Rebecca Sims
Rebecca Sims wanted to help area students gain an opportunity she never had — attending college.
Years ago, the Lawrence county resident established a scholarship fund through the Lawrence County Community Foundation in the name of her three children, Mary R. Cline, Timothy B. Maegerlein and Stephen D. Maegerlein.
“I’ve had lots of tragedy in my life, but the Lord’s been good to me,” Sims said. Her tragedy was losing both Timothy and Mary Rachel to early deaths, she said. Timothy was killed in car accident in 1963, at age 14 and Mary Rachel died of bone marrow cancer in 1996.
Sims oldest son, Stephen, lives in Lawrence county with his wife and step-daughter. He graduated with degree in chemistry from Purdue University and worked for NSWC Crane for 38 years, she said.
She and the children’s father, late Lehrman Maegerlein, didn’t have the finances to attend college themselves, but made sure that Stephen and Mary were able to go, she said.
“We wanted the children to have what was denied us. It wasn’t easy. We made lots of sacrifice with two in school at one time,” she said.
Sims had originally planned to set up scholarships at Purdue, Mary and Stephen’s alma mater, but instead decided to keep the scholarship local.
Sims was quoted as saying, “My desire with the scholarship is to give some needy young person the education we didn’t receive.
Ray Robison
Ray Robison, a long time Bedford attorney, decided to honor and remember his deceased parents by giving to the future of Lawrence County. Ray started an unrestricted fund in the name of his parents, Ralph W. “Shorty” and Bette R. Robison.
Ray established the Ralph W. “Shorty” and Bette R. Robinson Fund for Community Grantmaking as an unrestricted fund to honor his parents because they had varying interests. “Unrestricted funds are used to make grants for a variety of charitable purposes,” explained Robison, a former member of the LCCF Board of Directors and the Grants Committee. “That means that as needs change, funds can be redirected each year to meet them. The fact that each year a different cause is funded would give my parents a great deal of satisfaction, particularly my mother.”
Bette Robison was a retired engineering technician for the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane and an active member of senior citizen groups in Bedford and Mitchell. She was also a member of the Altrusa Club of Bedford.
Ralph “Shorty” Robison was a truck driver and enjoyed outdoor activities like hunting and fishing. He and Bette taught Ray that honesty and hard work were the way to get things done. They also encouraged Ray to do his part for the community and to make it a better place.
Robison said funds such as this one honor the memory of someone’s life and at the same time provide resources to touch future lives. “It’s a way to honor my parents and I know the money will be there forever. It will be benefiting groups long after I’m gone,” Ray said. “I just think it’s a nice way for people to honor their parents and grandparents.”
Ray established the fund during a Lilly Endowment Inc. GIFT V matching funds challenge which increased the value of the endowment.
Harold "Mac" & Shirley McReynolds
To honor and continue "Mac" and Shirley McReynolds’ strong legacy of community and charitable work in Lawrence County, their son Mark established the Harold “Mac” and Shirley McReynolds Fund.
Mac and Shirley McReynolds moved to Bedford from Wisconsin in 1973. Mac was a managerial Fisheries Biologist with the U. S. Forest Service in Milwaukee and had sought a transfer to southern Indiana where they had both grown up.
Mac was raised in Milan, Indiana. He attended the tiny Milan High School which won the Indiana High School Basketball Championship in 1954. This achievement is known as the “Milan Miracle.” Although Mac had already graduated by 1954, he was well acquainted with Bobby Plump and a few others from that Milan team.
Shirley was a native of Orange County, Indiana. She attended grade school with Larry Bird’s father, Joe Bird. Upon their return to Indiana, Shirley was selected for a faculty position with the IU School of Business after having taught business subjects in high school for many years.
During their working years in Bedford and Bloomington and after their retirement, they were very involved in the community and gave generously of their time. Mac served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Lawrence County Museum of History. He created the ongoing “Brain Games” project as a fundraiser for the Museum, and since the first Brain Games in 2002, it has continued to be a fun and successful fundraising event for the Museum.
Shirley served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Bedford Regional Medical Center, including several years as Chairperson. She served on the LCCF Board where she chaired the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship selection committee for several years. She also held leadership positions in their church, Bedford First United Methodist Church. In 2006, Shirley received the LCCF “Walk with Excellence” award in the category of Business.
In 2001, Mac and Shirley organized a very successful Elderhostel program at Spring Mill. This program introduced visitors from all over the U.S. to the attractions of Lawrence County.
Shirley passed away in 2011 and Mac passed away in 2013. Their son Mark, an IT Project Manager in Bloomington, Illinois, established the Harold “Mac” and Shirley McReynolds Fund to honor his parents because, as he says, “the amount of effort and dedication that each of my parents put into the Lawrence County community and other charitable organizations was astounding, both to me and to their many friends and acquaintances. They were fantastic people and great parents. I definitely want their efforts to be remembered, and in fact to be magnified in the future, for the benefit of the local community.”
The Harold “Mac” & Shirley McReynolds Fund is a permanent, unrestricted endowment. It is permanently invested and will continue to fund grants in the community for many generations. Because it is an unrestricted fund, it can support programs and charitable organizations doing good work in many different areas and will fund local needs that might not be evident today but certainly will be in the future.
Through this fund, Mac and Shirley McReynolds’ dedication to their community is being magnified throughout Lawrence County and will be well into the future.
Dave Jacobs
Growing up in Bedford in the 1920s and 30s, Dave Jacobs learned early in life about the value of community and the importance of giving. “We were always taught that this community is our home, and you need to participate in it and understand it and enhance its value by what you can do for it,” Jacobs said. His parents led by their own example of community involvement. Scouting reinforced the idea for this young man that he should “help other people at all times.”
Jacobs continued to manage the business his father opened in 1909, Bedford Furniture Galleries. And he carried on the family tradition of community involvement with gusto, until he passed away in 2020. He volunteered for the local Boy Scouts council and the Lawrence County Community Foundation. Jacobs also served on the boards of the North Lawrence Scholarship Foundation as well as the Lawrence County Historical and Genealogical Society. He was active with public bodies like the City Plan Commission too.
In addition to giving his time, Jacobs provided financial support for a variety of causes that spoke to his values. Three endowment funds at the Community Foundation helped him achieve some of his charitable goals. In 2000, he founded a designated fund for the Hoosier Trails Council of Boy Scouts. Each year the Hoosier Trail Council receives a designated grant from the earnings of this fund.
Before that, in 1996, he started the Jacobs Family Fund, a donor advised fund. Mr. Jacobs has a strong respect for the environment and envisions this fund helping to protect the environment by funding a variety of projects, such as planting trees for clean air and preserving agricultural land. “I’ve always appreciated the way American Indians feel about life. . . they were caretakers for the land,” he explains. “We have wonderful natural resources here in Lawrence County, and we need to take care of them.”
In 2016, Mr. Jacobs established the David Alan Jacobs Community Fund. This unrestricted fund has the versatility to meet a wide variety of community needs.
Mr. Jacobs said, "Whether I'm here or not, I want the community to be a strong community." Though this kind and generous man passed away in 2020, the permanent endowments he established will continue to grow and strengthen this community through the grants they fund generation after generation.