Partner Partner Content 50 years, 50 Stories: Story #5 Phoebe Davis Fund
Before she died in 1966, Phoebe set up a trust agreement which named the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation as a beneficiary. That gift established the first endowment for seniors, and continues to support programs that assist 'the aged, infirm and needy.'
We don’t know much about Phoebe Davis. Almost no records survive to tell her story, and her face beams out at us from just a few photographs. Her obituary is brief, and no other articles acknowledged her passing in November, 1966. Yet Phoebe Jean Cornell Davis will be remembered, and honored, at the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation in perpetuity.
Before her untimely death in 1966 at the age of 61, Phoebe set up a trust agreement with a local bank and named the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation as a beneficiary. She asked that her gift, the first endowment established for seniors at AAACF, be used to assist “the aged, infirm and needy.”
Since 1967, the Phoebe Davis Fund has grown to nearly $225,000 and its total grant distributions have far surpassed Phoebe’s original gift. Grants have supported organizations serving seniors including Packard Community Clinic, Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels, Neighborhood Senior Services, U-M Turner Resource Center, and the Housing Bureau for Seniors. And with each grant award, Phoebe’s generous spirit lives on.
Enduring Generosity for Seniors in Need
One of the many ways the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation supports all that is good in our community.
Read more “good” stories at: aaacf.org/stories
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