1955-1965

1955

• Annual Conference authorizes Commission on World Service and Finance (now CF&A) to set up an investment committee. The creation of an agency of the Conference within the Southeast Jurisdiction for the purposes of investments of permanent funds of the Conference and its agencies. United Methodist Foundation, Inc. begins as The Methodist Fund, Incorporated.

1956

• Methodist Foundation Incorporated was chartered to serve as a managed investment pool and trustee for any agency of the North Carolina Conference when requested. First President is Gurney P. Hood and Marvin J. Cowell first Secretary-Treasurer. Other Charter Members are: J.M. Dozier, J.E. Garlington, Charles S. Hubbard, J.H. Waldrop. Gurney P. Hood was elected first President. Assets as of 6/30/1956 were $7,582.32.
• A Mr. Drury W. Wall, from the floor of Annual Conference following the Report of World Service & Finance, moved to amend the Report to require Methodist Fund to dispose of its tobacco stocks. This motion was accepted by the committee and became part of the Report.

1959

• Pittman-Frizzelle College Scholarship Fund (Endowment) created by Dare Pittman Frizzelle and J. B. Frizzelle of Maury, Green County, NC.
• The Department of Gifts and Wills begins as the first of its kind in the country. Authorized in 1958 by Annual Conference. Rev. Charles S. Hubbard is Chairman of Gifts and Wills Committee, and on 3/1/1959 F. Olen Hunt, D.D. became first full time Director of Department of Gifts and Wills. “Put God’s Will in Your Will” coined by Director Hunt became the slogan of the Department.
• Name is changed to Methodist Foundation, Incorporated to reflect a redefined purpose and the Foundation’s new is tax exempt status. Rev. Hunt suggested the name change. The Foundation was under the oversight of the Commission of World Service and Finance of the North Carolina Conference.
• “The purpose of the Corporation are to function and operate as a non-stock, non-profit, religious institution, particularly in the following manner: (a) As an Institution of the NC Annual Conference . . . to supervise protect and administer the investment of the permanent funds of that Conference and any other funds entrusted to it by the Conference for investments and (b) As a part of the activities of said Conference and the institutions thereof in solicitation of gifts, donations, contribution, bequests and devises for the exclusive benefit of the Conference and the institutions thereof.”
• A Methodist Foundation Committee was created in each United Methodist Church in the Conference. A District Committee chair was selected for each of the Foundation’s District Committees. The purposes of these committees was the distribution of materials and information and to identify names of those interested in leaving a gift in their Will for the mission and ministry of their Methodist Church or one or more of the Methodist institutions in this Conference.
• Two-thirds of the investment funds are reserved for the benefit of retired clergy.
• Gurney P. Hood continues as President.

1960

• Source of funding for Department of Gifts and Wills important to F. Olen Hunt, D.D., Director of that Department. Written in his hand, on the edge of page 210 of his own personal copy of the North Carolina Annual Conference 1960 Journal of Proceedings was this notation: “World Service provided for Gifts and Wills budget from earnings and not on apportions.” The Journal record states, in the last paragraph of Section II of the Foundation’s report for 1960: “The support of the Department of Gifts and Wills is provided by the Commission on World Service and Finance from the reserve created by earnings on the Central funds of the Treasurer’s office and not by apportionment.

Note: Today, the Foundation receives no direct financial support from the Conference.

• The Methodist Foundation Report to Conference in 1960 was prepared by Gurney P. Hood, President; Marvin J. Cowell, Secretary-Treasurer, and Garland S. Garriss, President of the Commission on World Service and Finance. This year’s report is distinguished as being the longest report on record, 11 pages of text and numbers.

1961

• F. Olen Hunt, D.D. becomes first Director of the Foundation. Director Hunt says about Foundation goals, “Every member of the North Carolina Conference making a Will and leaving a stated sum, a percentage amount or a tithe of their estate to the causes of the Church through the Methodist Foundation. Methodist Foundation Incorporated is prepared to carry out the wishes of the donor or the legator in making provisions for or distribution of gifts, bequests or proceeds of endowment to annual conference causes or agencies or to local churches.”
• Methodist Foundation News is published as the Foundation’s first newsletter

1965

• John M. Dozier becomes President of Methodist Foundation.
• Dr. Olen Hunt continues as Director of Foundation and of Gifts and Wills Department.
• “Wills Dinners” in local churches and each District are started to get the word out about Foundation mission and services.

Elected Presidents of Methodist Fund Incorporated

(later called Methodist Foundation, Inc. and still later United Methodist Foundation, Inc.)

1. Rev. Gurney P. Hood – First President of Methodist Foundation 1956 – 1962.
2. John M. Dozier – Charter member of the Foundation Board 1963 – 1967. President from 1965-67. Completed development of the Wills Program.
3. Sidney Loy Gulledge, Jr. – Elected to the Board in 1961. Served as President from 1967 – 1986.
4. Thomas E. Chandler – Elected to the Board in 1978. President from 1986 – 1996. Change of corporate name during his tenure.
5. Lloyd Milton Whaley – Elected to the Board in 1991. President from 1996 – 2003. Change in corporate structure and accounting.
6. W. Daniel Pate – Elected to the Board in 1993, elected Vice President in 1996. President from 2003 – present.

Appointed Lay/Clergy as staff director

1. Rev. F. Olen Hunt – 1959. First full time Director of Department of Gifts and Wills, named Director of the Foundation in 1961.
2. Note: A number of years passed without a staff director
3. Rev. John K. Bergland – First Executive Vice President by that title 1983 - 1984, formerly - Director of Deferred Giving.
4. Rev. Douglas L. Byrd – Executive Vice President and Director or Gifts and Wills 1985 – 1999. Later his title was changed to Executive Director. Change in corporate board structure in 1996-97. Investment fund grew significantly under his leadership from approximately $13,000,000 and 35 investment funds to just over $68,000,000 and 500 invested funds. He professionalized the executive and office management, the planned giving and trust and gift annuity practices, and elevated the Foundation’s national recognition and status through professional training and the National Association of United Methodist Foundation Directors.
5. I. Lynn James – First non-clergy professional staff Executive Director 1999 - present.

Other Key Conference Leadership

• Marvin J. Cowell, First Secretary-Treasurer of the North Carolina Conference (c. 1953)
• Rev. Charles S. Hubbard, Chair of Gifts and Wills Department
• Mr. Nelson Gibson, Conference Lay Leader for many years

 

You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand out, the moments when you really lived, are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

- Henry Drummond