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| The Gifford Foundation 100 Clinton Square 126 N. Salina St. Syracuse, NY 13202 Ph:315.474.2489 Fax:315.475.4983 | |
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| Grants | Proposals | Agencies | Trustees |
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Rosamond Gifford  Rosamond Gifford was born in September, 1873, the only child of Mary A. and William H. Gifford. Rosamond received her early education at home and later attended a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During her twenties, she studied and taught concert harp in the Boston area, and to supplement her income, she performed in a trio at social functions. Rosamond's father was a member of the law firm Hiscock, Gifford and Doheny and was also a district attorney for Onondaga County. William Gifford invested extensively in real estate and business ventures. In 1913, Rosamond's aging father retired from law, and Rosamond returned to his DeWitt farm to relieve him of its care and management. William Gifford died in 1917, and Rosamond inherited an estate worth $1.25 million.
In 1929, Rosamond moved to the town of Jewell on Oneida Lake, where she lived a reclusive existence until her death in April, 1953. Rosamond too had invested wisely and left an estate totaling over $5 million. In conformance with directions set forth in her will, Rosamond's banker, Howard F. Zinsmeister, and attorney, George Alston Smith, founded The Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corporation in 1954. Messrs. Smith and Zinsmeister died shortly thereafter, but under the guidance of the Foundation's first board of trustees, Allan B. Coughlin, Genevieve O. Zinsmeister, J. Ross Paltz, Francis A. Feil, Virginia Z. Lynch and Shirley Smith Holbrook, The Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corporation opened its office at 532 Onondaga Bank Building. The first grant was awarded on October 12, 1955 to Saint Joseph's Hospital for the purchase and installation of six incubators for premature babies. And so began Rosamond Gifford's legacy "...because of the greater need that all of my residuary estate be used for the charitable purposes hereinbefore mentioned, and be the benefit to humanity which I desire and intend." | ||
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