Donor Stories

This story originally appeared in the Summer 2025 edition of Hurricanes Magazine.

Cleves Delp didn’t graduate from the University of Miami. Neither did Rod Martin.

And while the two friends now spend significant amounts of time in South Florida, neither of them are from Miami, nor do they have any kind of deep ties to the University.

That hasn’t stopped them and their families from seeing Miami’s potential or believing in the University’s mission – both academically and athletically.

“Obviously, we’d heard about the University over the years,” said Martin, the former Chairman and CEO of Voya Financial. “And now as we’ve learned more about the size of the University, and the medical and hospital facilities connected with it – which is impressive by itself – coming to Miami, it just seemed to be a very logical point of entry to get connected with a university that seems to be on a real ascension, both in terms of what it’s doing with athletics as well as academics.”

Added Delp, the founder of financial consulting services Cleves Co., “Rod Martin and Deb and Kathy and I saw an opportunity to show leadership in coming from places other than Miami and demonstrating a connection with the community.”

For the Delp and Martin families, fostering those connections meant making significant commitments they hope will impact the lives of Hurricanes student-athletes and coaches for years to come.

Earlier this year, the two families worked with Assistant Vice President of Athletics Development Brian Campbell to establish a pair of enduring endowments.

One – the Cleves and Kathleen Delp Endowed Fund for Coaching Excellence – will help the University attract and retain premier coaching talent. It will provide the foundation for mentorship, consistency, and elite training that the Delps hope will help Miami’s football program continue growing as a national power.

The second – the Rod and Deborah Martin Champions of Life Endowment – will help student-athletes have a complete well-rounded experience at Miami that will include career readiness support, financial literacy education and leadership development that, the Martins hope, will help Hurricanes student-athletes be ready for life after graduation.

And while the Martin and Delp families shared a similar goal to support the University, each had their own distinct reasons for creating the endowments they did.

“Rod’s company strongly focused on financial literacy at Voya, where he was the CEO and it’s very important to us that these students have financial literacy and be able to maximize the opportunities the University provides for them going forward, as far as job placement and overall career development,” Deborah Martin said. “That’s something as a former educator I felt strongly about.”

Said Delp, “Who doesn’t love to cheer for the home team, right? I was drawn to athletics, and in particular, to the football team. That’s why we designated our gift in the way that we did. And my vantage point is this – Miami is a value play, right? It’s been over 20 years since they’ve had a national championship, and it appears there is a huge desire to put greatness at that level back into the program. To be part of that process – which has already begun, by the way, this isn’t the beginning; we’re closer to the end than the beginning – felt like a cool opportunity. That’s why our support went for the coaching staff in that regard.”

For both families, college athletics have long been a passion.

Deborah Martin earned her master’s degree at Syracuse University and spent time attending many Orange basketball and football games with her family.

Cleves Delp, meanwhile, played baseball at Hillsdale College and is set to be inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame later this year. All five of his and Kathleen’s children have played sports at Hillsdale, with the family’s youngest son, Winston, currently on the Chargers’ baseball team.

For Delp, there was another very specific reason he felt called to support both the Miami community and Hurricanes athletics.

“My angle on Miami is that it’s a place where, candidly, few are from Miami, right? There are so many first and second-generation Americans particularly from places in Latin America and I have found that to be so inspiring,” Delp said. “It feels to me like the American dream lives in Miami like no other city in the United States of America, in part because so many of those first or second-generation Americans came from a place where they lost their freedom and had to start again. Miami is a place where people come from all over the world, literally. I happened to come from Ohio, but I was really struck by that.”

Delp – who has also made significant gifts to the University of Toledo football program, among other charitable efforts – noted football head coach Mario Cristobal, the son of Cuban exiles, is part of that American dream. The same can be said for baseball head coach J.D. Arteaga.

“I’m a big fan of the American dream. And I thought I loved this country until I met people who had their freedom taken away,” Delp said. “Let me tell you, you appreciate freedom in a whole different way, at a whole different level, when it’s been taken away from you and you had to start over again. That’s the story of the coach. It’s the story of Miami. And it’s in part, the story of the University of Miami. So, yes, it was very important to us and a great tie to that fine school.”

With a new academic year set to begin in August and more Hurricanes student-athletes making their returns to campus, the Delps and Martins say they’re both looking forward to attending more Miami athletic events and showing their support for the Hurricanes in person.

They hope, too, that their efforts will inspire more fans of the program to find ways to support the University and the athletic department.

“It would be great if others can see folks like Rod Martin and I who have parachuted into Miami and found ways to support and love the University of Miami,” Delp said. “I’d like others to say, ‘Maybe I ought to go on that journey, too.’ It’s really to initiate the idea that you don’t have to have graduated from Miami or be from Miami to see the beauty of that school and in particular, the football program.”

Added Rod Martin, “Speaking for Deb and I, because we came at it just a little bit different than what Cleves and Kathy did, but again, it’s the career preparation, the financial literacy piece, the professional development and all the soft-skill development. Having [student-athletes] gain as much confidence in those skills as they do in their athletic skills, that is going to serve them and whatever community they choose to be a part of, whether that’s Miami or any other great city in the country. It’s a small step, but I think it’s something there’s a big need for and we hope this is just the first little foundation of what we, and others in the community can do, to help them become successful in every way possible beyond athletics.”