R.C. Durr Foundation

NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY DAY: Outstanding Corporation/Foundation

A quiet but lasting legacy in NKY

By Gail Paul / Photo of Wilbert L. Ziegler by Tina Gutierrez

Since its inception in 1993, the R.C. Durr Foundation has made a significant impact on Northern Kentucky due to the generosity of lifelong resident, entrepreneur and philanthropist R.C. Durr. Since his passing in 2007, more than $25 million in grants have helped Northern Kentucky organizations and residents. And Durr’s legacy continues to grow as the foundation joins with others to mount a collective response to the health and economic crises posed by the pandemic.

Attorney Wilbert L. Ziegler is president and CEO of the foundation, serving on a three-member board that meets quarterly to consider requests. As a senior member of Ziegler & Schneider, a firm he co-founded, he celebrated his 60th year in practice in 2018.

The R.C. Durr Foundation was nominated for this award by institutions including Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky and Redwood, which called the foundation’s impact in the community “incalculable.”

Movers & Makers: What does this award mean to the foundation?

Wilbert Ziegler: We were greatly surprised to be nominated! We did not give it serious thought that we might in any way be in the running – it was just a very nice honor to be nominated. When we did receive the award, we were speechless. It is particularly pleas ing to us that the nominations had come from some of the entities with whom we have worked.

M&M: Who was R.C. Durr and what inspired him to establish the foundation?

WZ: Robert Charles Durr was born in Kenton County at a wide place in the road called Atwood. When he graduated from high school, his aunt gave him $300 to go to college, which he took and bought a truck. And from that grew the R.C. Durr Company, which built miles of interstate high ways throughout the state of Kentucky and later operated a coal mining operation in Eastern Kentucky. He was very successful and went on to found two separate banks, the Boone State Bank and Bank of Kentucky, which forms the foundation of BB&T branches throughout Northern Kentucky. He was considered to be an extremely charitable person. He lived very modestly, but it has been said that nobody ever arrived at his door who didn’t walk away with a check if they needed one. He was a very private per son. Very few things bear his name in comparison to the millions of dollars he gave away during his life.

M&M: What communities does the foundation serve and what has been its impact?

WZ: The foundation covers 12 counties, where Mr. Durr spent his lifetime and where most of his contri butions were centered. We do not limit ourselves in the area of causes. Much of our concentration is on education – in fact, it is called out in the foundation’s charter. What Mr. Durr had in mind was higher education, so it started out funding Gateway, Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More College. But it spread heavily into food banks, heroin impact response, cold shelters, women’s crisis centers, dental clinics, orphanages and children’s centers. There, we hardly ever turn anyone away. We fund five private inner-city schools to help them operate every year. We meet four times a year and have at least 10 to 15 requests to consider every meeting. We are a private foundation that disburses between $2.5 million and $3.5 mil lion annually to a variety of 501(c)(3) organizations, cities and other public bodies.

Then, we have what we call our legacy fund. It’s not a separate pot of money – it is a name we ascribe to it. Mr. Durr was in the habit of giving money to whomever needed it. He didn’t exactly require them to make a formal application. So, in that spirit, we take between $150,000 and $200,000 a year, and send checks to charities at the end of the year, even if they have not applied. What they do with the money is their business. I think some of them look forward to the mail, come November!

M&M: How did you become associated with R.C. Durr Foundation?

WZ: I was R.C. Durr’s lawyer for almost 40 years. When he decided to form a foundation, I was the one that formed it, from a legal perspec tive. He then put me, himself and another gentleman, Robert Zapp – a well-known banker here in Kentucky, now retired – on the board. Most of the decisions were made by Durr – he ran it out of this office with no staff. Toward the end of his life, he was concerned about the foundation and I told him it could be set up to go on perpetually, and we would be pleased to continue it on. It was the first time I ever saw the man get a tear in his eye. And then he decided it would go on way past his lifetime. I have been CEO since he died in 2007.

M&M: How has the pandemic affected the foundation or caused it to change?

WZ: During COVID-19, we are working with Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky. Horizon formed a large fund to take care of COVID-related problems, including food insecurity and homelessness. We have funded it as part of a coordinated response. That has worked very well. As we anticipate more need, we have pushed off some (non-COVID related requests) and told them, “paving that driveway can go another year, we are reserving our funds now for food.” Requests have come in, not as heavy as we anticipated, because there have been a number of federal government funds.

M&M: How do you cover the needs of rural communities?

WZ: We have staked out a relationship for 10 years or better with the 4-H organizations in each of our 12 counties. We provide them funding every year so that they can send kids to camp who cannot afford to go, including to a camp near Maysville, where we built a cabin to help out. Just recently, in Mason and Harrison counties, working with the extension district, we provided the funding to construct a facility for job training. We surveyed the rural libraries to understand their needs, which are surprising. Maybe there was a library for the whole county, and they had just one computer. When we were done, they had about 10 or so. These are things you don’t always think about if you live in a city.

M&M: Is Greater CincinnatiNorthern Kentucky especially generous compared to other regions?

WZ: This is true. It is a very charitable area. It’s a friendly community. Our people are easy to meet, easy to know and they are generous – that seems to be the characteristic.