Addison Gibson Foundation restructures to focus on aiding student debt
By Joyce Gannon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Through the
But since quietly closing the foundation's offices in December, its trustees have restructured the manner in which it will hand out money going forward.
Instead of providing low-interest school loans and medical grants to individuals, beginning this year the trust will allot about
The institutions that will receive funds this year have yet to be identified, said Timothy Slavish, a co-trustee and attorney with Downtown law firm Clark Hill Thorp Reed.
The change in how the foundation distributes its funds is the result of the trustees' agreeing to eliminate the overhead costs for an office and three employees; and their decision to help reduce college students' soaring debt load, Mr. Slavish said.
"We came to the conclusion that what
"The administrative costs of what the foundation was doing were higher than we deemed to be appropriate given the size of the foundation."
According to the federal tax return filed in 2012, the foundation's assets were nearly
In January, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge
"Historically, we've had a very, very high rate of repayment and we fully expect to be repaid for virtually all the loans out there," Mr. Slavish said.
According to the foundation's website, he was born in 1861 in
Through that activity, he met and became a business associate of
When he had reason to be in
That may have inspired
Among those whose loans from the
For medical school, he considered entering a federally-funded program through which the government would pay his tuition, but he would have been required to live and work in another part of the U.S. With the
"It was like a life line," Dr. Capretto, a native of
Though it has yet to identify the health care institutions and schools that will receive grants this year, Mr. Slavish said the trust's plan is to select at least five in each sector and award
Financial aid officers at each school and officials at the health care organizations will identify potential recipients and submit those names to the trustees for approval. Students will likely receive a maximum
Most of the institutions that receive money will likely be in
"Our core borrowers are classic, needy students from working class families," he said. "There was no limit in
While the recipients must still meet the requirement of being from the western side of the state, a couple of other stipulations of
For years, the provision that recipients be children of oil workers has not been a factor in awarding money, Mr. Slavish said.
Nor has the money been limited to male recipients, he said, because in 1992 a court ruling allowed the trust to alter the will's wording so that loans could be made to "individuals" as well as "men," "boys," and "sons."
After
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