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The idea of a scholarship fund first came to Bob Paulson more than 60 years ago, when he was graduating Detroit Lakes High School. Although he himself enjoyed all the advantages of living in a city, in his words, “Not a single rural kid from our school could afford to go to college.”

Inspired by his mother’s commitment to the community, and education, Bob put himself through college and devoted his life to teaching in rural high schools. He and his wife, June, also spent time renovating houses and running a small antique shop.

After retiring, Bob and June began spending winters in Arizona, where they collected antiques to bring back to their shop and started a new business. At a time when Arizona banks refused to finance houses for out-of-towners, the Paulsons offered mortgage financing to snowbirds like themselves. Both these enterprises brought the Paulsons to a point of financial security where they began thinking about making their long-time dream of a scholarship fund a reality. [Read more…]

“I like to plan ahead, it makes life more enjoyable to be practical.”

“St. Ben’s is my place, she said. “It’s a very important part of my life. The Sisters reinforced the values I learned from my parents.” One of the values, Barbara learned from her father was good financial management. “He taught me about investing,” she remembered. When Barbara’s husband died while the couple’s five children were still young, Barbara made sure her family’s money was spent wisely. “I had to become of aware of good money management,” she said.

As she was sending her children to college – including daughters Cate and Claire to the College of Saint Benedict – Barbara was working at the University of Minnesota, Morris as the reference librarian. While there, she read some literature about charitable gift annuities and decided to help her alma mater. “It seemed like a good way to benefit CSB,” she said.

With a charitable gift annuity, a donor makes a gift to the College; in return the College guarantees a fixed income to the donor for life. The income is based on the donor’s age at the time the gift is made, and part of the yearly income from the gift is tax-free

Catholic Charities will receive an undesignated bequest gift of approximately $500,000 in 2001 from the estate of Hugh R. Marron, a man whose average gift over the past 15 years was $50.00 – and whose legacy gift was unknown to us until we received notification from the trust officer that we would be the 75% remainder beneficiary. His gift will be a lasting testament to his hard work and his desire to help others – we only wish we would have been able to share our gratitude with him during his life.

Hugh R. Marron was born on June 24, 1925 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of five children. His older brother, Gerald, is the only surviving sibling, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. I called Gerald to thank him for his brother’s gift and to ask him about his life. He shared the following information with me.

Gerald was 11 years older than his brother. There were four boys and one girl in the family. Currently, in addition to Gerald, two of Hugh’s sister-in-laws survive with him, in addition to 9 nieces and nephews.

Hugh served in the Navy in WWII, and is buried at Arlington Cemetery. He reached Lieutenant JG level in the Navy during his years of service. Prior to his service in the war, but during the war years, Hugh attended Northwestern University in Chicago. He was trained as an electrical engineer. He spent time in Pittsburg, Chicago, and finally Minneapolis – moving first to the Midwest for school, and then for his job. He worked for a variety of companies during his life, including General Electric, and later in life he worked in sales selling parking lot lighting. [Read more…]

“On the go,” “upbeat,” “energetic,” “committed and caring” with a sense of humor– all of these phrases aptly describe Annette K. Levine

Annette is one of those people whose verve and joy literally “light up a room” when she walks into it. And fortunately for our community, she’s channeled that joy and enthusiasm into numerous social, educational, political and community activities over the years. From bringing the first Montessori school to the Twin Cities, to spearheading the drive to create camps for handicapped children, to being the first woman on the state Barber’s Board. Annette has been an idea person and an innovator. And those talents were also invaluable when she and her late husband build and operated Fridley Convalescent for ten years. As Activities Director, Annette was constantly seeking out and offering new activities for the residents.

Annette’s zest for learning and natural curiosity has led her to explore many cultures and lands, but she found Pompeii the most exciting. “Those people were amazing – they even had bumps built into the roads to slow down their carriages!” But with all her travelling, Annette has found that “people are people are people.” “If I smile, they smile –so much of life is attitude.” [Read more…]