Founders' LetterI have been asked many times why Audre and I wanted a Foundation. The answer was simple. Both of us came from homes where money seemed to be something to talk about, but there never was much of it. So for sure, both of us knew what it was not to have. Well, in 1951 we founded American Income Life Insurance Company. Those first years were truly a struggle, but we survived. And the company became increasingly successful. Audre and I talked that enjoying success meant that we recognized that we owe. We started the Foundation with a very small amount of money. As the company became increasingly successful, we were able to add to the assets of the Foundation. People have asked me why we did this.
My response is and was we owed. Someone asked who we owed, and I said, society. While many thought we were most generous, Audre and I felt we were simply paying off a debt.
Well now you know the “why” and, the “how”; and the “what is” you will find most interesting and relevant.
It’s the “what is” in those areas that need help. In the Foundation we learn the first consideration is education. What we have done with McLennan Community College, with Rapoport Academy, The University of Texas Law School, what was behind the considerations for these important projects and others is that concentration within these particular educational groups, with it the most important adversary to poverty and human aimlessness, is education.
The single most important commitment of the Foundation is to insure that tomorrow will be better than today. Certainly education is the censual requisite, and we are in many ways a blessed Foundation. We have as our Executive Director, Tom Stanton, who along with our Board of Trustees possess an educated perspective.
If I had to pick what’s the most important objective of the Foundation, it is to recognize that when too few have too much and too many have too little, then we do not have a sustainable society. I hope embedded into the structure of our Foundation there will always be a recognition of this inequality within our society and that the Foundation will be committed to making this a situation where the division between the have and have nots will be closing in the right direction.
I close in a very optimistic assessment that things are going to get better as they do. The Foundation is in a situation where it can do more than is or has been done. That’s a challenge to which we look forward. In our own little way we want to do what we can to make this world better today than it was yesterday.
Bernard and Audre Rapoport
Founders
5400 Bosque Boulevard - Suite 245 - Waco, TX 76710 (254) 741-0510 - (254) 741-0092 Fax |
