wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Foundation receives $6.8 million gift

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Note #8083 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Foundation receives $6.8 million gift
04036
January 22, 2004

Foundation receives $6.8 million gift

Grocery heir's bequest was 'in the pipeline' for half a century

by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - The Presbyterian Foundation has received a $6.84 million gift
made by a Pennsylvania grocery heir a half-century ago.

	George Dunlap Jr., a lifelong Presbyterian and member of Marple
Presbyterian Church in Broomall, PA, near Philadelphia, made the bequest to
the Foundation in 1953, specifying that it was to be used to finance church
construction projects.

The money didn't become available until the death last year of a family
member who was the last beneficiary of the trust Dunlap created then.

"This is one of the largest single gifts the Foundation has ever received,"
said Bob Leech, president and CEO of the Foundation, adding that he is "very
excited that Mr. Dunlap's generosity can live on this way, and that we can
now fulfill his wishes."

"Thanks be to God for this marvelous expression of faith by George Dunlap,"
said John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council. "Not
only will it enable more support for church construction and improvement, but
it also makes it possible to do more to encourage greater development among
churches throughout the denomination."

Near the end of the 19th century, Dunlap's father, George M. Dunlap Sr.,
founded a grocery chain that became the American Stores Co., which by 1920
owned more than 1,200 markets in the Philadelphia area. Over the years,
American Stores merged with other chains and changed its name to Acme
Markets, which later became part of the Albertson's chain. The elder Dunlap
left a substantial estate to his four children when he died in 1924.

Decades later, George Dunlap Jr. and his wife, Phoebe, "undertook a great
campaign of giving" to the Presbyterian church, said Chip Walker, assistant
vice president of client relationship management at the Foundation's New
Covenant Trust Company.

George Dunlap died in 1961, his wife in 1971. They had no children.

In the 1950s, the Dunlaps donated cash and American Stores stock to establish
funds benefiting the Presbyterian Board of National Missions and the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and also created a revolving fund
from which loans were to be made to churches "as an aid in financing new
construction, alterations, repairs and improvements."

That fund, which over the years had grown to about $2.8 million, now is
valued at about $10 million.

	Jeff Uhling, the fund administrator, said nearly 300 loans, valued at
more than $8 million, have been made from the fund since its creation in
1974, including 47 last year.

	Most loans from the Dunlap account have ranged from $10,000 to
$20,000, according to Uhling, the manager of endowments and gift compliance
for the General Assembly Corporation, but some have been "considerably
larger."

	The fund is characterized as "revolving" because it is replenished as
the loans are repaid. It is especially useful to smaller churches that might
otherwise find it difficult to finance improvements.

	The Presbyterian Foundation has more than $150 million in its entire
church loan program, but the Dunlap account is "one of the few funds we have
that allows for repairs," Uhling said. "The point of the program is to
provide loans at low interest rates to churches that couldn't necessarily go
out into the marketplace and get a loan," he said.

	Jay Hudson, president of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Investment and
Loan Program, which manages endowment-funded loans for the Foundation, said
the new money will strengthen a fund that is especially helpful to "churches
already established" but needing small loans to finance additions,
alterations and repairs.

	Hudson said he doesn't know anything much about Dunlap, but was
"familiar with the old Acme Grocery chain in Philly when I was growing up" in
the area.

	The Rev. Karen Nelson, associate pastor of Marple Presbyterian
Church, said she was unable to find any members who had more than a fleeting
memory of the Dunlaps, although George Dunlap was known to be "a big
financial supporter of projects" at the church and "had 100 percent
attendance at Sunday services." Mrs. Dunlap was active in church "circles and
women's groups," Nelson said.

	The year before he died, George Dunlap Jr. made another gift of
American Stores stock that enabled Marple Presbyterian to establish an annual
scholarship for preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.

	"While we don't really know much about Mr. Dunlap, we do know he was
a good and generous man who obviously believed in the power of the church to
change lives for the better," said Leech. "A whole new set of possibilities
opens up with this gift, and church members all over America will see the
results."

	The Foundation has about $1.5 billion in assets under management and
receives $30 million to $60 million each year in gifts.

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