An Aggie ring 40 years in the making

The irony of his anxiety for a hotel management test cannot be overstated enough.

Mike ran a boutique hotel in the Florida Keys for 21 years. At its peak, his property was ranked No. 7 on TripAdvisor’s list of the top 25 hotels in the nation and stayed on that list for five consecutive years. He spent two decades in various aspects of hospitality before that, including a stint with Hard Rock Cafe. He’d built a four-decade career most people in the industry would call extraordinary.

And then, just a few months ago, he packed up his travel trailer, drove to College Station with his cat and enrolled in the Texas A&M Arch H. Aplin ’80 III Department of Hospitality, Hotel Management and Tourism as a 60-something undergraduate student.

All those years of hospitality experience, and that test still had him sweating. Some things, it turns out, are easier to live than explain.

The woman who started it all

Mike grew up in northwest Indiana, but Houston became home at age 14. It’s also where his story and Carol Rick ’84’s story became the same story.

After earning a degree from the University of Houston and attempting an independent restaurant startup that did not survive its first year, Mike found himself bartending. He was in his early 20s, slightly adrift and, by his own admission, a little full of himself.

Carol was home from Texas A&M University for the summer and walked into the bar where Mike worked. She was looking for a job. She was not one to fib, but she told her prospective employer she was taking a year off from school. She was not. But she got the job, and that summer changed both of their lives.

“She talked to me a little bit about Texas A&M,” Mike said. “She goes, ‘Why don’t you come up and check out the campus, and we’ll talk about what you want to do with your life.’”

He visited. He fell in love with Aggieland and Carol.

“Texas A&M stands for a very traditional set of values and principles that Carol and I both believe,” he said. “There’s a spirit at Texas A&M that you don’t get other places. It’s hard to describe to people who have never been here, but the folks that are here get it.”

Mike moved to start a second bachelor’s degree in architecture and, more importantly, be with Carol.

Carol graduated in December 1984 with a degree in management. The following spring, Mike proposed to her on Galveston Beach, and she said yes. He has spent years wishing he had done it under the Century Tree instead, as many Aggies do.

As much as he regretted where he gave Carol her ring, Carol always cared far more about the one Mike was close to but never earned for himself.

One semester short

They were married in October 1986 and moved into their first house on Holik Street, just off campus, while Mike worked toward finishing his degree and the Aggie ring that came with it. But by 1987, with about five classes left to finish his architecture degree, Mike was burned out, the couple was financially strapped, and a strong job offer from a restaurant company arrived at just the right moment.

“We talked about it, and decided to leave,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of regrets about that for the last 40 years. But it was the right decision at the time.”

Carol always wanted him to return and finish what he’d started, and she made it a point to let him know that every chance she got.

She would often look at him and say, “You need to go back and finish. You need to go back and get your Aggie ring.”

She never let it go, but there was always something else, always a reason for him to put it off.

And so, the years and decades passed. A successful career and a wonderful life with his wife made it easy to say there would be more opportunities to return.

No. 7 in the nation

Mike and Carol had always known they wanted to build something together. The idea crystallized on a trip to St. Croix, where they stayed at a small hotel run by a husband-wife duo.  They left with a vision.

In 2000, they found a rundown waterfront property in the Upper Florida Keys. They could afford it, but barely. They borrowed money from friends, family, parents and even Carol’s former boss. They sold everything they had just to make the down payment.

“It was insane,” he said. “The price, the idea … it was insane, but we had a dream of what the property could become, and we went for it.”

Together, they built something remarkable. For 21 years, the Shipleys ran that hotel together, doing whatever needed to be done – from fixing sink faucets to cleaning rooms when needed, and the results spoke for themselves. When TripAdvisor released its inaugural list of the top 25 hotels in the nation, Mike and Carol’s property came in at No.7.

The Florida Keys, however, can be unforgiving when it comes to the weather. Hurricane Wilma hit in 2005, demanding a substantial rebuild. They dug in and did it. Hurricane Irma came through in 2017, and this time the resolve was harder to find. They put the property on the market in 2019, watched COVID bring the hotel industry to its knees, held on longer than most would have and finally sold in March 2021.

“We had no regrets leaving,” Mike said. “We had run it for 21 years. Lots of great memories there that I’ll cherish forever.”

They retired and focused on another pursuit they’d spent years chasing: hiking and photographing all 63 national parks. They’d already completed 40, and without the daily operations of a hotel to hold them back, they thought they would visit the remaining 23 in no time.

But then, unexpectedly, there was no time … at all. Carol suddenly passed away at home on Dec. 4, 2024.

Since her passing, Mike has visited five parks and carried Carol’s Aggie ring with him to each one, determined to finish what they’d started. Carol had made it clear, though, that there was something she wanted him to finish even more than the national park list: his degree from Texas A&M.

Back in Aggieland

In 2025, So, Mike came to College Station to ask about graduating. He ended up in the office of an academic advisor who looked at his resume and asked if he knew the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences had a hospitality program.

“He looks at my resume and goes, you know, with your background, you could teach some of these classes,” Mike said. “I laughed. He laughed.”

He was referred to Melyssa-Anne Stricklin ’11 ’16, a supervisor in the Agriculture and Life Sciences Advising Hub, who sat down with him and worked out a path to a degree. Stricklin navigated the paperwork, made calls on his behalf, and got his coursework down to four college classes. By October, he was admitted. By January, he was in class.

The first couple of weeks, he said, were nerve-wracking.

“I made a point of meeting all four of my professors beforehand because I wanted them to know why this old man was sitting in the classroom,” he said with a laugh. “But with my classmates, they probably had no idea why this old man’s sitting there with them.”

But the nerves gave way to something he had not expected: genuine joy. He found himself smiling in class, listening to his “Gen Z” classmates debate the issues of their generation, watching them at the beginning of careers he knew would be wonderful.

“I’m a little bit envious,” he said. “Because my ‘career’ is over. But in a matter of months or years, they’re going to be out there in the hospitality business. And it is a wonderful career.”

He also noticed what had not changed. Main campus looks largely the same as it did 40 years ago. Silver Taps and Muster still make you thankful for the Aggie family. The Dixie Chicken is still there. And scantrons, somehow, are still a thing.

For Carol

About a month into the semester, Candy Tang, Ph.D., instructional associate professor in the department, invited Mike to a unity dinner hosted by the department. That evening, Brian King, Ph.D., head of the department, stood up and talked about the scholarships available through the College and mentioned that anyone could create one. Something clicked when Mike heard that.

“It hit me,” Mike said. “What better way to recognize Carol’s connection to this place than a scholarship in her honor?”

Carol spent 40 years in the hospitality industry alongside her husband. She was an entrepreneur and Aggie to her core. She wore her Aggie ring every day, and it shows. The etchings are nearly worn smooth.

The Carol Shipley Scholarship, currently being finalized with the Texas A&M Foundation, will support undergraduate students in the department who are enrolled in the entrepreneurship course. The goal is to recognize students who carry the same qualities Carol did: the ambition and courage to one day build something of their own, and a deep pride in being an Aggie.

Saying goodbye to the spare semester

On May 9, Mike will walk across the stage in Reed Arena and receive a degree in hospitality, hotel management and tourism, 40 years after he left with one semester to spare. Carol’s ring will accompany him. He wears it daily, attached to a leather band.

After the ceremony, he plans to spend time with the 25 friends and family members flying in from across the country to celebrate in Aggieland. When the dust settles on the celebration, Mike will point his travel trailer back toward Florida, and back toward the 18 national parks left on their list. A fall trip is planned to spread some of Carol’s ashes at one of her favorite spots.

For that trip and the remaining 18, he’ll finally have a gold ring on his finger, and on his wrist, too.