By check
St. Petersburg College Foundation, P.O. Box 13489, St. Petersburg, FL 33733. Write the Robert T. Nugent Endowment in the memo line.
St. Petersburg College FoundationP.O. Box 13489
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Ask your employer to match
Many employers match charitable gifts, and some match at two or three times the amount. The SPC Foundation handles matching paperwork — reach them at foundation@spcollege.edu or 727-341-3302.
The other half of his name.
Inside the department, three awards go out every January — established and funded by Karen and Jim Harte, and already paid for. That one needs no gifts. This one does.
The SPFR award