Gathering at the home of W. Otis Briggs Jr., incorporation papers for the Foundation were signed by Cyrus J. Fitton, William Murstein, Huntington V. Parrish, Frederick A. Reister, Robert M. Sohngen and William J. Wolf and Briggs.
Briggs’ son Lloyd remembers that night.
“He had the founders over to our house Christmas Eve,” he said. “I was only nine years old and the only thing I can remember was a table full of men in the dining room.”
Briggs was the Foundation first’s executive director and has often been described as the “architect” of the non-profit.
“Under his leadership the net worth of the Foundation grew from $5,000 in 1951 to more than $2 million when he retired in 1980,” said Betsy Hope, vice president of strategic communications, for the Foundation..
Briggs’ wife, Virginia, remembers how much passion her late husband had for the organization he helped create.
“Otis loved the Foundation and he loved the concept that it was a vehicle of philanthropy in the community,” she said. “Individuals could direct their donations into the funds that they wanted.”
A member of a family whose dedication to Hamilton spans five generations and 150 years, Fitton was an attorney and trustee who also served as president of the Foundation board.
His grandson, Jim Fitton, said the friendship shared by all of them only benefited the Foundation.
“They were friends,” he said. “They played together and worked together. They did things to better their community, and collectively they came up with this notion of ‘let’s create something that’s going to live on forever.’ That was the intent.”
The initial gift of $5,000 to get the non-profit going was provided by Murstein, a Hamilton philanthropist. A longtime owner of Wilmur’s department store, he also served as a trustee and president of the Foundation.
Murstein lived in Hamilton for 25 years, and was active on many nonprofit boards and gave generously to many organizations, according to Hope.
Murstein “helped many Hamilton people and Wilmer’s employees without recognition,” she said.
Parrish gave many years of service to the Hamilton Community Foundation, as a trustee and board president. As an attorney specializing in estate planning, Parrish was often asked by clients about the needs of local charities, and he wanted to protect the donor’s intentions on how their gifts would be used in the future, according to Hope.
His son, Lee, said his father would be proud of the foundation today.
“He believed in education so he would be very supportive, very surprised,” Lee said, pointing out that the Foundation now awards $1 million in scholarships annually. “When you talk $1 million, you figure in 1951 the whole thing started with $5,000 so obviously you just cannot project into the future what something like this might do. He’d be very proud.”
Hope said Reister was a respected civic leader and an attorney.
“He contributed many hours to both church and community, and he served as both a trustee of and president of the Foundation board,” she said.
His son John said his father would be amazed at how wide the scope of the Foundation has grown into.
“I think he’d be very, very honored, to take a look at even a partial listing of the distributions that are made on an annual basis,” John said. “The number of funds that have been created and the number of families that have bought in to the concept and I think he’d be amazed.”
Another Foundation founder, Sohngen, was born and raised in Hamilton and graduated from Hamilton High School.
“Bob was called ‘Cappy’ because he had been a Captain in the Army,” said Joe Marcum, who knew all seven Foundation founders.
After his military career, Sohngen returned to Hamilton to serve as an attorney, political leader and an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. He was a director of the Ohio Casualty Insurance Company and a vice president and director of the Second National Bank of Hamilton. He also served Hamilton as a school board member and city solicitor.
The last of the founders, Wolf, created Southwestern Ohio Steel Co. Along with his wife, Jean, he helped provide low and middle-income housing in Hamilton and served on several community boards, including the Foundation.
“He was born in Hamilton, he grew up in Hamilton, he loved Hamilton, his business life was in Hamilton,” said his nephew Joe Hirschhorn. “Bill was very active in caring about the people in Hamilton.”
Hope said the Foundation has stayed true to the wishes of its founding fathers and has awarded more than $100,000,000 in community grants and $15,000,000 in scholarships.
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