ELKHART — When David Gundlach died last year, he forever changed the face of charity in Elkhart County by leaving an estimated $125 million to the Elkhart County Community Foundation.
That more than triples the size of the charitable foundation’s overall holdings, and grows the foundation’s unrestricted fund for Elkhart County nearly tenfold.
The foundation will go from giving out roughly $750,000 a year to about 10 times that amount.
“There’s a historic element to this. I think that 20, 25, 30 years from now, when the story of Elkhart is told, there will be a story of Havilah Beardsley and his decision to relocate and interacting with Chief Moran, there will be a story of this musical band instrument industry that emerged, and the Miles Laboratory story, and in the same telling of the kind of markers of significance in Elkhart County, I think that this gift, while we don’t feel it right now, this gift will be one of those,” said Pete McCown, president of the foundation.
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