Profiles in Generosity

The Miller Fund – Continuing a Legacy of Philanthropy

Family stories of Marion Lee Miller tell of a happy, industrious, curious and occasionally mischievous boy. He became interested in German after reading German grammar books in Lebanon, Ohio, despite the social unease after World War II. His high school English teacher encouraged his study, and eventually he received both undergraduate and Master’s degrees in German Language and Literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Despite his proficiency in German, when Lee joined the Air Force in 1956, the military put him in flight school. Chronically air sick, he was assigned to the next logical place – Japan as part of the Military Police. Throughout his life, he was interested in people, regardless of origin or opinion, taking pictures wherever he went.

Jan Augenstein was from Hamilton, Ohio. She had dyslexia, and though educational approaches to treat dyslexia in the 1950s were limited, she was determined to succeed. She excelled academically at Miami University, and continued to pursue music as a coloratura soprano. Jan sang in the Miami University Men’s Glee Club, becoming the only female ever to go on tour with them at the time. After college, she moved to San Francisco to teach elementary school, returning to Miami University to complete her own Master’s degree in student counseling.

In 1970, Jan met Lee at Miami University, where he was a professor of German, on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. One date turned into a whirlwind romance and marriage just two months after their meeting. On the day of their wedding, Lee and Jan went off in separate directions to continue their educations – Lee to the University of Kansas to defend his doctoral thesis, and Jan to Italy as part of an opera workshop. Months later, they returned to Ohio to begin married life together.

Following their retirements in 1994, both from Miami University (she eventually became Development Director), they moved to Albuquerque, enchanted by the blue sky and abundant sunshine. They enjoyed traveling together, visiting 110 countries and all seven continents over the next 25 years. Both were active in Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church and volunteered with several charities, sharing their energy and insights and community spirit. Jan was also a volunteer in the Fine Arts Department at UNM, and Steelbridge and community fund to help single mothers in need.

Jan died in 2013. After her death, Lee remained active and involved in the community until he passed last year – ever interested, curious and always with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. The Jan Augenstein-Miller and Marion Lee Miller Fund continues the legacy begun during their lifetimes by supporting grants to nonprofit organizations to provide food and shelter for homeless women and children and programs to assist battered and abused women and children.

The Daulton Family Fund

When Paul Daulton passed away in 2007, his wife Sue continued the family’s philanthropic legacy by generously giving to a number of organizations – UNM football and basketball, the UNM College of Nursing, a number of UNM Presidential Scholarships, the Central United Methodist Church and the New Mexico Boys Ranch, among many others. In 2008, she established The Daulton Family Foundation Endowment Fund to honor her husband and benefit the important causes that mattered to them both.

At the time, she said, “I am very fortunate to be able to contribute financial help to the programs that have made a positive difference in our community.” Paul and Sue Daulton shared more than 60 years together nurturing their family, growing their business and building philanthropy in New Mexico. Their story is one of caring and sharing common ground with their community. The Daulton family, along with Sue’s brother John C. Marshall and his wife, were partners and owners of the 7Up Bottling Company in Albuquerque for many years, building the business significantly before selling it in 1980.

Sue spent her early childhood in Rogers, Arkansas. Her family moved to Albuquerque in 1938. With the exception of a year at Christian College in Missouri, she spent the rest of her life in Albuquerque. She graduated from Albuquerque High in 1943, and after her year away, studied at the University of New Mexico where she was an Alpha Chi Omega. There she met Paul Daulton, whom she married in December of 1946, shortly after he returned from serving in the south Pacific with the U.S. Navy.

Paul and Sue’s son, Tom, continues to participate in his family’s charitable giving and volunteers for many UNM Alumni activities. Tom and his wife Jan have three children of their own, Neal, Mary Cole and Carter. Paul and Sue balanced their work ethic by playing just as hard. They were founding members of the Tennis Club of Albuquerque, loved to golf and visit their cabin in Pendaries. Both were passionate followers of Lobo athletics, holding football and basketball season tickets beginning in the early 1960s. Sue regretfully gave up her basketball season tickets after the 2015 season. In her later years, Sue loved bridge, and routinely beat Tom at gin rummy. And her grandchildren would like to point out that she held the house record on the pinball machine.

Sue was also passionate about supporting UNM’s College of Nursing and was recognized at their 60th anniversary as a special friend.

Sue passed away in 2017, adding significantly to the Daulton Family Fund in her will. This legacy will ensure that the community organizations and institutions she and Paul supported during their lifetimes will continue.

Kirschner Family Fund

Richard “Dick” Kirschner has had a deep interest in early childhood education since the late 1960s, sparked by his company’s national evaluation of a pioneering program in that field: Head Start.

“That project got me interested in the impact of early childhood education. I saw that the earlier the intervention, the greater the impact,” he says. “Now there is a general recognition of the value of investing in early childhood education. I’ve talked in the past with the State Legislature about it, and they seem to support it, too. That’s wonderful.”

The Kirschner Family Fund established by Richard Kirschner and Mary Oertel-Kirschner, in 2016, continues Dick’s support of early childhood education.

In advance of his 90th birthday this year, Dick reached out with a request. He wanted to know about any new early childhood education programs in Albuquerque. In honor of his birthday, Dick sought to make a meaningful grant to help children start on the right path in their education – acknowledging that early childhood education offers stability and positions children for long-term success in various aspects of life.

Dick wound up making a grant to Partnership for Community Action (PCA), an organization that works primarily with families with young children between 0 and 8 years old. Of the families PCA directly serves, 90% are Hispano/Latino, approximately 87% are immigrant families and speak Spanish as their primary language.

Dick is supporting the Social Enterprise Center, the next phase in PCA’s growth. The Center will benefit vulnerable children and families in the South Valley by providing over 50 living wage jobs with benefits and dual-generation support services on a family-friendly jobs campus. The Center will also include a 3,000 sq. ft. family resource center providing holistic and family-centered approaches to root causes of poverty in the community. Two additional commercial buildings will house employee-owned business enterprises including a dual-language early childhood development center and training space.

Dick made a second grant to Horizons Albuquerque to support its work with low-income students and their families in summer programs to mitigate learning loss outside the school year.

Dick follows each organization’s progress by attending update meetings to hear about their results. “The need for early childhood education may have started in private hands, but it has expanded to public organizations like state and national legislatures. That’s one of the benefits of publicizing what a private organization can do to influence a public one. That’s the role of a community foundation as well, they publicize and promote. And the Albuquerque Community Foundation does a good job with that.”