With mixed emotions, we report on the death of our first Trustee Emeritus. George Creel, whose obituary is attached here, left this world on May 7th at the venerable age of ninety-two.
George was an early and longtime booster of the National Catholic Community Foundation. Indeed, since our early days three decades ago, his support for and commitment to our cause were instrumental in the successful development of NCCF. Philanthropists at heart, he and his wife, Marian, in the late 1990s were prepared to establish a donor-advised fund with a commercial financial institution. But, a Christian to the core, George wondered why there wasn’t a more appropriate group that could accommodate their Catholic sensitivities. It was his accountant, as we recall, who introduced him to a fledgling community foundation recently launched by the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities. George and Marian became one of the first families to create a donor-advised fund with us, and their use of the fund over the years has demonstrated the effectiveness of this financial vehicle in the promotion of family philanthropy. More importantly, George served as a long-term trustee of NCCF. As his obituary alludes, his calm, direct, and always charitable manner, along with his common sense, was a valuable contributor to NCCF’s steady growth over the years. What we are most grateful for, however, is George’s belief in and testament to the power of family philanthropy and how this organization – in which he has played such a critical role – serves that ministry.
As we extend our condolences to George’s large family, we express with them the ultimate expectation of our shared Creed: expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi saeculi. George has advanced the Kingdom.