Written by Kay Bouyack
The Scioto Foundation is thrilled to announce that the total of contributions for 2023 was the highest in the history of its existence, amounting to $7,253,788. The major credit for that achievement goes to several strong and very generous women who lived or grew up in Portsmouth: Linda Lawson, Linda Barry Snyder, Alma Kahl and Bess Pixley.
From the Linda Lawson estate came $3,666,316, the largest gift the Foundation has ever received. The endowment was set up by Lawson ten years ago in her trust to assist students in the region with college education and living expenses. It is estimated that the Lawson Scholarship Fund will provide approximately $150,000 annually for new scholarships beginning in 2024.
Lawson’s trust stipulates that the income shall be distributed for the purpose of paying or assisting in payment of educational expenses for worthy students identified by the Scioto Foundation Board of Governors for study beyond high school. Funds may be used for the payment of educational, tuition, living, room, board, and book expenses for college level course work for worthy low to moderate income students who maintain a B+ or better average at the time of their high school graduation and at the college level.
The Lawson Scholarship is limited to students who, at the time of their graduation from high school, reside in Scioto County or in surrounding counties with preference given to those who reside in Scioto County.
Lawson died on October 30, 2021, after a long career dedicated to nursing and serving the local heathcare community.
Linda Barry Snyder, who died on February 11, 2023, was born, and raised in Portsmouth and graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1956. Her estate gift of $917,928 has also been set up in an endowment fund which will make another strong impact on the communities which were important to her. It is estimated that her endowment will produce $40,000 this year. Proceeds will benefit the Southern Ohio Museum and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church memory gardens, and the remaining percentage will be used for grants to children’s arts programs.
Snyder started playing golf at the Elks Club in Portsmouth at an early age and became extremely talented and successful in the game. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Upon returning to Ohio after college, she moved to Columbus and worked at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry where she met and married Dr. Richard Snyder.
Snyder was a perennial competitor in area golf tournaments such as the Franklin County Women’s Tournament the Ohio Women’s Amateur Golf Tournament and the Ohio Women’s Senior Amateur Golf Tournaments. She was instrumental in organizing golf tournaments for cancer research, as well as officiating for young women’s golf and serving as a golf course rater with the United States Golf Association. She was a member of the Columbus Country Club where she won the women’s club championship several times.
Alma Kahl’s $1 million dollar bequest has been designated for the Southern Ohio Museum’s Endowment Fund which has been invested at the Scioto Foundation for many years.
Alma Kahl was 111 years old when she died on March 3, 2023. For most of the 20th century and well into the 21st, Alma was active and devoted to arts-related causes, concerts, exhibitions and theatre. She gave generously both personal and financial backing to the advancement of the humanities and the arts in the community, including the Portsmouth Area Arts Council, Shawnee State University, the Portsmouth Symphony and especially the Southern Ohio Museum which hosted her 100th birthday celebration in 2011.
Elizabeth (Bess) Pixley made provisions for the Bess and Marie Pixley Fund in a trust before she died in 1978. It has been awarding grants since 1982. Since then, it is estimated that approximately $2.5 million has been awarded in total disbursements to date. In 2023, additional monies flowed into the fund from Bess’s original trust document in the amount of $417,061 and at the end of 2023 the market value of Bess and Marie Pixley fund was $2,448,751.
The Pixley Fund was established to benefit programs, projects and scholarships for Shawnee State University and Miami University. Elizabeth’s sister Marie, whose name was added to the name of the fund later, was a 1916 graduate of Miami University.
Bess Pixley was born in 1884. She was an executive secretary for the American Red Cross and worked for the Scioto County and Ohio Welfare Department before she retired in 1953.
“What a monumental year for giving!” said Kim Cutlip, Scioto Foundation Executive Director. “We are deeply grateful and appreciative to these women for creating planned gifts that will impact our community today and in the future. My only regret is that we couldn’t thank them all when they were with us, as many planned gifts are unbeknownst to us. I thank them now for their thoughtfulness and caring and I hope others in our community will remember their acts of kindness.”
Further information about any of these funds or planned giving opportunities at the Scioto Foundation may be obtained by contacting Patty Tennant, Program Officer – Donor Services or SF Executive Director Kim Cutlip at (740) 354-4612.
