Gale Sommers ’72: Why I VMI

“I give back to VMI because VMI gave to me.” That’s how Gale Sommers ’72 explains his reason for supporting the Institute. Now retired after a successful career in public accounting and business leadership, Sommers is thankful that the Institute took him—a leggy young man from southern Indiana who’d never traveled far from home—offered him a basketball scholarship, and prepared him exceptionally well for a career he’d never anticipated.

Sommers grew up as the child of a father who taught school and a mother who stayed home, surrounded by a close-knit family who also didn’t venture far away. Then, inspired by some basketball players he’d known who went to VMI, he and his parents made a recruiting visit to the Institute.

“So, flying down to Roanoke to the airport was a big deal for us, and then driving up 81 through the mountains—we had never seen mountains before,” he commented. Once on post, Sommers’ mother was reassured by the very polite cadets she met and the fact that cadets lived their lives with order and discipline. With his parents’ support, and the offer of a scholarship that would alleviate the cost of college for his one-income family, Sommers decided to matriculate at VMI.

Insulated in his small community, he hadn’t a chance to meet many people of different backgrounds. Arriving for matriculation as a rat, Sommers quickly found that a willingness to meet others and adapt to changing circumstances was key to success at VMI, especially as he and his brother rats navigated the Rat Line.

“I think … one of the benefits of coming here was the expansion of my societal contacts,” he noted. “You can learn to adapt, and you can embrace [the Rat Line] in a lot of different ways. You just sort of go with the flow [and] realize that everyone in your class is going through exactly the same thing.”

With eyesight disqualifying him from a pilot’s slot in the Air Force and fewer officers needed overall as the Vietnam War drew to a close, Sommers chose not to commission in the military. Graduating from VMI with a degree in mathematics, he taught high school for a short time before deciding to return to his native state and earn a graduate degree in accounting from Ball State University. While at Ball State, Sommers met his soon-to-be wife, and once both had finished their degrees, the couple moved to Northern Virginia, where Anne Sommers was from, and he accepted a position with a major public accounting firm.

Years passed, and Sommers found himself working extraordinarily long hours—sometimes as much as 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. At that point, he made a career change and moved into the business world, becoming a chief financial officer and, eventually, a chief executive officer.

As he worked through the myriad challenges of executive leadership, Sommers had plenty of time to reflect on the lessons he’d learned during his cadetship. “During my whole career process, I thought a lot about the experience of VMI,” he stated. “And I think that was a key on all the things that I learned—honesty, integrity, accountability—are key factors of this school. … I’m a CPA—honesty and integrity are a key component to becoming a CPA. And so I think that it was certainly beneficial to understand that and accountability.

“VMI just changed my life and career path,” he continued. “There was nothing I felt that I faced in business, there [were not] any issues or problems that I encountered, that I couldn’t deal with because I learned to deal with them here.”

Sommers retired just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and now serves on several boards—among them, the VMI Foundation Board of Trustees. He previously served as a member of the Keydet Club Board of Governors, and he was also a Class of 1972 50th Reunion Committee member. In grateful acknowledgement of all the Institute did for him, he’s also established a basketball scholarship that bears his name.

Giving back to VMI, he says, is natural when he reflects on just how well the Institute prepared him to live a life encompassing far more than he ever imagined growing up. “I realized pretty early in the process how much I got out of this experience and how much it benefited me,” he stated. “And I think as I moved along in my career … I became more and more aware of the overall benefits of the things that I learned. … I really think it’s important to have a school that does what VMI does and to have a school that teaches the values of what VMI teaches.”

Sometimes, Sommers reflects on what his life might have looked like had he chosen to stay in Indiana—and he’s very grateful he did not. “I cannot imagine my life being even close to what it is now without the VMI experience,” he related.