Giving Stories

Wallingford resident Emily McCarthy* is going to Northeastern University this fall, thanks in part to a scholarship from the Lisl Karen Streett Fund at The Community Foundation.

Lisl K. Streett

McCarthy was one of three students to receive tuition assistance from the Fund, which was established in 1989 by Grace Cornell Terwilliger & Dr. J. Walter Streett in memory of their daughter. The Fund was created “to create a living loving legacy of this very special person and to help support people who are in pursuit of activities and ideals that were so dear to Lisl.”

Lisl was an active teenager until a tragic accident ended her life. The fifteen year-old was a swimmer on the high school swim team and member of the Wallingford YMCA’s gymnastics team. She frequented the library and was known as an independent thinker whom her friends saw as someone they could turn to for advice.

“As phone calls to her home soon indicated, Lisl was a sort of unofficial matchmaker, counselor, advice-giver and someone who could be entrusted with confidences,” said her mother. “She also had a strong love of nature and as such was an avid sunset watcher and loved the outdoors.”

In addition to providing college scholarships to graduates from Sheehan High School in Wallingford, CT, the Fund distributes grants annually to organizations in the Wallingford area that serve children and teenagers. In 1997, the Streett Fund distributed $20,000 to support the establishment of a program to benefit teens at the local YMCA. The grant was the catalyst to serving more than 325 teens over the past 13 years.

“It was a 2 year grant for our Teen Outreach program,” recalls Sean Doherty, Executive Director of the Wallingford Family YMCA. “It was an afterschool program for kids gone off the beaten path - for behavioral, attendance, and academic issues, or who were socially-challenged. It was free to participants and had a recreational component and time set-aside for homework. Transportation was provided to the facility. Instead of going home to an empty household, kids came to the Y where they could socialize with their peers and talk with a social worker, if desired.”

The program was revamped in 2008; it now serves 40 participants at the Y's Teen Center and offers a summer camp.

The Streett Fund has distributed other grants to the Y over the years: to expand youth and teen programs in the areas of music and nature/environmental science exploration, to secure a fifteen passenger van to provide transportation for afterschool and outreach programs, to repair the facility’s roof and to purchase equipment for the Health Enhancement Center.

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*2010 Scholarship Recipient, Emily McCarthy:
I am humbled and honored by the fact that you chose me to give a $6,000 scholarship.  I know you must've had numerous applicants and I am grateful that you chose me out of all of them.  It will please you to know that all of the scholarship money will go towards my tuition at Northeastern University.  I am greatly looking forward to my time at that University.  Thank you again for this generous scholarship.

Myrna Baskin (with Daisy) is among several people who created a fund through the Giving Women campaign.

Myrna Baskin lives by a motto: Appreciate your blessings and make every effort to help others.

The New Haven native is doing just that by being part of a group of special people who have created designated funds to increase the grants from the Community Fund for Women & Girls.

Through the Giving Women Campaign, Myrna chose to create a permanent fund the will benefit women and girls in Greater New Haven forever.

“I’ve been a supporter of the Community Fund for Women & Girls since its beginning 15 years ago. When I learned there was a way I could permanently increase the Fund’s grantmaking resources by creating my own fund, I seized the opportunity. Now, yearly distributions from the Myrna & Arnold Baskin Fund will be added to the Community Fund for Women & Girls’ grants pool.
That means that there will be more funding available for local programs that aid women and girls.”

She’s referring to programs that promote social and economic advancement for women. That teach job skills and break the cycle of violence and poverty in women’s lives. Programs that provide health services and screenings and improve literacy. And perhaps most appealing to Myrna, programs that enrich lives through the performing arts, poetry and musical instruction.

“I’ve had a life long passion of the arts,” says Myrna, who majored in Music at Smith College and serves on the Board of Directors of New Haven Symphony Orchestra, once as its President.

“There’s so much talent and ability in New Haven, yet so many things about the arts that young women and girls don’t have an opportunity to take advantage of. I think it is a privilege to enable young women to develop skills and interests in the arts. To build on those things is not only good for their futures but for everyone’s future.”

This giving story was recently featured in our Spring 2010 Community Currents.

With a $2,000 grant from The Community Foundation added to their own coffers, several high school students from New Haven’s Granville Academy flew to Cleveland, OH this year to attend a leadership convention aimed toward helping them reach a bright future in the business world. The grant was made possible through the Peter & Judith Schurman Fund.
The convention was organized to prepare youth for success in the global marketplace under the theme, “Economic Integration through Efficacious Leadership and Education.” Over the course of three days, the students attended seminars in which they were introduced to business leaders and local college options.  
 
Christina Seldon, a junior at the Granville Academy who attended the conference, expressed excitement over the opportunities to network and interact with thousands of other young people from all over the U.S. and gratitude toward the speakers who gave up their time to be there and motivate the students. This year’s speakers included doctors, military officials and other paid public officials.  

 “The amount of knowledge and resources you take away with you at the end of the day is truly amazing. I always go home learning something new that I didn’t know when I got there,” Seldon said.
 
The New Haven affiliate of Granville Academy was established in 2003. Students from the school have been attending the national conferences every year since. Curlena McDonald has been president of the academy since its establishment.
 
“The conferences are set up to give the students a formal environment; to force the concept of business, global economy and how to dress,” McDonald said. “There is a tight schedule of business meetings and speakers. We try to bring in as many young people to speak to the students that we can.”
 
The students have to dress as if they were going to the office every day. To further reflect an actual business trip, the students also check into and out of the hotel themselves.  
 
“Granville Academy is not only about having fun, it’s also about networking and obtaining the resources to better oneself,” Seldon said. “Granville Academy has taught me powerful tools to reach success in my life, and I have learned many amazing things that I doubt I would have leaned anywhere else.”
 
Small classes are held throughout the school year from 6 to 8 p.m.  The students spend the year preparing for the annual Granville Academy Convention.  They are placed on teams with students in other affiliates and must prepare to present a project at the convention either over the phone or with other communication devices.    
 
“There are major benefits to our program,” McDonald said.  “First, we are helping students who might not get the attention they need to stay in high school.  They are coming because they want to and we are able to give them one-on-one attention.  If individuals are good at something, we are able to give them the materials to exercise that.  Once they do make it to college, we are able to give them funds to support them.”  
 
 “Throughout the year we learn ways to better empower ourselves in life,” Seldon said.  “I can say that I am a proud student of Granville Academy and I have come a long way from where I started before this program.”
 
 “That’s our goal,” McDonald said, “to continue to introduce the students to people and role models who will encourage them to continue to have a successful life.”  
 
Granville Academy is a national after-school program that prepares inner city youth, but not exclusively, for success in the global marketplace by teaching the foundations of business, finance, technology, entrepreneurship, character building, community service and the opportunity for training on business ownership.  It is taught entirely by volunteers.  There are seven affiliates in six different states in the U.S. and recently, one located in Ghana.
 “The Granville Academy staff voluntarily free up their time to help youth succeed. All who attend this Academy reach a high level of success in life because of it. Granville Academy is an inspirational program that reinforces positives instead of the negative,” Seldon said.  

“Our goal is to try to get them to see business is an option, but gaining an education beyond high school is essential,” McDonald said.  “That’s the real goal we try to relate.”

For twenty-five years, the Peter & Judith Schurman Fund has distributed more than half-a-million dollars in grants to support education in the broadest sense for those with few advantages, particularly to improve opportunities, and secondary education. The Fund was established by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Schurman and his wife Judith Calhoun Schurman. A Korean War veteran – and the grandson of Cornell University’s third President - Peter created two companies by his mid thirties, both in the plastics industry. After the sale of his first, Peter established the U.S.-based Plastic Forming Company and invented the process for blow-molding double-walled cases and tool boxes used for hand and power tools, chain saws, camping lanterns and more. During his life, Peter acquired fifty patents in plastics machinery and packaging.

Alice Botsford of Hamden was 92 when she passed away. Not much is known about her, except that she worked as an office manager for the men’s clothing store, J. Press Co., of New Haven and was the descendant of an early-American settler who became a free planter in Milford, CT. Still, Alice’s life will be remembered in perpetuity through a fund at The Community Foundation established by her brother Richard’s bequest in 1982. The Fund bears her name and distributes grants annually to the Botsford Family Historical Association (of Milford). Should the Historical Association cease to exist, distributions from the fund will be made to Christ Episcopal Church of Stratford, per Richard's wishes.

The Botsford Family Historical Association follows the lineage of Henry and Elizabeth Botsford, who made the journey to America from England in 1639 to escape the political, intellectual and religious unrest in England. More than 200 years later, Charles Woolley, a descendant living in Buffalo, New York, began to hold annual gatherings of Botsford family members at his home.  The group organized under the name, "Band of Botsford., and adopted the coat of arms of a branch of the family, bearing the motto "Digna Sequens" or "seeking the things that are worthwhile.” Family reunions were held in New York until Mr. Woolley's death, when they were moved to Milford, CT. Reunions continue today at a Botsford Homestead, which has been owned by Botsford descendants since the 17th century.  For more information about this early-American family or to schedule a free tour of the Homestead, visit the Association’s website.

2010 marks the 106th year that Botsford descendents will gather at the Botsford Homestead to honor the memory of their ancestors and continue the search for more family members.

People who knew Carol Kasper will tell you that she was a “warm, generous, loving person who cared more for others than herself.” She was also a skilled development professional and published author and playwright.

In 2009, at only 45, Carol passed away from colon cancer, leaving friends and family both with a tremendous sense of loss and a great appreciation for knowing her. Carrying-out her wishes, her husband Jim established a fund that same year to support educational efforts in science, the environment and the arts – all disciplines with which Carol had an affinity.

At varying times, Carol held positions in a variety of businesses in the scientific and publishing fields, including The Maritime Aquarium, The  Taunton Press, Inc., Bayer HealthCare and Schooner Inc. She also volunteered at the Beardsley Zoo and her local church. It is her work at Schooner for which Executive Director Kristen Andrews is most grateful.

“Carol started at Schooner as our Director of Programs. Later, she became a member of our Board and was the creative mastermind behind our annual Wine Gala. She then returned to the Schooner Inc staff as the Director of Development and was also the driving force behind our recently completed strategic plan. We are a much stronger institution because of her efforts. We are re-focused on our purpose – to promote environmental awareness and personal growth through marine science, sailing and the history of the New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound.”

As a direct result of Carol’s vision, Schooner Inc. has created CT Coastal Classrooms - the umbrella for all programs that deal with environmental education and will shortly pilot a program in a hands-on environment that supports Connecticut’s science requirement for public school children in 6th grade.

Though a Maryland native, Carol grew to love Greater New Haven over the 16 years she and her husband lived here. There may be no greater evidence of that love than her desire to establish a permanent source of support for the region.

(L-R) Stanley Botwink with brother Norman

The General Fund, a flexible endowed fund to support broad charitable purposes, was established by Frederick Foster Brewster (1872-1959) in 1948. Brewster was a well-known philanthropist who made his fortune at the W & ET Fitch Co., a manufacturer of malleable iron goods. During his life, Brewster was a director of the Second National Bank of New Haven, the New Haven Gas Company, the United Illuminating Company, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He served as a trustee of the New Haven Savings Bank. He also made a bequest to the City of New Haven that his property be used as a public park, now Edgerton Park. From 1928
to 1942, Brewster served as a Foundation Distribution Committee member, giving him intimate knowledge of the benefits to creating an endowment for the community.

In ’48, he anonymously endowed a General Fund at each of the trustee banks (and subsequently the Board was inspired to establish a General Fund in the Corporation). It has been said that Brewster wanted “to encourage more gifts to The Foundation as memorials,” and to give every citizen the opportunity to contribute to the community’s permanent endowment.

Over the years, many donors have contributed gifts of all sizes, small and large. One such donor who regularly contributed to the General Fund was Stanley Botwinik. In 2008, The Foundation received a $40,000 bequest to the Fund from Botwinik’s estate.

Stanley was a native New Havener who attended Hillhouse High School and later graduated from the University of Michigan. After WWII, he returned to join the family machine tool business, Botwinik Brothers Inc. Stanley had many interests, including boating with friends, skiing and most notably photography.

Special thanks to Botwinik’s nephew, Larry Lipsher, for sharing his uncle’s photographs with us.

In 1947, Albert L. Haasis left a gift of $101,000 to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to be used for broad charitable purposes as well as support the repair of Fair Haven’s St. James Episcopal Church and its walkway, the Connecticut Humane Society and the New Haven Friends of Boys organization. The later was created in 1906 by the Rev. John C. Collins, a Yale-trained clergyman, who was troubled by reports of police harassment of news and shoeshine boys. Rev. Collins agreed to act as a sponsor of the boys in question in exchange for leniency.

That agreement led to the creation of The New Haven Friends of Boys. According to the organization’s charter, the mission of The Friends of Boys, “…[was] to make helpful contacts and give friendly supervision to street trade, misdirected and underprivileged boys, to guard over those boys under 16 who are permitted by parents to roam the city streets in leisure hours and make of these boys good citizens through the promotion of a program that encourages clean living and worthy achievement.” In the early years, Friends of Boys athletic events, leadership classes, and other activities helped to prepare many boys from working-class Irish and Italian neighborhoods for productive careers. Today, the organization is known as the New Haven YMCA – Friends of Boys and it receives nearly $10,000 annually from the Haasis Fund.

If you would like to establish a permanent fund to support a favorite charity, contact Angel Fernandez-Chavero @ afernandez@cfgnh.org or 203-777-7072.

At the Evergreen Cemetery today, his headstone reads, in part:

B.A. - 1874 Ph.D. - 1876
Physicist and Educator
1852 - 1918

Artisan Street Colored School
Hopkins Grammar School Valedictorian 1870
 
This well accomplished African American, Edward Alexander Bouchet has had many firsts. He was the first African American to graduate from Yale College and the first African American in the United States to earn a Ph.D.

He entered Yale College in 1870 where he earned his bachelor's degree. He was awarded highest honors and was nominated and then initiated into Phi Beta Kappa. In the fall of 1874 he returned to Yale with financial support of a Philadelphia philanthropist, Alfred Cope. In 1876, Bouchet successfully completed his dissertation on the new subject of geometrical optics, becoming the first Black person to earn a Ph.D. from an American university as well as the sixth American of any race to earn a Ph.D. in physics.

In honor of Bouchet, the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Beta Tau Boule' of New Haven, CT inaugurated the Beta Tau Sigma Pi Phi Edward A. Bouchet Achievement Award program for New Haven area graduating high school students after hosting the Northeast Regional Convention of Sigma Pi Phi in 1987. The first awards and concern for young black men in New Haven inspired ongoing discussions focused on the  needs of African Americans, most especially the advancement of black males in higher education is the interest of members of the Boulé   In addressing some of the challenges, The New Haven Boulé continued to  develop  the awards program and has without fail given annual awards over the past two decades  In 2007, the Boule'transferred its assets to The Foundation, thereby establishing the Promising Scholars Fund.  

 "What we've designed fits the diversity of members in the Boulé. It's purposeful cloning modeled after the Grand Boulé social action program. We really want to establish legacies when it comes to contributing to the growth of American society, most specifically, the growth and advancement of people who look like us," said Dr. Curtis Patton, a Promising Scholars Fund Board member.

When asked why the Beta Tau Boulé decided to entrust its assets to The Foundation, Al Johnson, President of the Promising Scholars Fund Board, said, "The Foundation has a solid track record of investment performance. As an endowed scholarship fund, Promising Scholars can benefit greatly from The Foundation's experienced money management team, which should over time  produce higher returns than our past results."

At the Evergreen Cemetery today, his headstone reads, in part:

B.A. - 1874 Ph.D. - 1876
Physicist and Educator
1852 - 1918

Artisan Street Colored School
Hopkins Grammar School Valedictorian 1870

This well accomplished African American, Edward Alexander Bouchet has had many firsts. He was the first African American to graduate from Yale College and the first African American in the United States to earn a Ph.D.

He entered Yale College in 1870 where he earned his bachelor's degree. He was awarded highest honors and was nominated and then initiated into Phi Beta Kappa. In the fall of 1874 he returned to Yale with financial support of a Philadelphia philanthropist, Alfred Cope. In 1876, Bouchet successfully completed his dissertation on the new subject of geometrical optics, becoming the first Black person to earn a Ph.D. from an American university as well as the sixth American of any race to earn a Ph.D. in physics.

Inspired by Bouchet, the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Beta Tau Boule' of New Haven, CT created the Edward A. Bouchet Achievement Award program for New Haven area graduating high school students in 1987. The first awards focused on addressing the needs of African Americans, especially the advancement of black males in higher education. Since it developed the program, the New Haven Boulé has without fail given annual awards to young African American men who have demonstrated academic achievement. In 2007, the Boule' transferred its assets to The Community Foundation, thereby establishing the Promising Scholars Fund.  

 "What we've designed fits the diversity of members in the Boulé. It's purposeful cloning modeled after the Grand Boulé social action program. We really want to establish legacies when it comes to contributing to the growth of American society, most specifically, the growth and advancement of people who look like us," said Dr. Curtis Patton, a Promising Scholars Fund Board member.

When asked why the Beta Tau Boulé decided to entrust its assets to The Foundation, Al Johnson, President of the Promising Scholars Fund Board, said, "The Foundation has a solid track record of investment performance. As an endowed scholarship fund, Promising Scholars can benefit greatly from The Foundation's experienced money management team, which should over time produce higher returns than our past results."

Leo James graduated from Hillhouse High School last year - 8th in his class of 214 seniors and Scholar Athlete of the Year. He was a member of the football team and the Young Men's Leadership Social Group and was inducted into both the National Spanish Honor and National Honor Societies. In an essay entitled God's Warrior, Leo had this to say about his dreams for the future: "My career goal is to be a social worker because I want to help others, reach out to others, and talk to them about values and life's lessons. I will continue listening to God and I am willing to be his gifted warrior."

Leo is getting the chance to fulfill his dream at Southern Connecticut State University this year, thanks in part to a scholarship from the Dr. Tammis Sholin Miller Fund. Dr. Miller graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1980 and practiced with the Bristol, CT pediatric center before moving to New Haven, CT. Until she became terminally ill with cervical cancer, she worked as a pediatrician at The Cornell Scott Health Corporation (formerly the Hill Health Center) and was an active member of the New Haven Adolescent AIDS Task Force. She was also the head consultant of New Haven Healthy Start, a program of The Community Foundation to reduce infant mortality in the City of New Haven.

Eleven days before her death, at age 39, Dr. Miller created a will and named The Community Foundation as a beneficiary. Per her wishes, a fund was established with $25,000 from her estate and additional memorial gifts from family and friends.  

Family members remember Dr. Miller for her compassionate nature: "...Her humanity, seeing and treating everyone as an equal, a fellow human being...her sense of humor... her willingness to give of herself - to be there for her friends, her colleagues, her patients and her family - to listen to them and to help."  Dr. Miller's generous spirit now lives forever through her scholarship fund.
 
If you would like to establish a scholarship fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, or contribute to the Dr. Tammis Sholin Miller Fund, please contact Deb Wright at 203- 777-7073 or make a gift to the Fund online.

David T. Langrock was a fine clothier in New Jersey, Harvard Square and New Haven. His shop in New Haven was located at 268 York Street.  Although his shop no longer exists, the building in which it was located still stands and is currently used as a vegan fashion shop, Kerin Boutique.  The boutique sells womens' clothing and accessories. Most of the merchandise for sale is made from recycled and eco-friendly materials.

Described by one of his trustees as an odd kind of fellow, Langrock fancied himself as an art commissioner. His favorite paintings were post Renaissance through 19th century.  He wanted to have a permanent gallery where his collection would be lodged for public view. Unfortunately, he was bankrupt when he died, but he owned real estate in Providence RI, which was sold to establish a Trust for two beneficiaries and the David T. Langrock Foundation.

In April 1, 1982 The David T. Langrock Old Masters Art Fund was established as an endowed preference fund at The Foundation by a transfer of assets from the Langrock Foundation. In keeping with the intentions of the original Foundation, the Old Masters Art Fund encourages and promotes classical art and the study of classical art in the Greater New Haven area.

Distributions from the Langrock Fund in 2009 were used in The Foundation's annual competitive grants process to support the CT Children's Museum, the New Haven Paint and Clay Club and New Haven Symphony Orchestra. The grant to the Symphony Orchestra was particularly meaningful for that organization, which like many others felt the effect of the troubled economy on its operating costs. Because of  the foresight of Mr. Langrock a quarter of a century ago, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra is able to continue its schedule of concerts, broadcasts, education and community engagement activities in the Greater New Haven region this year.

"Today Mr. Langrock's shop is no more, nor are his well-dressed young men, but they have left the city a good building that mediates between the gentility of York Street and the motley world of Broadway."  - Elizabeth Mills Brown in New Haven, a guide to architecture and urban design.

One young person went to work for MTV. Another for ESPN and A&E mobile networks. A third as a news anchor on CBS 2’s weekend morning show from New York City.

And all interned at North Haven Community TV (NHTV), says Walter Mann, Executive Director of the public and governmental access television station which broadcasts across two Connecticut counties.

NHTV runs a high school internship program for students from Northford, North Branford, North Haven, and Wallingford. Students learn about media production and fulfill a graduation requirement to complete 40 hours of community service.

“I’ve seen young people start here who didn’t know what they wanted to do in life and realize that they liked it so much that they wanted to pursue a career in broadcasting or a related media field,” says Mann.

Mann is talking about people like Chris Bennett. Chris is majoring in Communications with a concentration in video production at Southern Connecticut State University. His minor is Journalism. He graduates in 2011.    

Chris interned at NHTV while in high school. He continues to work there, honing his skills. “The internship program not only helps you learn how it works in the real world. You get used to dealing with all types of people too.”

The NHTV internship program received a grant in May from the Frances C. Doolittle Fund through The Foundation’s grants process, which provides small grants for time sensitive requests. Frances established a fund by bequest in 2000 to support programs benefiting children and youth in the Greater New Haven community.

“My mother was raised in Westville,” says son John Doolittle. “After graduating Vassar College , she went to work at Sloan Physics Lab at Yale, where she met my father.” When The Doolittles moved to Hamden , Frances left Yale to raise their three children. In her spare time, Frances liked to collect antiques, play Bridge and go boating.

“My parents were unique individuals,” says John. “Dad was a brilliant engineer and Yale graduate, and Mother skipped two grades in elementary school, and worked her way through Vassar. Both received honors upon graduation. Both were always interested in helping others succeed in life.”

It seems befitting that distributions from Frances ’ Fund would be used to support the NHTV internship program. Frances ’ husband Franklin Malcolm Doolittle was an entrepreneur in the nascent radio broadcast field of the early 20th century. Born in New Haven in 1893, Franklin built and operated a homemade receiver and spark-coil transmitter by the age of eleven. By 29, he manufactured and sold radio receivers from his small company on Chapel Street . Among his many accomplishments, Franklin broadcast the first football game (Yale vs. Princeton), was President of Connecticut’s first commercial radio station - later known as WDRC (for Doolittle Radio Corporation), broadcast the first commercial FM station in the nation from Meriden Mountain and received a US patent for his radiotelephony work.

“Dad was elected to Sigma Psi, the honorary Engineering Society at Yale, and years later was honored by becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers, a status given to few, for his pioneering achievements in development of radio broadcasting,” says John.

With urging from his wife Ilene, Robert Saulsbury transferred his father’s private foundation to The Community Foundation in 2001. The reason? To ensure the continued growth of the scholarship bearing his father’s name.

Today, the Curtis M. Saulsbury Scholarship Fund provides young people the opportunity to obtain an education in music. It also pays tribute to a New Haven native and musician who devoted his life to singing and teaching religious, popular and classical music.

During Curtis’ lifetime, he contributed proceeds and donations from his scholarship benefit concerts to his private foundation.

Four decades after his death, donations from family and friends continue his legacy of giving to make the future brighter for talented young people, like Christian Sands (left). Sands is attending the Manhattan School of Music with help from the Saulsbury scholarship. He is already considered a ‘rising star” in the world of jazz, having played with such greats as Oscar Peterson at the GRAMMY’s Salute to Jazz.

Grace Donahue and Doris Feldman were life-long friends who taught in the Hamden public school system. As teachers, the former taught history and the latter social studies and fine arts, once proclaiming that she “butted into every other subject.” Both were principals at one time. Doris met Grace in 1938 at the Newhall Elementary School where she was the principal and Grace was a sixth grade teacher. The pair separately obtained their master’s degrees in education from Yale University. Each worked more than 50 years before their retirement in the 1970s. Each returned to work as “consultants” at Hamden-Cooperative High School to give nearly 20 additional years of service to Hamden’s students and educational system. The two women shared another love beyond the classroom. It was an affinity to children with special needs. When school was not in session, the pair designed and directed summer camps for children living with hearing or sight disabilities.

Though Grace and Doris never married and did not have children of their own, “they [were] mothers of the whole group,” recalls a teacher who once worked with them. In 1988, Doris created a testamentary trust by bequest for the lifetime benefit of her friend Grace. The trust provided financial security for Grace until her death in 1993, at which time the remainder
of Doris’ estate established the first of two Doris V. Feldman and Grace E. Donahue Funds at The Foundation; a bequest by Grace created the second fund. Both funds give preference to programs that determine learning or emotional disorders of children aged 2-7 residing in Hamden and benefit persons living with intellectual and learning disabilities.

In its 15-year history of distributions, the Donahue/Feldman Funds distributed a total of more than $440,000, including the grant to the Hamden Transition Academy. Other grant recipients include the CT Autism Spectrum Resource Center to help continue its outreach and provide resource materials to families and professionals in the Greater New Haven area. The Center educates, informs and provides support to families, friends, and professionals working with those who are affected by autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. The Connecticut Children’s Museum also received $37,000 to support the implementation of a child care model of inclusiveness for children with and without special needs up to the age of 5. 

The Farnam family has been investing in New Haven’s future for nearly two centuries. From their involvement in building a road to the top of East Rock Park, to helping create the Farnam Neighborhood House to their support of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. They are among the elite who recognize the options they have in determining how their charitable dollars are spent. Using designated, preference and unrestricted funds, members of this prominent New Haven family are supporting the local community forever. Learn more about the Farnam Family's impact in New Haven .

Beverly Kimbro saw education as an essential ingredient to achieving success in life; so it’s not surprising that she chose to create a scholarship in memory of her son, Arthur. Beverly's husband Warren shared her thoughts about education and established a scholarship in Beverly's name after she died. After Warren's death, his children created a scholarship in his honor continuing the tradition of helping others by increasing their educational opportunities. Learn more about this inspirational family .

Margaret Mack (d. 1996) is helping children and families overcome traumatic experiences and avoid the likelihood of developing mental illness.

Margaret's bequest converted her donor advised fund to a designated fund for the benefit the Clifford W. Beers Clinic (among other organizations). The Clinic is one of the naton’s oldest mental health outpatient facilities and named for a man who is largely recognized as the father of the mental health movement in the U.S. Learn more about Margaret's charitable gift .

Simon and Emily Silverthau arrived in New Haven in the early 1850s and had eight children by 1870. Caroline, born in 1854, was one of three girls in the family. By 1878 the family had established a small jewelry shop on Orange Street, and over the next decade the Silverthau men built up the business by adding new functions, improving the retail location, and revising the name. Brothers Philip and Abraham, the salesmen, sold jewelry and silver in the region, traveling as far as Derby. The family prospered and, like the business, moved successively from Oak Street to more comfortable New Haven neighborhoods, and finally to East Rock. Caroline was the “female head of household” for her siblings and performed the domestic duties that made it possible for the others to be in business.

When she died in 1941, Caroline Silverthau became the seventh donor to The Foundation. Her bequest, which identified New Haven Bank NBA as trustee, designated the Silverthau Fund as a source of milk and coal for the poor. This bequest later became a good illustration of The Foundation’s legal flexibility, once coal came to be replaced by gas or oil for heat and milk came to be distributed through schools.

The Silverthau Fund is currently broadly interpreted to support, “material needs of the poor in New Haven.” Today it is used for such things as food and shelter and has supported such organizations as: New Haven Home Recovery, Christian Community Action, Columbus House Emergency Shelter, Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, Master's Manna, and the Connecticut Association for Human Services.

The Gates family, like many other early settlers to the Naugatuck Valley, arrived in Derby by way of other Connecticut towns. The first family members were English settlers who made their way from Hartford via East Haddam in the 1780s. Derby, an agricultural community at the intersection of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers, was a port where ships could be stocked with provisions for the voyage south. As commercial activity in the town increased, residents built mills to make use of the rivers.

The Gates family opened a dry goods store and soon added several ships to bring their goods to nearby ports. By the 1870s when Letitia Fletcher Hegeman Gates had given birth to her sons Frank and Ross, the family was a member of Derby’s well-established gentry. Her husband, Robert Owen Gates, was a Derby native who had been a Derby selectman and county High Sheriff, and was active in promoting business-friendly programs in the Derby-Shelton area. They had two sons and two daughters. The boys attended a local private school and then New Haven’s Hillhouse, the region’s leading academic high school. As students at a New Haven high school, the brothers had the opportunity to see the region in new ways and to share New Haven’s connections to the Valley.

After graduation Frank spent a year out West and then returned to Derby to join the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, while Ross joined a New York brokerage firm. Frank, the local brother, championed Derby and because of his generosity Derby citizens affectionately called him the Earl of Derby. When he decided the Housatonic was the perfect spot for boat races, Frank Gates pursued Yale University athletics officials until they agreed to build the first boathouse there in 1918.

In addition to the support he gave to his hometown, he also began his own sister city relationship with Derby, England. When he learned that Derby had no ambulances during World War II, he gave the city a vehicle, and then another when a bomb destroyed the first.

In 1938 the brothers created trusts in the family name at The New Haven Foundation. Their stipulation required that, “due consideration be given to programs that benefit the inhabitants of the Derby area.” Ross died in 1952 and Frank in 1954; their gifts have made it possible for The Foundation to become the largest grantmaking funder in the Naugatuck Valley. Gates funds have been awarded to health, economic development, and humanitarian organizations and projects that include the Seymour Ambulance Association, the Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Shelton Historical Society, Shelton Economic Development, and the Naugatuck Valley Project.  Most recently, a $250,000 grant from the Gates Fund to Griffin Hospital in Derby, CT is helping to build a a new Community Cancer Center and Ambulatory Patient Care Pavilion. The Center will offer state-of-the-art Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) that can target tumors with pin point precision - sparing surrounding healthy tissues. 

• Legacy of local real estate attorney and former Foundation Distribution Committee member lives on.
• Wife Lucie Atwater leaves bequest of $3.6 million in Foundation’s 80th anniversary year
• Community benefits with permanent source of revenue for “public, charitable and educational uses and purposes absolutely and forever”

Russell Atwater is a legend in the New Haven real estate community. If you were a buyer, seller, bank or developer between 1932 and 1972, you probably encountered the man who became a partner at Clark, Hall and Peck, like his father before him. The firm was the largest in New Haven known for title searches and closings, especially during the post World War II era of tremendous expansion of home ownership and commercial development. Read more about Russell and Lucie Atwater and how their gift has already been used to benefit the community in The Foundation's newsletter.

For those not old enough to remember, La Femme was a striking, two-tone purple car that Lawrence Welk ordered for the “Champagne Girls” on his television show. With a purple and champagne speckled interior, the 1956 La Femme was “exclusively designed for Her Royal Highness, the American Woman.” Its seats were covered with heavy plastic coating for protection, and it was sold with a matching raincoat, rain hat and umbrella that could be tucked into the back of the front seat. Of the few that were produced beyond those given to the Champagne Girls, one was owned by a local woman, who established a designated fund by bequest in 2005.

As you might imagine, the car made quite an impression to all who came into contact with her. So, too, did former La Femme owner and Community Foundation donor, Helene Marie Shincel. “She was quite a character, who loved to wear bright red outfits and had a terrific sense of humor,” remembers Judy Shincel Hanf, one of Helene’s nieces. “But there was a serious side to her as well. She was a very accomplished educator, who attended Smith College for undergraduate work, Yale University for a Masters in Psychology and completed a 6th year professional degree in Psychology from the University of Connecticut.”

According to Judy, Helene had three loves in life: animals, her educational work with youth, and her church. Through her bequest, Helene continues to support the organizations she so loved in life: The Animal Haven, a private, no-kill animal shelter that services Greater New Haven, Smith College, and Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven.

Say the words architecture or historical preservation to Jean Kelley and you’re likely to see a smile tiptoe across her face. 

The Guilford resident and Foundation donor was trained in the subjects – receiving her Master’s degree in Historic Preservation at the Columbia School of Architecture in 1989. Jean has been dedicated to the preservation of Greater New Haven’s past by serving on a variety of local boards and committees as well as serving on the Historic Preservation Council of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

But Jean will also tell you that her focus these days is on the future of her community. Particularly on its youth. “I want to make sure they have great opportunities and resources to become productive citizens,” explains Kelley, who was at one time the president of the Board of Leila Day Nursery Inc., Connecticut’s oldest continuing child care center.

Kelley has made a gift from her donor advised fund to Leila Day among many other organizations. She chose to endow the fund 10 years ago as a permanent way to give back to the community and because of its flexibility – enabling her to stay involved with the Fund during her life

“I like the concept of being able to make choices,” she says. “The ability to change your mind to see what’s most compelling at the time.”

If you’re like Jean and many others who want to take an active role in their charitable giving, contact Dotty Weston-Murphy at dmurphy@cfgnh.org or (203) 777-7081 for details on how to create a donor advised fund.

For 30 years, Elizabeth Hird was a pioneer in the local community for environmental preservation and education. Perhaps no single act demonstrated her commitment to environmental conservation as much as her donation of Outer Island to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995. In 2001, Hird created the Outer Island Education and Research Fund at The Foundation to ensure protection of the island’s natural resources and to enable continued access to the island for educational and research activities. Donations made to the fund support the instructional, research and outreach programs about Outer Island which are administered by the Connecticut State University System.

In 2002, Hird bequeathed another piece of real estate – this time her home – with instructions that it be sold and its proceeds added to the Outer Island Fund.  Through Hird’s generosity, the fund is currently valued at over $1.3 million, ensuring that Outer Island will be preserved in its natural state and used for education and research by students, environmental agencies and others for years to come.

• When moms can’t afford $100+/month diaper bill, compromises bring disease, abuse
• Bank soon will diaper ten times more, thanks to a donor who set up a health preference fund

For families with small incomes, disposable diapers are a necessity they can’t live without. They must buy them. Licensed day care centers require parents to provide disposable diapers, even if those parents qualify for free or subsidized childcare. The cost? More than $100 per month per child is common. It makes for tough choices. And sometimes poor decisions, like leaving a child too long in a soiled diaper in an effort to stretch out the diaper supply. The child understandably cries. The frustrated parent can lash out at the child.

“The reality is that it’s about preventing unnecessary health complications, like staph or hepatitis, and reducing the risk of abuse for underprivileged kids,” says Joanne Goldblum, executive director of the New Haven Diaper Bank.

The Diaper Bank hopes to take that problem off the table by distributing free diapers to qualified New Haven families. More than a thousand do. The Diaper Bank now reaches hundreds of children and has plans to expand, thanks to a multi-year grant from the Josephine Burgess Fund, established in 1981 for treatment and prevention of disease.

 

Siblings Myles Alderman and Jean Adnopoz remember their parents as caring deeply about people. Their father, Abner, had a close relationship to the community through the family’s furniture company, while their mother, “Nan”, was a volunteer chair of the Yale-New Haven Hospital gift shop. In 1969, the Abner A. Alderman Fund was established through gifts from family and friends as a permanent memorial to the father and husband who was known as a gentle, hardworking man. The fund’s name would be amended some 30 years later to include his wife’s name after her death.

Years after the Alderman family established their fund, Stanley Loewenstein set up a fund in memory of his sister, Ruth Osterweis. Loewenstein, a founder of West Virginia’s Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, knew that an endowment was the best way to permanently honor the generous spirit of his sister and benefit the New Haven community she grew to love. Learn how the funds created in memory of these loved ones continue to grow while providing a revenue stream for charitable organizations year after year.

When Deborah Highsmith died in 1991, her husband, Carl honored her memory by creating several scholarship funds in her name. In establishing scholarships at institutions with which Mrs. Highsmith was affiliated, Carl hoped to ensure that future generations would help to carry out her deep commitment to educate children with special needs. Upon the advice of their attorney, the family established one fund at The Community Foundation instead of creating a private foundation.

An incredibly brilliant and caring person, Mrs. Highsmith was a supervisor of special education in the New Haven school system for 15 years. She was committed to ensuring that teachers utilized the appropriate resources and methods to assist children with speech and hearing difficulties. Mrs. Highsmith was not only devoted to her profession, but she also enjoyed volunteering at her church—Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ—and helping those who were most vulnerable, e.g., children and those with physical disabilities.

For Carl Highsmith, charitable giving provides him with an opportunity to express his appreciation to others who helped him along the way. As the president and chief executive officer of The Specialized Packaging Group, the largest minority-owned manufacturer of paperboard packaging in North America, he feels it is important for those who have achieved economic success to help others, known and unknown. He volunteers and/or makes donations to several New Haven organizations, e.g., Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ and the I Have A Dream program. Carl credits his grandfather, a North Carolina farmer, as being his role model when it comes to charitable giving. According to Carl, "My grandfather was an extremely generous person. He would help anyone who needed his assistance."

The Highsmith children have also learned the value of helping others. Many summers during her high school years, Alexis could be found volunteering on the New Haven Green for a local day camp. As the captain of the Duke University soccer team, she also coached and taught soccer to inner-city youth. Alexis, a law student, currently works on prison inmates' civil issues and volunteers at the Big Brothers and Big Sisters' School Friends program. Jennifer has also continued the family tradition. Prior to graduating from Northwestern University, she tutored students, participated in various fundraising activities, and volunteered at a pediatric AIDS program. Jennifer continues to tutor young children three evenings a week, while working at her first full-time job. Jennifer and Alexis are pleased that their mother's scholarship fund will enable students to achieve their goals.

To achieve their goal of helping others, Alejandro and María Galindo use many avenues to pursue their charitable giving philosophy. 

Remembering how the church helped him, Alejandro and his wife, María, give generously through the church to support helping others. Their motto of putting people first keeps them focused on their charitable giving goal.

When Alejandro's journey from Peru brought him to New Haven in 1984 he relied on the church to connect him to other Latinos and to assist with his adjustment in a new culture and city. Church members provided him with guidance during his job search, which led to his employment at the Park Plaza Hotel.

Alejandro's story is very familiar to Latinos not born in New Haven. While raising four children in the Fair Haven neighborhood, the couple began spending a significant amount of time at St. Rose Church. Alejandro and María are usually the first to volunteer for any activity that will benefit others. Even though they are not wealthy, their generosity and compassion for others has motivated them to assist with countless fundraising efforts. In addition to these activities, the couple counsels Latinos in their home to assist them in making their adjustment to the Greater New Haven area easier, and to help them avoid pitfalls of which the Galindos are well aware.

Giving through the church has enabled the Galindos to help in the development of the Fair Haven community. Because St. Rose is considered a "working church," Alejandro and María are also involved in community development efforts. María, who does not speak English, received leadership training from the Elm City Congregation Organized program (ECCO) to provide her with the necessary skills to become a community leader. The couple was involved in a project sponsored by the Fair Haven Housing Initiative and St. Rose to renovate 20 rental properties on Richards Street. Their community development efforts are now focused on the Quinnipiac Terrace Plan, which calls for the building of 66 apartments. This is the largest housing project ever undertaken by St. Rose and ECCO.

Supporting these community development projects provided the Galindos with another charitable giving avenue that enables them to collaborate with others and connect to resources that are already in place. Their involvement has provided much needed housing, which will ultimately build a healthy and viable community.  Even though they are not wealthy, their generosity and compassion for others has motivated them to assist with countless fundraising efforts.

When Justin and David Negrón moved from Connecticut to Puerto Rico with their parents, Michael and Edita, in 1987 they did not fully comprehend their involvement in charitable giving projects. A corporate move to Puerto Rico exposed Justin and David, ages 6 and 2, respectively to helping others. Justin vividly remembers participating in a beach clean up with his parents and brother, and volunteering to be a ball boy and help out at a tennis tournament for wheelchair athletes. 

Four years later, when Justin and David returned to Guilford, their experiences in Puerto Rico made lasting impressions. During high school, Justin was involved with various community service programs. According to Justin, While attending high school Justin would spend the day with seniors at a retirement community, participate in walkathons and other fundraising events, and renovate and repaint an abused women's shelter. Justin also feels it is important to provide young people with positive male role models. At the "Home Run," an after school program for young people up to the eighth grade, Justin would assist in the creation of activities to keep youngsters out of trouble and off the street. Justin receives gratification from seeing children do well, and enjoys the positive reaction from his participation in various community service programs. Justin's preference is to work with grassroots organizations, and utilize his music production passion simultaneously. He provides visibility for nonprofit organizations at music expos and festivals by mobilizing musicians to showcase their talent. This provides a venue for nonprofit organizations to create awareness about their issues.

As a high school student, David joined the Pilgrim Fellowship program in 1999. This nondenominational youth group focuses entirely on community service work in the Greater New Haven area and other locations. To raise money to fund their community service activities, David and the other Pilgrim Fellowship youth rake leaves and assist the elderly in their community. Donations are used for community service projects, e.g., in Mississippi, Dade County Florida, and a Hopi Indian reservation in Arizona. These young people have also performed community service in segregated and racially tense areas. They have transformed a dilapidated Boys and Girls Club into a functional and safe place for African-American children in Biloxi, Mississippi. Witnessing the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers, they have restored three buildings for a migrant self-help organization.

Justin and David believe that helping others began with their parents always talking about giving to others. Michael and Edita Negrón have always been involved in charitable endeavors, e.g., Casa Otoñal, Connecticut Food Bank, United Way, Special Olympics, and the Cove. Their sons observed their charitable giving activities and began continuing the tradition at a young age. In the Latino community you give more to the community than yourself. You sacrifice for the good of others.

Susan and Bob Frew share many things in common. They sailed across the Atlantic in the late 1980s to satisfy a love of the ocean. They enjoy playing Bridge and working in the garden. And they both have a desire to give something back to their community during their lifetime.

The Frews are one of many donors to have a donor advised fund at The Foundation. Established in 2004, their fund distributed thousands of dollars to local organizations of their choice including: the First Presbyterian Church of New Haven, The Eli Whitney Museum, Schooner, Inc. and Habitat for Humanity. The Frew Family Fund offers, “a convenient way to support the city’s nonprofits,” says Bob, a retired professor and former Alderman for the 9th ward in New Haven.“It is better to give while you’re alive,” says Susan. “I can plant the seeds and see them grow.”  “The process of attaining, retaining and recycling resources back into the community is challenging,” she continues, “and I am grateful and humbled for the opportunity of the challenge and lucky enough to help the community I care about through our family fund.”

Anne Hope Bennett, Caroline Silverthau and Nettie J. Dayton were contemporaries, but Bennett lived a much more “modern” life. Her grandfather, Oliver Winchester was the gun manufacturer whose factories employed many people in New Haven. Born in 1810, Winchester was a carpenter, builder, and haberdasher before coming to New Haven in 1848. His first local business was a shirt factory. In 1855, pursuing his interest in guns, he bought the rights to manufacture a rifle. With some tinkering, Winchester perfected that rifle and soon added other guns. Winchester made rifles used in the Civil War and other conflicts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a prominent factory owner, Winchester felt responsible for the welfare of his employees, and even for those in the city not in his employ. When New Haven Mayor Henry G. Lewis created the Board of Associated Charities in 1878, there was a place on that board for Oliver Winchester.

The Winchesters had three children, Ann Rebecca, William Wirt, and Hannah Jane. Hannah Jane married Yale graduate Thomas Grey Bennett and they had three children, Anne Hope—who was born in 1874—Winchester, and Eugene.

Anne Hope Bennett attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington. She lived graciously in an architecturally distinguished home on Prospect Street, where she organized dinners, brunches, and receptions for musicians, artists, and friends in the clergy. An advocate of sacred music and art, Bennett attended and supported Christ Church, Center Church, the Church of the Redeemer, St. John’s Episcopal Church, and the Berkeley Divinity School. At her home, always generous in the tradition of her grandfather Winchester, Anne Hope Bennett was not above making the ostentatiously dramatic gift if it could inspire donors to give as well.

After her death in 1942, $306,000 from Bennett’s estate went to the Union and New Haven Trust Company as trustee for the New Haven Foundation. Though some of her chosen organizations have consolidated since then, The Foundation has always found causes that conform to the spirit of her intentions: preventing or curing sickness in New Haven. For example, the Bennett Fund has helped The Foundation to shape its long partnership with the local and Regional Visiting Nurse Association. In 1986 the Board approved a contribution from the Bennett Fund to support a new Foundation initiative, the Commission on Child and Infant Health, a partnership between The Foundation and New Haven’s Health Department, to promote infant health and healthy child development, and to reduce infant death and disability. A “grandchild” of this Commission is today’s New Haven Healthy Start program.

Frederick D. Grave was born in Osnabruck, Germany, in 1849. His family came to America in 1861, and he became an apprentice to a Cincinnati cigar maker. He joined New Haven’s Osterweis Cigar manufacturer as a foreman in 1873, and 12 years later he started his own shop. Frederick D. Grave and Sons employed 150 workers and produced 100,000 cigars a week during the first years of the 20th century. Frederick Grave appreciated all that his adopted hometown helped him to achieve, and in recognition called his State Street offices the Judges’ Cave Cigar Factory after the West Rock hideout of the judges who signed the death warrent of King Charles I in 1649. But his community support went beyond a salute to West Rock. He contributed to German immigrant community activities as well as to civic causes that aided the entire city. He was president of the German Aid Society of New Haven, a director of the Grace Hospital Society, and the Merchants National Bank, and a member of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.

Grave and his wife, New Haven born Catherine Elizabeth Stofell, had three children. Their son, Frederick Grave, Jr. attended Yale, joined the family business, and served as Reunion Chair and a board member of Farnam Neighborhood House. His sons, Frederick III and Richard, attended Yale and joined him in the family business. Richard Grave accepted a position on The Foundation’s board in 1980 and has been actively involved since.

In 1987, the family established the Grave Family Fund with a preference for the health needs of people who live and work in New Haven County. The Fund, a memorial to departed Grave family members, recognizes the continuing journey that Frederick D. Grave began at Osterweis in 1873. His grandson, Frederick III, whose daughter is memorialized by the fund, calls it, “a headstone, but better, since it goes on in perpetuity and can change the community.”  

The Grave Family Fund recently distributed a grant to help CitySeed apply for funding from USDA Community Food Project. CitySeed is a non-profit organization dedicated to growing an equitable, local food system that promotes economic development, community development and sustainable agriculture.

If there’s anyone who knows New Haven and has a strong desire to see it succeed over generations to come, it’s James Gilbert of Woodbridge.            

The 86-year-old New Haven native can cite chapter and verse about the city in which he and his wife were born; where they raised their four children, and in the future dreams he has for seeing New Haven’s industrial growth return.           

Gilbert’s background and life accomplishments are stories unto themselves but they take an effort to get his to discuss, whereas this soft-spoken, modest man makes reference to his experiences only in passing.            

A graduate of Dartmouth in 1942, a semester earlier than his future wife Patricia graduated from Smith College, Gilbert embarked on a lifetime of exciting adventures, corporate accomplishments and of philanthropy.  Both James and Patricia Gilbert recently donated $30,000 to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven with no restrictions placed on how the money should be invested or used.            

“They know what they’re doing,” he said, referencing The Foundation.  “I don’t need to tell them how to invest their money,” is his answer to the question “how would you like to see your donation spent?”            

Considering that James and Patricia Gilbert head their own trust fund,  a Charitable Remainder Trust, in which they’ve placed $450,000 to go toward a variety of local charities, Gilbert’s faith in the Community Foundation is considerable testimony.

Following a hitch in the US Marine Corps in World War II, Gilbert married Patricia in 1946—60 years ago this April—and built a life that many people can only dream of living.            

Not the least of his accomplishments was 40 years of service with the CW Blakesley and Sons Corporation—a heavy construction company—during which he served his last 10 years as CEO before “retiring.”  That was 20 years ago after which he embarked on yet another hitch, this time with the International Executives Service Corps, whereby the Gilberts spent many months traveling the world, helping up-and-coming business people to learn via his corporate experiences.            

Between three and four month commitments to foreign lands to help others, the Gilberts often slipped away to their property in Jackson Hole Wyoming where James opened a gallery in which he displayed and sold many of the photographs he loves taking, even to this day.  While the gallery portion of Jackson Hole has since closed, they continue to use the property as a stopping place where Gilbert can indulge himself in his other passions; hiking and fly fishing.  He continues to travel to exotic sites throughout the world fishing for whatever species is germane to the territory.           

“I tried tying my own fly once,” he laughs, “but when I was finished it looked like a catcher’s mitt.  Since then I only buy flies made by professionals.”            

It takes time spent with James Gilbert before you begin to realize that he is quite modest about his philanthropy and the numerous agencies that benefit from his and Patricia’s generous deeds.  More obvious is his talent as a visionary who sees the problems with the world’s economy and how it has impacted cities such as his beloved New Haven.

“Our hope is that the city and a number of non-profit agencies such as The Foundation will benefit from our efforts, helping to improve life in the New Haven region,” he said. Having remained in the area all his life, Gilbert credits his life-partner Patricia, a former IBM employee, with raising their two sons—a doctor and a professor—and their two daughters—a lawyer and a teacher.           

“What can be more important than raising children?” he poignantly asks when reflecting on the role his wife played over their 60 years together.            

Handsome, white-haired and quick to smile, Gilbert is the former President of the Board of Directors of Yale New Haven Hospital and was a member of the board of Hospice when it was first formed in New Haven.  He is extremely proud that New Haven can claim itself as the site of Hospice’s founding.  He was chairman of the Regional Water Authority’s Policy Board in New Haven and even founded a local chapter of the Urban League years ago.            

Quick to laugh when telling stories of some of his life experiences, Gilbert becomes solemn only when he discusses the industrial drain from the City of New Haven and how he wishes the city could attract more manufacturing enterprises than it currently has.            

“It’s sad to think of the many manufacturers that have left this city,” he reflects.  “I don’t know if the tide will turn soon but it would be a great thing if New Haven could attract more of the industry it has lost.”  

Nettie J. Dayton is the archetypal Foundation donor of the institution’s early years. Because of her bequest, her name and family live on. As The Foundation’s first donor, she is a leading figure in the development of the institution. But as an unmarried woman born in the 19th century who lived most of her life without the privilege of voting, Dayton is a mystery whose most lasting act was her gift to The Foundation. She was only 53 when she died. If it were not for her relationship to The New Haven Foundation, she would be truly lost to history.

Genealogies suggest that the Daytons (also spelled Deighton) were present in New Haven by the early 18th century. Nettie was the third of George H. Dayton and Sarah L. Hull Dayton’s four children. Her father and her uncle Fred, distinguished for service during the Civil War, were both officers with the carriage manufacturer Henry Hooker Co. As the surviving member of her immediate family, Nettie J. Dayton must have lived comfortably amid the lawyers, bankers, and other professionals who managed the family assets.

Dayton’s life spanned generations of women’s activism. She may not have been a campaigner for women’s right to vote, but she lived through the activism that generated the modern equal rights movement and extended women’s public role through service work and settlement houses. Though not a millionaire, she did have the money to live fashionably in a comfortable house on Dwight Street. Her friend and banker, G. Harold Welch, managed her annuity, advised her on drawing up a will, and encouraged her to consider The Foundation as the permanent home for the family assets. Welch was especially interested in the success of The Foundation and met regularly with James Cooper, Harrison Hewitt, and Osborne Day as they planned for the organization’s future.

Nettie J. Dayton’s participation adds balance to the portrait of the male founders. Other funds are larger than hers, but her faith in the community trust idea and her belief in this community’s promise capture the spirit of early 20th century women’s activism. Her unrestricted gift was a perfect illustration of women’s advancement, and it has been drawn upon for a broad range of activities and causes for over three-quarters of a century.

The Trowbridge family has a long history in New Haven. Family members came to New Haven in the colony’s earliest years and the city and family developed a strong bond as mutual benefactors and protectors. The colony’s farms, rivers, and woods produced the goods that Trowbridge vessels shipped, while Trowbridge ships added to the commercial life of New Haven’s port. By the Revolution there were already several Trowbridge men in the New Haven area, and Trowbridge vessels served as privateers capturing hostile British schooners.

Hayes Quincy Trowbridge was born in New Haven in 1875, into the family some of whose members had been either memorialized in the windows of Center Church or buried in its crypt. His parents, Ezekiel Hayes Trowbridge, Jr. and Katherine L. Quincy Trowbridge, sent him to Hopkins and after graduating from Yale he joined his cousin Winston in managing the family finances. An avid naturalist and horseman, Trowbridge’s New Haven home at 100 Edgehill Road and his Madison country house both had stables for horses.

Hayes Trowbridge served the city as Parks Commissioner from 1919 to 1957. When he resigned from the Parks Commission, Mayor Richard C. Lee saluted his service saying, “His contributions to this community have been such that his name is synonymous with the Parks Commission.” During his years as Commissioner Trowbridge sponsored public projects that included park tours, holiday carol parties, and special lunches. He also served as a Proprietor of the New Haven Green, but East Rock seems to have been Hayes Trowbridge’s favorite park.

When Trowbridge died in 1965, a New Haven Register editorialist wrote of him, “New Haven, for a city its geographical size and population, has one of the finest park systems in the nation. The man largely responsible for the number and quality of our parks, Hayes Q. Trowbridge, is dead…Many monuments built by man have been destroyed by time. The park system Mr. Trowbridge was so instrumental in developing will not topple if the men who follow him show the same dedication of purpose.” His wife Olga M. Trowbridge died four years later. Her will provides for the Hayes Q. Trowbridge Trust with the expectation that it would be used for permanent improvements to East Rock Park in honor of her husband.

In 1996, The Foundation awarded $258,000 to the city’s Parks Commission for the construction of the Hayes Q. Trowbridge Environmental Center at College Woods in East Rock Park. The environmental center opened three years later and offers a thorough orientation to East Rock’s wildlife, geology, and history. The Trowbridge Environmental Center introduces New Haven’s kayakers, Cub Scout troops, bird watchers, dog walkers, and families with young children to a park that Hayes Q. Trowbridge helped preserve for their enjoyment and for generations to come.

Marsha Royster's volunteer organization provides direct homebound distribution of nutritious food to the infirm of New Haven. Fortunately she is getting a little help from a Foundation fund established in 1943.

The James W. Cooper Music Fund was established in 1989 by bequest of James W. Cooper for music in New Haven, to help serious and innovative music organizations which are less popular, with preference for the Neighborhood Music School, the New Haven Chorale, the Starlight Festival of Chamber Music, the Chamber Orchestra of New England or Sprague Hall Chamber Concerts, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

The Fund for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association in Memory of James W. Cooper was established in 1989 by members of the law firm of Tyler Cooper & Alcorn in honor of James W. Cooper, who worked for the establishment and advancement of the Legal Assistance Association.

If Day is The Foundation’s Father, then James W. Cooper is its Godfather. Like Day, Cooper’s enthusiasm, wisdom, and determination inspired many Distribution Committee members who served with him. Day embraced the idea of a New Haven community trust, and, with the participation of colleagues and friends, made it a reality. Cooper, with assistance from Charles J. Parker, Olga V. Shields and Sophie B. Nettleton, the Distribution Committee, and the Trustees transformed The Foundation into a professional organization. His twenty-one years of service coincided with many of the 20th century’s most transformative events: the evolving post-war economy, the housing shortage and development programs of the 1950s, sustained migration and the political challenges that accompanied the modern Civil Rights Movement. 

James W. Cooper adopted New Haven as his home after attending Yale College and Law School. A gifted singer, he was a Whiffenpoof while at college, and his appreciation for the arts, especially music, made him a zealous advocate for increasing The Foundation’s role as an arts funder in the city. He gradually expanded the range of funding priorities to engage the arts more deliberately.

As The Foundation’s second longest serving volunteer secretary, James W. Cooper did much to nurture relationships between donors and the institution. While helping to engineer new bequests and manage the Distribution Committee, Cooper built a respected law practice. The New Britain native clerked for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. He returned to New Haven in 1930 to teach at Yale Law School, and later joined the law firm of Watrous, Hewitt, Gumbart & Corbin. By 1945 that firm had become Gumbart, Corbin, Tyler and Cooper and later Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn.  James Cooper’s devotion to The New Haven Foundation did not prevent him from enjoying other challenges. He consulted with Connecticut neighbors who sought his advice on starting their own community foundations. He was a founding member of the National Committee on Foundations and Trusts for Community Welfare, president of the state bar association, a champion of legal aid, and a director of the social service agency, Community Progress, Inc.

James W. Cooper made his commitment to the betterment of the community evident in his lifetime. His memory - and his impact - live on in the operation of his honorary funds.

Winkler and Virginia Dietz Gosch were inseparable, and proverbial opposites. He, tall with a gruff exterior; she, petite with a voice that brought to mind a nightingale. Theirs was the kind of love that songs were written about—literally. Although Winkler was a ham radio operator he was also a part-time songwriter, scripting sweet ballads of dreams and love, lost and found.

When Virginia died on New Year’s Eve in 1999, a part of Winkler went with her. He sprinkled her ashes around a favorite tree behind their home, which they built out of view from even their neighbors. When Winkler died nearly six years later, the home was sold and his ashes were sprinkled around the same tree. In life and death, they created a world that was theirs alone.

It was also a world without heirs, as the couple had no children. Still, Winkler and Virginia Gosch’s names live on nearly a century after their births, thanks to the couple’s $2.1 million bequest to The Community Foundation in 2006. Miriam G. Olsen, assistant vice president of the Trust Company of Connecticut, remembers the couple fondly.

“I met them when they were getting older, but you could still see their love for each other,” Olsen said. “When Virginia died, you could tell how heartbroken he was. He kept all these pictures of Virginia at the convalescent home. But still, he had a wicked sense of humor, and everyone loved him.”

Through the Trust Company, a division of NewAlliance Bank, Olsen assisted with the administration of the Gosch’s trust, which was established for them during their lives. Upon their deaths, the trust was continued through a bequest to The Community Foundation, establishing in 2006 the Winkler C. Gosch and Virginia D. Gosch Fund. The fund serves a variety of wildlife and environmental interests, including Friends of Animals, the Connecticut Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy.

For the Gosches, establishing a fund with The Foundation was a way to know that their plans, their causes and their dreams wouldn’t end with their deaths, but would continue. And there were practical reasons as well.

“I remember telling Virginia and Winkler,” Olsen says, “that this is the way to continue to support your causes forever and to have your legacy connected to your community.”

“You know a social security check can only go so far, especially in these hard times,” says Enida Arroyo, Resident Manager of Casa Oton~al’s senior housing facility. Fortunately Casa’s 120+ residents don’t have to spend their checks entirely on gas or bus fare to a grocery store or the high- priced food they’ll find there.  Instead, they’ll pay $3 for a bag of farm-fresh, organic food worth $10 dollars. That’s roughly 25% less than the cost of the same food at a grocery store thanks to CitySeed’s community supported market (CSM) program and Foundation donors.


CitySeed is a New Haven-based organization created in 2004 to help City residents have access to fresh food. CitySeed pioneered the first of four Farmers’ Markets in New Haven. Its flagship in Wooster Square became the first in the state to accept EBT/Food Stamps. Foundation grants made additional markets possible in New Haven’s Fair Haven, Edgewood Park and Downtown areas. Each market now redeems food stamps and senior/elderly coupons, in addition to coupons from the US Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The markets sell a variety of food including produce, dairy, meat and shellfish.


“The CSM program was created as an answer to a problem,” says Jennifer McTiernan, Co-Founder and Executive Director of CitySeed Inc. “Farmers weren’t making enough money from the market-goers to make it worth their time.” So CitySeed devised a way to supplement the revenue farmers were primarily getting from food stamp and WIC coupon recipients. They sold shares of food to employees at organizations like Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, a nearby law firm, Yale University and others. The employees buy shares of and pay retail prices for farm-fresh market food, thereby guaranteeing revenue for the farmers’ season.

 

Grants from The Foundation to CitySeed were made possible by donors like Grace Bourne (1902 -1983).  Grace had an impressive career at First Bank in New Haven as one of the first female Vice Presidents. The Grace E. Bourne Fund was established with a bequest of $20,000. Her preference was that distributions from the Fund be used for elderly persons…such as the 62 – 85 year-old Casa Oton~al residents living on a fixed income and other market customers. In addition to the gift Grace made to The Foundation, she made provisions in her will for her niece and other family members. Her generosity also created a scholarship fund at Vassar College, her alma mater, inmemory of her mother, Annie. 

Dorothy Pryde (d. 1976) had a goal.

She was the last of her family line. After her parents died, Dorothy remained in the family homestead, taught school, sang in the church choir and kept up the many charitable interests of the family. When she sat down with her attorney to write her will, she knew just what she wanted - to perpetuate the family name and to endow as family memorials specific charities important to her and her parents. Her attorney asked The Community Foundation to help. We structured eight different funds, named in various combinations for Dorothy, her parents, and all designated for specific charities or their successors. Collectively, the funds distribute nearly $90,000 annually.  Grants support the Women's Federation of First Church of Christ in New Haven, the Town of Orange Library and First Presbyterian Church in New Haven. They also fund the choir/music or scholarship loan fund at the First Church of Christ in New Haven, college scholarships for girls to attend Connecticut College, college scholarships for graduating students from Hillhouse High School, and scholarships administered by the Connecticut Golf Association and YMCA.


Dorothy created the Bob Pryde Scholarship Fund in memory of her father who was a Scotsman, an inventor, and the designer in 1896 of the first golf course in New Haven, which is now part of Racebrook Country Club.