Clark College’s fundraising arm will announce its largest-ever scholarship donation Thursday evening: a $4 million trust left by one of the college’s earliest graduates.
Robert Wallace, a 1937 Clark graduate and a World War II veteran, will posthumously be recognized with the Clark College Foundation’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Philanthropy at its annual Savoring Excellence dinner. Before Wallace’s death in 2005, he established charitable trusts for his family and the college.
“I received more initial encouragement at Clark Junior than any other school,” Wallace told the Clark College Foundation for a 2002 issue of its newsletter.
Bob Blanchard, Wallace’s 76-year-old son, will accept the award on his father’s behalf. Upon Blanchard’s death, the entirety of the trust will be given to the Clark College Foundation, he said.
“The donation will profoundly affect students who will now have access to scholarships that they otherwise may not have been able to qualify for in order to attend the college,” Clark College Foundation spokeswoman Rhonda Morin said in a news release.
Wallace grew up in the height of the Great Depression, an experience that informed the rest of his life, Blanchard said. Under President Herbert Hoover’s administration, Wallace’s family’s pension was cut from $30 a month to $15 a month — roughly from $450 to $230 a month in today’s dollars — spurring a frugality and thoughtfulness in his father that persisted his whole life.
“He saved a lot of money, invested in stocks,” Blanchard said. “That’s how he was able to accumulate so much money.”
After the war, Wallace returned to Washington and pursued a degree in mechanical engineering at Washington State College — now Washington State University — on a G.I. Bill scholarship.
Blanchard said his father’s own experience gave him a desire to support students in need. He recalls suggesting to his father that, with as large as the trust is, perhaps it could construct buildings or fund a new program. But Wallace was resolute: The money would go toward scholarships.
“Clark College has a lot of students that are in need of financial aid,” Blanchard said.
The foundation will also announce at the Thursday evening gala a Presidential Award for the Boschma family — whose 70-acre donation of land will serve as the site of Clark College’s Ridgefield Campus — as well as its largest-ever fundraising campaign.
The foundation hopes to raise $35 million over three years with its Promising Pathways: The Campaign for Clark College, which will support scholarships, academic and vocational programs, veterans’ resources, and other projects.
