Former Student Congress President Tim Matheus (’78 BA) has come a long way since his years at UT Arlington. The first member of his family to attend college now owns a 6,000-square-foot home in the country and a 1959 pink Cadillac, and his daughter attends Stanford University.

“At UT Arlington, most of us were not born with a silver spoon in our mouth,” he said. “We had to get out there and work to make things happen, or it wouldn’t happen at all.”

This mantra has translated well to the real world, where Matheus has blazed a path as a real estate entrepreneur.

He started in 1982 by buying houses, land and apartment complexes, fixing them up and selling them. Eventually he moved into rental properties and held up to 100 at one time under the name Sunbelt Properties. He recently acquired two lots on Eagle Mountain Lake, which he bought for a “steal” at $26,000. He hopes to sell them for triple that.

He also is a private investigator and owns Profile Investigations in Fort Worth. He gained notoriety in recent years by revealing how to attend the Masters golf tournament for free.

— Becky Purvis