Meet the Donors: Bill and Bonnie Donnelly

Bill and Bonnie Donnelly

Johnny Wharff, Board Member for Marietta Community Foundation, talks with Foundation donors, Bill and Bonnie Donnelly to gain insight into local philanthropy.

Johnny Wharff: A donor spotlight for Marietta Community Foundation and our guests are Bonnie and Bill Donnelly and we thank you for being with us today.  I'll start with Bonnie, just give me a little bit of Bonnie Donnelly history that might start with the maiden name and then where you went from high school onto to where you are now.  

Bonnie: My maiden name is Allphin, Bonnie Allphin, and I was born and raised in Marietta. I’m married to Bill Donnelly. We knew each other from 7th grade on and here we are today, we’ve been married 51 years. After high school, Bill and I got married. He finished his last semester of college as a married man. I worked for a while, then we had two children and they grew up wonderfully. As they were in high school and headed into College, I decided that I would really like to go back to school at the age of 40. Bill Donnelly has not only put his kids, but his wife through college. After graduation, I wrote for The Marietta Times and Parkersburg News & Sentinel as a feature writer for several years. I organized Jean Scott’s inauguration at Marietta College while working in the admissions office. From then it's been on to other things, and I did go back to school again three years ago to Dubuque Theological Seminary. Now I am a pastor for the First Presbyterian Church in Marietta. I'm called a Commissioned Ruling Elder, meaning that I can do all the pastoral care and present the sacraments for Presbyterian churches with my church being like the main root church for me.

Johnny: That's fantastic.  

Bonnie: We're still doing new things and life has been exciting all along the way. I've had this guy right here who has been right by my side. Sometimes he's my worship leader, other times he's just right there helping me do what I love to do.

Johnny: Wonderful! Alright, I want to transition on to Bill. Talk a little bit about a similar transition to your youth as it relates to community, as it relates to school, as it relates to the business world. And then at what point, if it was at an early age, that you mixed in that altruistic side of things in terms of being involved with, and very much so, being involved in the community.

Bill: Well, I think it started early on. I began my career in the business world, of course with my family business, which now has been here in Marietta for over 100 years. My father was always very active in the community, as was my grandfather, so it sort of came naturally. Early on when I was getting started in business, I was heavily involved in local community projects, the Jaycees at that time was a big pusher and driver in Marietta of young people to get them involved in their community and it just evolved from that over the years. One of the things that really resonates in my mind was early on interactions with Carl Broughton, who really was the driving force to set the Foundation up originally. And in those early years when I was in business, Mr. Broughton was always a driver of the community, was always concerned about issues and causes that needed to be pushed. Every so often you'd get a call from him and he’d ask you to come to his office for a meeting. When you would show up, there would be a dozen people and he’d have a project that he was concerned about. The projects ranged from all types of things, whether it was the Chamber of Commerce, the education system in Marietta, different organizations and projects that he was concerned about. He was always looking ahead of what was needed in Marietta. What resonates with me the most, is in one of those meetings he was pushing for something and I can’t recall exactly the project was, but he stood there and he said, ‘we didn't build this town we inherited it and we have an obligation to see that when we leave it, it's in a little better shape than when we found it’. Those words have always stuck with me and I think that's why everyone needs to be involved in their community and do a little legwork and make sure the community prospers and survives.

Johnny: Bill, you have a history with specifically Marietta Community Foundation as a board member, as a treasurer, and donor. I see a couple different areas of interest but one of them, and I think of this because of how you were talking about Carl Broughton and some of us, particularly guys that grew up next to Bob Kirkbride feel the same way about him in terms of being a driver toward making the place you love better. But one of the things that you earmark when you make donations sometimes is the Robert E. Kirkbride Board of Governors Fund, so maybe you can tell us why…

Bill: It’s a very important fund of the Foundation where donations go to support the operations of the Foundation. With the idea that if the fund becomes large enough and self-sustaining, it can support the Foundation’s basic expense of salaries, heat and light, utilities, without having to charge a fee to the funds that are currently held in the Foundation. Donors know that the funds they deposit to the foundation are not charged an administrative fee. Instead, those fees are covered by the Kirkbride fund. Donors know that 100% of the funds they deposit, will go to their interests.

Johnny: Alright Bonnie, tell me, and maybe your license plate gives this away, but what is your favorite job? I mean if you even call it a job, but a favorite thing that you did?

Bonnie: Are you kidding me!? My license plate reads “GRAM 2 GO”. We have five granddaughters, going from no grandchildren to two babies in one year. In the year 2000 - 2001, it went up to five. We ended up building a little house in Devola to be nearer to one of our kids and I call it ‘Drey Place’. A ‘drey’ is the little roundhouse for squirrels up in the tree and when those five little girls came to our house it sounded like a bunch of squirrels in a tree, so I had to name it ‘Drey Place’. Our grandchildren are a big part of our lives and now that we have them in college, our role now is going to visit them. We have one who's got a brand-new job down near Cincinnati. She graduated from Miami and we are so proud of her. We visit college campuses, and we visit new apartments and that kind of thing. So yeah, our grandkids are a huge part of our lives and of course, they're fantastic.

Johnny: I am a huge proponent of the written word and it's something obviously that you're very good at. Have you taught them to journal? Do you write for them or to them? I'm wondering about this great lost art that you and I both have a passion for, if we can ever bring it back to where it has such tremendous substance.

Bonnie: I’m concerned about that too. I am also concerned about how these five girls are not readers. I was a voracious reader. I read all the time when I was growing up. My best times were in my bedroom with my books from the library. I have taken the kids to the library all the time while they were growing up, but now they're in the social world, they're into social media. And a lot of times when they do go to school, they're studying what they have to study, so they're not learning that reading is a pure joy, it's an escape, and it’s a fantastic way to imagine. So, I do write to them. I have journals for each one of them that I started when they were babies. I don't get to write as presently as I used to, but I still do and they do know how I feel about writing and reading. I'm hoping that the seeds I planted with them and my own love for books and writing and reading will come out in due time.

Johnny: Marietta Community Foundation, by the way, still sends handwritten thank you notes as far as I'm concerned, I hope they always will and as long as I'm on the board they will do that.

Bonnie: They do and that's a big part of my ministry right now. I think that I'm able to use my gift to get some personal notes and also through the phone. You know it's amazing how much praying time I do over the phone for people and that's one of my loves too. So, it's still about the communication, it's about being personal. It's about recognizing that each person has value as an individual and I believe in giving that one-on-one time.

Johnny: If you can transfer that faith to one person even though you may be speaking to a bunch, it's going to be worth it right?

Bonnie: Of course.

Johnny: So Bill, talk a little bit about some of the rewards you’ve seen from serving, you mentioned Jaycees and you served with the Foundation. Looking back, as I think we all do when we get to be our age particularly at some things or times where you served on a board, whatever it might be. I always think of the Showboat Becky Thatcher because it was here and now it's gone and my kids will never know what that was like to be a part of something like that. I see photos of you with the chamber on Capitol Hill or just different things over the years. Is there anything that stands out that you felt was rewarding?

Bill:  Well, I have been involved and still involved in a lot of different organizations. I think it's important to share your time, talents and resources. The one organization which captured a great majority of my time over the years was Marietta College. I'm a graduate there, I spent 31 years on the Board of Trustees at Marietta College in various capacities trying to help the college as best I can. It's such an integral part of this community. It makes Marietta a great town to be in with an educational institution like that and now we've got the community college as well. So, probably my time at Marietta College and interacting with a great group of people that not only work there, but the trustees that come from all over the country and have been so generous to promote that college. It's just such a wonderful learning environment that we have here and really makes us stand out.

Johnny: Alright. For two people that I thought I knew, I am so glad I got to know you a little bit better. And the final question that I have is for Bonnie. Who's your favorite grandchild?

Bonnie: Are you kidding? I don't have a favorite! Although, I think individually, they know how I feel about them.

Johnny: Alright very good. That was Bill and Bonnie Donnelly for Marietta Community Foundation. Great stuff, thank you guys.