The front entrance to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, one of the organizations that received a grant from the North Texas Community Foundation, on Wednesday, August 10, 2016.
Rodger Mallison
Fort Worth Star Telegram
The North Texas Community Foundation received its largest gift in history, an over $100 million estate gift from Beverly Hudgins Ray Parkhurst.
The endowed gift will be used for historic preservation, land conservation, young women’s education, animals, arts and vulnerable populations.
Parkhurst grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from Carter Riverside High School and earned a business degree from TCU. She restored and managed the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California, and helped launch the Texas Pavilion at the 1965 World’s Fair.
Rose Bradshaw, the president and CEO of the North Texas Community Foundation, called the gift a “true testament to the power of philanthropy.”
In July, the foundation made the first investment of the gift by giving a $250,000 operating gift to the Texas Historical Foundation, one of Parkhurst’s favorite organizations. It will use the money to provide funding for building preservation, archaeological investigations and conservation.
In the land conservation efforts, the North Texas Community Foundation has allocated $600,000 for Fort Worth Open Space and Parks Conservancy to protect land and natural resources.
Patrick Newman, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, said the $500,000 the garden received was “transformational.” The first plan for the money is a family garden, which is expected to open in November.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Maven Navarro is a local news reporter at the Star-Telegram. She covers Fort Worth and Tarrant County.