
75 Years of Impact
Here for Good – 75 Years Strong
A major anniversary is a milestone. It inspires reflection on the past and an opportunity to look towards the future. The “Monterey Foundation,” originally incorporated March 26, 1945, has evolved over the last 75 years to become the organization it is today – the Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC). We invited several current and past board members, grantees and community members to reflect on the impact of the foundation. (See videos below).
The 32 visionary men and women who met in the Old Custom House on a Monday afternoon to provide “a responsible agency through which public spirited benefactors may contribute to funds” created a powerful legacy. They included Pebble Beach Co. founder S.F.B. Morse, philanthropist Margaret Jacks, Presidio Commandant Col. Roger S. Fitch, Monterey mayor Carmel Martin, Sr., painter Armin Hansen, designer Francis Elkins and poet Robinson Jeffers. (See full list below). Those who have served as CFMC board members over the years owe a debt of gratitude to these early founders and continue their legacy of meeting community needs.
Preserving History and Open Space
The foundation was established to preserve historic adobes under threat of post-war development. The organization first purchased Casa Gutierrez for preservation and restoration. Fremont Adobe and Casa Abrego followed. In the 1960s the scope broadened to include “general charitable educational, philanthropic, cultural and benevolent purposes.”
In the 1970s the group expanded its work to include the preservation of select parcels of open space, including California’s First Theater garden, the top of Jacks Peak, S.F.B. Morse Cypress Grove and Pescadero Point in Pebble Beach to save these properties for future generations. Eventually the adobes and properties were donated to preservation groups.
Expanding Impact
In the 1980s the board began the process of building permanent endowments to benefit the full range of community needs and hired full-time staff, President/CEO Todd Lueders. With an endowment of $1 million, the organization changed its name to the “Community Foundation for Monterey County” in 1984, opened a Salinas office and broadened grantmaking countywide. The CFMC is one of 800 community foundations nationwide. Thanks to the generous people of Monterey County, it is in the top 80 in the country in asset size, with more than $300 million in charitable assets.
The Spirit of Local Philanthropy
The CFMC reflects the spirit of local philanthropy. A record $19.2 million was granted in 2019, and more than $205 million has been granted cumulatively through 2019. Annual total grants have set records in the last several years thanks to our donor advised fund holders, the rise of scholarships, and the Monterey County Gives! year-end giving campaign. Gives! is a partnership of the CFMC, the Monterey County Weekly and the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, and has accounted for more than $5 million in grants each of in the last three years.
The CFMC also engages in community leadership work, bringing organizations together around issues such as the 2020 Census, affordable housing and homelessness. The CFMC will continue its vision of healthy, safe, vibrant communities through The Fund for Monterey County, an endowed fund to meet important community needs as they change over time.
The future is bright. Through careful stewardship of the philanthropic resources entrusted to us, thoughtful planned gifts by our Legacy Society members, strong grants and community leadership we will be Here for Good.
Our founders would be proud.
The Founders
These are the names listed as original members on the Monterey Foundation Articles of Incorporation March 26, 1945.
Founders & Historic Background
Frederick R. Bechdolt
(1874-1950) |
Frederick R. Bechdolt, a Pennsylvania native, lived an adventurous life, including gold mining in Alaska, driving sled dogs and helping drill the Cascade tunnel in Washington. He settled down as a journalist in California, but became best known for his novels, short stories and articles with western themes. He co-authored, with W. James Hopper, 9009, an important novel about prison life. He was active in the Carmel literary community. (“Writers Recall Colorful Career,” Monterey Herald, July 21, 1950, p. 11) |
Samuel G. Blythe
(1868-1947) |
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Clyde A. Dorsey
(1891-1981) |
Clyde Dorsey, a native of Missouri, came to Monterey in 1911 to teach high school. In 1927, he began his long career with the City of Monterey, serving as city clerk and city manager. Upon his retirement, he undertook a second career in real estate and development in Mission Fields, South Carmel Highlands and Carmel Knolls. He was very active in the community, including the Monterey Planning Commission, the chamber of commerce, and Monterey History and Art Association. (“Former City Manager, Clyde Dorsey, Dies,” The Californian, January 24, 1981) |
Anita Doud
(1890-1975) |
Anita Doud was renowned as a philanthropist and preservationist. Her grandfather, Francis Doud, immigrated from Ireland in 1845 and was sergeant at arms for the California Constitutional Convention. He built one of Monterey’s earliest wooden houses, which is now owned by the Monterey History and Art Association. It was once used as the headquarters of the Monterey Foundation (now the Community Foundation of Monterey County). She was particularly noted for her work on behalf of Japanese Americans returning from internment camps. (“Anita Doud,” San Francisco Examiner, November 11, 1975, p. 30) |
George W. Eckhardt
(d.1973) |
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Frances Adler Elkins
(1888-1953) |
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S.J. Field | |
Dr. James B. Finley | Dr. James Finley practiced dentistry in Monterey for many years and was active on a state-wide basis with the dental society. |
Colonel Roger S. Fitch
(1877-1955) |
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Martha Sargent Gragg
(c.1875-1948) |
Martha Sargent Gragg’s grandparents arrived in California in 1851, settling in Monterey about 1857. In that year, they purchased the San Carlos and San Francisquito ranches, totaling more than 22,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Mountains. Following her mother’s death, the property was sold to George Moore, who developed a luxurious hacienda and private resort; the land became the Santa Lucia Preserve. |
Martha L. Green | Mary Greene came to Monterey to serve as Custodian (Curator) of California’s First Theatre. She later became the Curator of the Custom House museum from 1937 until her retirement in 1957. She lived in one of the old adobes, Casa Joaquin de Soto. |
Robert Allen Griffin
(1893-1984) |
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Stuart Haldorn
(1888-1973) |
Stuart Haldorn was the stepson and heir of James Murray, one of the wealthiest Montana mine owners. He and his wife lived in the Tevis/Murray mansion, “La Hacienda,” on the waterfront near Cannery Row. He was a founding member of the Stillwater Yacht Club in Pebble Beach. He also had a ranch where he raised horses and cattle and was involved in California Rodeo Salinas and the early development of the Monterey County Fairgrounds. |
Armin Hansen
(1886-1957) |
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W.R. Holman
(1884-1983) |
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W.C. Hudson | |
Margaret Jacks
(1874-1962) |
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Andrew B. Jacobsen
(1890-1955) |
Andrew Jacobsen, a Pacific Grove resident, sat on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for 22 years (1933-1955), serving as chair for 20 of those years, until sudden death in 1955. (The Californian, March 6, 1956, p. 6) |
Robinson Jeffers
(1887-1962) |
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Angelo Lucido
(1897-1949) |
Angelo Lucido, a Sicilian emigrant, was one of the Central Coast’s most successful and influential fish processors. He owned the San Carlos Canning Company, with facilities in Monterey, Oxnard, and Port Hueneme. (“Packer Dies in Hotel Here,” San Francisco Examiner, January 24, 1949, p. 27) |
Colonel Harold Lewis Mack
(1884-1985) |
Colonel Harold Mack was an economist and stockbroker who moved to Monterey in the 1930s. He was an officer in in World War I, acted as civilian defense chief before World War II, and then re-entered the Army in 1943. He was also a noted artist, specializing in landscapes. He actively advocated for artists and writers during the Depression years. His hand-built home, Hacienda de Los Amigos, became Santa Catalina School in 1950. |
Carmel Martin, Sr.
(1879-1965) |
Carmel Martin, Sr., was Monterey’s first popularly elected mayor (1911-1913) but his primary contributions were his decades of service on the school board, the City of Monterey Planning Commission and the Monterey County Planning Commission. He was particularly involved in preserving historic buildings. (“Carmel Martin of Monterey,” San Francisco Examiner, February 1965, p. 25) |
Colonel Charles H. Mason | |
Emmett Mcmenamin
(1914-2011) |
Emmett McMenamin served on the Monterey City Council in the 1930s-1940s and was later Monterey County Clerk. He was active in the Monterey History and Art Association. |
Samuel F.B. Morse
(1885-1969) |
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Martha E. Newcom | |
W.M. O’Donnell
(d.1949) |
William O’Donnell earned a law degree at Cornell University, but embarked on a newspaper career in California following his service in World War I. He arrived in Monterey in 1927 to be managing editor of the Monterey Peninsula Herald. He acted for the Herald’s publisher, Robert Griffin, during his lengthy absences on international and civic missions. He was associate publisher at the time of his death. He and his wife, Mayo Hayes O’Donnell (a prominent local historian) restored and lived in Casa Soberanes, now part of Monterey State Historic Park. (W.M. O’Donnell Taken by Death,” Monterey Herald, August 16, 1949) |
Myron Oliver
(1891-1967) |
Myron Oliver grew up surrounded by art and artists, since his parents owned an art supply store in Monterey. He attended Stanford University and studied art in New York with the eminent William Merritt Chase and at the Art Students League. He returned to become one of the Monterey Peninsula’s most prominent artists and a founder of the Carmel Art Association as well as the Monterey Foundation. (www.hardygalleries.com) |
Noel Sullivan
(1890-1956) |
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Maria Antonia Bach Thompson
(1889-1961) |
Maria Thompson was known for her philanthropy and interest in history and preservation. She was descended from two governors of early California. Pio Pico was the last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule; he became a very successful businessman and landowner in Los Angeles, who acquired more than 500,000 acres in Southern California. Jose Castro (1808-1860) was acting governor of Alta California in 1835, and military commander who strongly supported California independence from Mexico. He was granted Rancho San Justo, which included the settlement surrounding Mission San Juan Bautista. (“Mrs. Thompson,” San Francisco Examiner, November 30, 1961, p. 33) |
Edward H. Tickle
(1876-1969) |
Edward Tickle represented Monterey County in the state senate from 1933 to 1945. He was a conservative Republican who became a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1944. He was also a real estate developer in Carmel Highlands and was a founder of the Highlands Inn in Carmel Highlands. (“Former state senator Edward H. Tickle Dies,” The Californian, October 18, 1980, p. 2) |
James F. van Loben Sels
(1882-1977) |
James van Loben Sels was from a prominent Northern California family and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in chemistry. For a few years, he had a construction company working on building San Francisco’s sewer system. He later managed a ranch in Butte County owned by Stanford University. In 1959, following the death of his first wife, he married Della Brooks Walker, an artist whose family had founded the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The couple lived in her house at Carmel Point, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. (findagrave.com/memorial/79122327/) |
T.A. Work
(1870-1963) |
Thomas A. Work, Sr., came to Monterey from Scotland in 1883. He held very modest jobs–delivering milk, selling firewood, and opening a small feed store. The store expanded into a cattle ranch and further land acquisitions. He purchased the First National Bank in 1906, and went on to establish several other local banks, which he sold to Crocker-Anglo Bank in 1959. His major interest was in land, as he bought 1,600 acres in Carmel Highlands in 1896, quickly selling it for a good profit. Around 1930, he purchased 2,000 acres of pea fields north of Seaside, which he sold to the U.S. Army for Fort Ord. At the time of his death, it was estimated that he owned at least a quarter of downtown Monterey, plus land in Pacific Grove and elsewhere. In 1936, he purchased one of the oldest adobe houses, La Mirada (now owned by the Monterey Museum of Art), which he and his wife landscaped extensively. He moved to Pebble Beach after his wife’s death.
(“Laird of Monterey,” San Francisco Examiner, April 20, 1963, p. 37; www.mchsmuseum.com/lamirada.html) |
CFMC In the News
“Hope in Trying Times” (Carmel Magazine, Summer 2020)
75th Anniversary Reflections
We originally planned an in-person celebration for 2002. As we were unable to meet in person due to COVID-19, we asked current and past board members, community members and grantees to reflect on the foundation’s impact through the years. Check back as we add more videos.