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 William E. Anderson Memorial Fund
Bill Anderson never had any problem giving his
opinion about a cause in which he believed – like the time he called
the president of the United States to object to the Liberty Bell
being encased in glass. That was one recollection Ethel Anderson had
of her husband of 27 years, the man in whose honor the William E.
Anderson Memorial Fund was established, just days after his death in
1997.
Bill was always thinking of helping other people, but he
didn’t always have the time. For many years, Bill Anderson’s work as a
special agent for Prudential Insurance Company was his life. Of course,
he made time for Ethel, his second wife, and their “blended” family of
five children, but he had little time for anything else. When Ethel
convinced her husband that he needed an outside interest, Bill learned,
that as a veteran of the Korean War, he was eligible to join the
American Legion.
Bill immediately became very active and “worked his way
up the chairs” in American Legion Post 18, the R.C. DuPont Post. He then
became District Commander for New Castle County, and in 1991 and 1992
was Department Commander for the State of Delaware. The American Legion
gave Bill an outlet for the ideals that were important to him, Ethel
said, such as good citizenship, flag education, and English as the
state’s primary language. He was present at the ground breaking ceremony
and the dedication of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC; was a
Legion representative at naturalization ceremonies; and served as a
member of the Legion’s National Committee for Children and Youth and the
Americanism Committee. In his own community, Bill coordinated the
Claymont Memorial Day Parade for several years.
When Bill died of a heart attack at the age of 62, Ethel
thought, “I just wish there were some way we could preserve his memory
and his ideals.” Her son-in-law, Chris Watters, became aware of the
Delaware Community Foundation while searching for information about
foundations on the internet. He realized that the DCF was the perfect
place to establish a fund to honor Bill Anderson’s memory and soon
discovered how easy it was to set up the fund. One brief visit to the
DCF resulted in a fund that received contributions from more than 60 of
Bill’s friends and family members in the weeks that followed his death.
The William E. Anderson Memorial Fund will be used to
assist programs and organizations that encourage or reward good
citizenship. As an advisor to the fund, Ethel will be involved in
encouraging others to perpetuate the principles of faith, hope and
charity that William E. Anderson so deeply believed and lived. |
