SPRING 2025 - For a few decades, Cody Phillips's career as an attorney often required him to travel from his home in Boerne, Texas, to Waco and Dallas. As he approached the stretch of Interstate 35 alongside Baylor's campus, the 1966 graduate would call his wife, Kathy, and sing "That Good Old Baylor Line."

Kathy, who graduated from the University of Houston, accepted his Baylor pride as an inherent part of their marriage. "Singing the school song to her just became one of our traditions," Cody said with a laugh and noted that Kathy has recently been selected as a Baylor Alumna By Choice.

Surprisingly, given his school pride, Cody initially wasn't planning on becoming a Baylor Bear. A native of the Lone Star State, he had grown up in Carlsbad, N.M., and attended high school in Tucson, Arizona. Along with a group of friends, he had set his sights on going to Stanford University. 

However, God had other plans.

"I felt a calling to go into the ministry," Cody said. "My pastor, who was a Baylor graduate, had taken me under his wing, and he said, "If you're going to be a Baptist preacher, you need to go to a Baptist university. And if you're going to go to a Baptist university, you need to go to Baylor."

A FIRM FOUNDATION

Once in Waco, Cody immersed himself in campus life, singing in the Baylor Religious Hour Choir and joining the Lambda Sigma Chi fraternity and the Baylor chapter of Circle K International. He loved Baylor's annual traditions like Homecoming. He also loved studying literature and eventually double-majored in English and philosophy.

"I wanted to be an English professor because I loved literature so much and there were so many fantastic professors in the English department," he said. But then Dr. Clement Goode, one of Cody's mentors, punctured his romantic ideas about an English professor's work and lifestyle. 

Returning to Arizona after earning his bachelor's degree, Cody graduated from the University of Arizona with a J.D. and went on to a highly successful career in law and life insurance, serving as a regional vice president for New York Life and as president and COO of Delta Life and Annuity Company. 

Even though he didn't continue the path he had originally envisioned for himself, Cody said his liberal arts education at Baylor prepared him for being an effective corporate executive and successful attorney in the field of estate planning by developing three essential skills - writing concisely, communicating clearly, and storytelling powerfully. 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

Cody has now been retired for fifteen years. Three years ago, he and his wife established the Cody Hunter and Kathy Payne Phillips Endowed Scholarship to support Baylor students, with first preference given to students from First Baptist Church of Boerne. 

They have already funded the scholarship using qualified charitable distributions from an IRA and have committed further enhancement through their estate plans. The couple also gave some Hill Country real estate to Baylor with proceeds to go to the scholarship. 

"Making a blended gift to Baylor - a current gift combined with planned future gifts - offers a number of benefits," Cody said. "First, there are tax advantages. You also have flexibility as you grow older. That allows you to feel comfortable with your ability to take care of yourself and your spouse while also making possible a transformational educational experience for Baylor students." 

Prior to her retirement in 2013, Kathy Phillips enjoyed a long career in the life insurance division of USAA, the financial services company serving members of the military, veterans, and their families. When asked about her motivation, as a Houston Cougar, to give to Baylor, Kathy said it centered on her desire to remove financial obstacles to higher education for students from her and Cody's home church. "It gives me an important connection to those students now and to students in the future," she said. 

Both she and Cody also noted that establishing their philanthropic intentions within their estate plans - something Baylor's Office of Gift Planning helped them with - has eliminated potential difficulties in probate and allowed for present-day peace of mind. 

"We want to make a difference in students' lives-now and down the ways of time," Cody said. "God makes the impossible possible. He can use us to help students make a Baylor degree a possibility."