$1.2 million estate gift to GH Community Foundation

By Allen Leister The Daily World • October 11, 2022 1:30 am
Photo Courtesy of Grays Harbor Community Foundation Patricia Clemons, a lifelong Montesano resident with a rich history in education and historical conservation, left a $1.2 million estate gift to the Grays Harbor Community Foundation to assist in the health, education, and welfare of children in the Montesano School District. Clemons died on May 30, 2021, at the age of 94.
Photo Courtesy of Grays Harbor Community Foundation Patricia Clemons, a lifelong Montesano resident with a rich history in education and historical conservation, left a $1.2 million estate gift to the Grays Harbor Community Foundation to assist in the health, education, and welfare of children in the Montesano School District. Clemons died on May 30, 2021, at the age of 94.

In our society, money is a driving factor in how people operate their lives whether it be in poverty or wealth. However, there becomes a point in everyone’s life when money no longer serves a personal purpose. As Randy Alcorn, the author of Money, Possessions & Eternity, once said, “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.”

For one local Grays Harbor organization, a donation from an East County philanthropist will help send it on ahead.

A new fund has been created after Montesano resident, Patricia Clemons, left a $1.2 million estate to the Grays Harbor Community Foundation. Patricia, who died on May 30, 2021, leaves behind the C.H. Clemons Memorial Fund, named after her grandfather, which will look to benefit the health, education and welfare of children in the Montesano School District.

Patricia’s legacy was ingrained with educational prowess. She was a 1944 graduate of Montesano High School and attended Grays Harbor College followed by Central Washington University where she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Education in 1949. Then Patricia’s post-secondary education path took a detour off the mainland United States where she earned a Master of Arts degree in Education in 1957, as well as an MA in Library Studies in 1974, at the University of Hawaii.

Patricia spent her 30-year education career with the Montesano School District, 20 years as a seventh-grade teacher, and 10 years as an elementary librarian. After her retirement in 1979, she started her second career in historical preservation, following in her father’s footsteps, by focusing on the heritage of East County. She was instrumental in the birth of the Chehalis Valley Historical Society Museum, which was renamed in her honor to “The Patricia A. Clemons Chehalis Valley Historical Museum” in April 2021.

Eric Potts, who serves as the executive director of the Grays Harbor Community Foundation, commented on Patricia being someone who understood the value of not only giving their money but giving their time.

“People like Patricia are the reason the Foundation is able to invest over $3 million into our community each year. Her legacy was already well established before her passing, but now through her legacy gift, we will be able to annually make a difference in the next generation of Montesano graduates and in the lives of local individuals who did not get the opportunity to know her and see her generosity firsthand,” Potts explained.

Potts said Patricia will forever be remembered in the Grays Harbor community and that it’s an honor to preserve her legacy through the work the Grays Harbor Community Foundation provides.

Besides being named Montesano’s Citizen of the Year in 2008 and enshrined in the Montesano High School Hall of Fame in 2013, she was also awarded the “Key to the City” in 2011, the first honor of such in Montesano’s history.

Although the main purpose of the fund is to assist the Montesano School District, additional beneficiaries will include Friends of the W.H. Abel Memorial Library, Connections (formerly the Children’s Advocacy Center of GH), Montesano after-school programming and the Grays Harbor Audubon Society for chartered purposes.