$1.4M endowment to honor Schaefer’s ‘do it now’ legacy

William Donald Schaefer’s parting gift to his beloved city will help to pay for flowers, neighborhood improvements and even flagpoles.

A $1.4 million from the late mayor and Maryland governor will be distributed in small gifts all around town as part of a permanent endowment designed to honor his “do it now” legacy.

“The governor has spoken,” said Tom Wilcox, president of the Baltimore Community Foundation, addressing Schaefer’s directive as part of his estate on Tuesday. “We have a very clear direction from him and we’re going to carry it out.”

The gift will enhance the 4-year-old William Donald Schaefer Civic Fund that Schaefer set up at the BCF. Before Tuesday the fund held $400,000. Wilcox said the large estate gift will mean an additional $65,000 is available for neighborhood grants each year.

“Over time, it will provide millions for Baltimore neighborhoods,” he said. “It is something from a man who came from West Baltimore — he was all about the neighborhoods. It is truly a gift of sincerity from Gov. William Donald Schaefer.”

Schaefer was mayor of Baltimore from 1971 through 1986. Before that, he served on the City Council and as president of the council. He became the state’s 58th governor in 1987 and served two terms. After that, he served as comptroller of Maryland from 1999 to 2007.

He died on April 18, 2011, at the age of 89 and is buried in Timonium under a grave marker that says “He Cared.”

Lainy Lebow-Sachs, executor of Schaefer’s will and a close aide at City Hall and later the State House, said the civic fund is an extension of Schaefer’s love for his hometown.

She said that as mayor, he saw the need to make grants to the city’s communities and he had a small private fund that he would use to make neighborhood grants to help them beautify or come together.

“His biggest fun time was to go out and give the grants out,” recalled Lebow-Sachs through tears. “His legacy is helping people. What he taught us was all about helping somebody every day.”

The size of the Schaefer charitable gift, Lebow-Sachs said, reflected his frugal lifestyle and the fact that he was a bachelor who lived in his family’s mortgage-free West Baltimore house while he was mayor and later in the governor’s mansion in Annapolis.

“He never married and never had any children,” Lebow-Sachs said. “He lived very carefully.”

“This is the end,” she said of the Schaefer estate settlement. “The estate is done. He’s looking down and saying, ‘Yea, good job. Good job.’”

Schaefer spearheaded a push to revitalize the city’s decrepit waterfront with the development of Harborplace, now 32 years old. He built on an earlier revival of Charles Center that had helped to bring growth back to center city. As governor, he oversaw the development of the stadium complex at Camden Yards for the Orioles and the Ravens.

At Tuesday’s announcement, a group representing 28 Baltimore communities and nonprofits was awarded $137,880 in small grants from the BCF’s Neighborhood Grants Program, which holds the Schaefer civic fund.

The annual grants are distributed in the city and Baltimore County and range from $1,000 to $7,500 and have totaled more than $2 million annually for years.

The groups that received awards Tuesday include the Better Waverly Community Organization, which received $7,500 to host a community artist in residence to teach art to children and teens; the Creative Alliance, given $7,500 to pay for lantern-making workshops for the city’s Great Big Halloween Parade; and Paul’s Place in Pigtown, given $2,550 for an intergenerational community garden and greening project to help reclaim vacant lots.