As the proceeds from the sale of the Park Communications began to flow into the estate in 1995, the decision to designate the trustees for the Park Foundation had to be made. In his will, my father specified that my mother and the president of Park Communications at that time, Wright M. Thomas, made sure that promptly after the founder’s death the existing Park Foundation qualified as a not-for-profit corporation for charitable purposes, and when 501(c)3 status was assured, to elect up to three additional persons to serve on such.
Since Wright Thomas was committed to help the new owners of Park Communications during the transition period, my mother asked five additional people to serve as trustees. Three were family members: my sister and me as vice presidents, with my sister also named secretary, and my daughter as treasurer.
My mother asked the attorney who handled my father’s estate and continued as her legal advisor and estate planner to join the board as a salaried trustee with a trustee-initiated grant fund equal to that of the four family members. He was also assigned to serve as attorney for the Park Foundation. This was the attorney who represented my father when I was trying to buy Park Outdoor.
A second nonfamily trustee—the consultant I had hired, despite initial resistance from my mother and daughter, to help with the sale of Park Communications—was asked to join on the same terms. My mother also retained his services as her personal financial advisor. Shortly thereafter, my son and niece were named junior advisors to the Park Foundation.
When all was said and done, only my mother remained out of the four original trustees of the private foundation my father had founded on September 1, 1966. Members of the board at that time were my father and mother, the then treasurer of Park Broadcasting and ironically, Johnnie Babcock.
With the five-person board complete, my mother was reaffirmed as president. At the recommendation of the attorney, I was later elected first vice president at our June 1998 meeting, and my sister who was already secretary, elected second vice president. As first vice president, I was assigned as the contact person between the trustees and the executive director and other foundation staff employees. The bylaws stated that the first vice president “shall, in the absence of the president…perform the duties and exercise the powers of the president and shall generally assist the president and perform such other duties and have such other powers as may from time to time be prescribed by the board. Upon the death, resignation or removal of the president, the first vice president shall automatically become the president.” I wrote to the board members in 1997 on the need for a mission statement, suggesting that “the primary objective of the Park Foundation is to aid and support higher education in the fields of communications, business and scientific research, with emphasis on colleges and universities with which the founder was active during his distinguished career.” I also suggested the mission statement should specify that: In higher education, preference is given to academic institutions with which Roy H. Park was affiliated during his career. Scholarship and fellowship programs have been established at these institutions in furtherance of his desire to encourage young Americans to take advantage of the opportunities offered by their country.
In line with this, five core grantees were selected: North Carolina State, Ithaca College, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Cornell University and Boyce Thompson Institute, on whose board my father served until his death.
In dividing up the responsibility for the core grants, I suggested that the outside trustee who lived in North Carolina take responsibility for NC State and asked the then chairman of the board of trustees of Ithaca College to work with my sister. I took Cornell and UNC, the two colleges I attended, as well as Boyce Thompson, since I was already on its board of directors.
All the other suggestions I made in my memo were approved and incorporated in our guidelines for making grants, and read as follows: The Park Foundation was established by the late Roy Hampton Park. He was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Park Communications, Inc. The Park Foundation makes grants primarily in the areas of education, public broadcasting and the environment.
In higher education, preference is given to academic institutions with which Roy H. Park was affiliated during his career. Scholarship and fellowship programs have been established at these institutions in furtherance of his desire to encourage young Americans to take advantage of the opportunities offered by their country.
Support for other educational and charitable programs is generally restricted to the Eastern seaboard where Roy H. Park had lifetime interests, or to communities where Foundation trustees currently reside. In evaluating requests, the Foundation seeks to support and encourage established and worthy nonprofit organizations.
The Foundation will consider small lead gifts for new or enhanced programs, matching gifts to encourage the participation of other donors, “last dollars” to achieve a campaign goal, and one-time, short-term gifts to sustain a program until its long-term funding is established.
The Foundation will provide neither sole nor primary funding to an organization, and will not replace governmental support. Generally, the Foundation does not encourage requests for endowment, capital campaigns, construction, equipment purchases, debt reduction, or ongoing general operating support.
As was clear throughout his life, my father’s primary interest at all times was on education, and university scholarships in particular. As confirmed to me in a letter dated April 27, 1999 from our Park Foundation trustee and attorney, “The real emphasis on scholarships came from your father in the late 1990s.”
The letter continued: “I think your father would be very pleased with the scholarship programs we have set up at the four core schools and the other core programs we have put in place.” Along with NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Ithaca College and Cornell University, in 1999, the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research was one of the Park Foundation’s five core programs.