The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 13

yr yyjiiy wiTViro yjn- yy-yyryvmum 9, THE PALM BEACH POST MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1998 13A 77 M'A the f2otts: Philanthropy runs in the family Eccentric Mott kept costs down WW 1 7 I I By Jennifer PeHz Palm Beach Post Staff Writer CHARLES STEWART MOTT (18751973) Founder, United States Sugar Corp. Founder, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Assets: $1.9 billion Annual grants: $72 million. Interests: poverty; environment; civil society; Flint, Mich. Charles Stewart Mott once. the story goes, changed a 30-watt retngerator bulb to 15 watts to save electricity That might not have been for someone who'd the Great Depression.

But Mott, creator of what became the country's 15th-largest charitable foundation, was then considered one of the richest men in the to United States. Still, he prized simplicity. He had left his father's cider ETHEL HARDING MOTT (b. 1877 d. 1924) MITTIES RATHBUN MOTT '(b.

1892 1928) DEE FUREY MOTT JDivorced in 1930) business in 1900 to make one of TAKE America's legendary automotive fortunes. But he made his own home a work ing farm RUTH RAWLINGS MOTT (1901 Founder, Ruth Mott Foundation Assets: $17.3 million Annual grants: $410,000 Interests: education; government agencies. Founder, Ruth Mott Fund (closed November 1997) Assets: $2.6 million Annual grants: $1.7 million Interests: arts; environment; preventive health care; national and international security; Flint and Genesee County, Mich. Co-founder, Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust Trustee emeritus, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and insisted 25 OFF The Following his family eat all the homegrown produce before buying any.

"If this house wants yellow tomato juice, it had better make it Stewart Mott in 1972 Entire Stock Of Regular and Reduced Rompers Lounge Dresses Sun Dresses Entire Stock Of Regular and Reduced Shorts Including Walk Shorts, Skorts, Culottes and Knit Shorts Entire Stock Of Regular and Reduced T-Shirts Novelty Knit Tops during the season," he once decreed, according to a family history published by the University of Michigan at Flint. But C.S. Mott was as generous as he was thrifty and, perhaps not surprising, thrifty about the business of being generous. During his time, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation roosted in an office with obviously patched carpet; the office manager had to buy his own air conditioner. Along with a fortune valued at WW 4V of Ethel Harding Mott: AIMEE MOTT BUTLER '(19021993) Founder, Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation 'Assets: $16.7 million Annual grants: $959,000 Interests: artsculture; education; i' environment; human services.

ELSA MOTT IVES Gave to public television, Goodwill Industries, the English-Speaking Union, and New York City's Metropolitan Opera. Take An Additional 40 Off Entire Stock of Swimwear and Coverups hundreds of millions of dollars at last count, C.S. Mott left his fam Selection will vary by store. No adjustments made on previously purchased merchandise. ily a commitment to charity.

His widow, his six children and several of his grandchildren them selves became philanthropists Their interests range but have Juno 622-2924 JupiterTequesta 747-0M)6 Palm Springs in Greenwood Shopping Center 965-6591 West Lake Worth 965-4665 Bovnton Beach in Sunshine Square 369-1773 Stuart Center 287-7123 Stuart in Cedar Point Plaza 220-8066 Vero Beach 562-0480 Naples in the Pavilion 596-1872 MASTERCARD VISA AMERIC AN EXPRESS DISCOVER common themes like promot ing peace and revitalizing Flint, said William White, C.S. Mott's grandson-in-law and the current head of the Charles Stewart Mott Children of Ruth Rawlings Mott: SUSAN MOTT WEBB (19361977) Founder, Susan Mott Webb Charitable Trust Assets': $12.2 million Annual grants': $458,000 Interests: education; health care; social services; Christian organizations in and around Birmingham, Ala. STEWART RAWLINGS MOTT (1937 Co-founder, Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust Spectemur Agendo Assets: $12.4 million Annual grants: $539,000 Interests: peace; population issues; government reform and accountability; civil rights. Director emeritus, U.S.

Sugar Corp. Founder, Flint Community Planned Parenthood MARYANNE MOTT (1942 Founder, The Warsh-Mott Legacy $9.6 million Annual $312,000 Interests: environment; public policy; civil rights; journalism; agriculture. Founder, C.S. Fund Assets: $504,000 Annual Interests: biodiversity; public policy; civil rights; journalism Trustee, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation President, Ruth Mott Foundation Trustee, Ruth Mott Fund (closed November 1997) Foundation. It remains the larg est of the family's philanthropies.

Probably the best known of C.S. Motts descendants is son Stewart Rawlings Mott. He con siders himself the family black sheep, mavenck, whatever you want to call it" for his liberal poli tics and flamboyant style. But in some ways, he didn't fall far from the Mott family tree. Stewart Mott has given away half his income for decades, but CHARLES STEWART HARDING MOTT (1906 1989) Former chairman, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (1965 1989) Former chairman, U.S.

Sugar Corp. (1973 1989) Founder, Charles Stewart Harding Foundation Assets': $8 million Annual $222,000 Interests: theological education; Christian Scientist organizations. "Harding Mott, as he was known, 1 lived in Delray Beach. he's been known to do it from an apartment with peeling paint and rundown furniture. It was a Park Oct.

30 through Nov. 1, 1998 Village Hall Avenue penthouse, yes, but he grew his own vegetables and raised his own chickens on the roof (to the dismay of his neighbors, who eventually had a court Municipal Complex Royal Palm Beach order him to stick to his own ter race. He moved.) His plunges into politics are not surprising for the son of a three-time Flint mayor. But father and son were more than six decades apart in age and just as far in politics. "When I talked to (C.S.

Mott), Most of Charles Stewart Mott's grandchildren are trustees of family foundations. Some play key roles: the veteran of the Spanish American War, about laying PALMS WESTFEST '08 6th Annual Music, Art, Food and Dance Festival presented by the Palms West Chamber of Commerce down our nuclear weapons with the enemy, he thought I was wacko," Stewart Mott said. "My father just found me too argu mentative. CLAIRE MOTT WHITE (1938 daughter of Charles Stewart "Harding Mott and his wife, Isabel Chairman, The Isabel Foundation Assets: $42.2 million Annual $1.1 million Interests': Christian Scientist organizations; arts; public broadcasting; environment. Co-founder and vice president, Charles Stewart Harding Foundation So much so, he said, that he wasn't welcome at his father's foundation.

So he carved out his own brand of philanthropy: part giving money, part raising it; part pohUcs; and part just plain party. 1 Ie gave hefty donations to the presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy, George McGov- WILLIAM S. WHITE (1937 married to Claire Mott White Chairman, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (1989 Chairman, U.S. Sugar Corp. (1989 President, The Isabel Foundation Treasurer, Charles Stewart Harding Foundation ern and later, John Anderson.

His $400,000 contribution made him Financial figures are the most recent available; no stat 1997 1996 1995 1994 McGovern's most generous supporter and earned him a spot on the Nixon White House's ene We Thank Our Sponsors Palms West Hospital Wellington Regional Medical Center Intracoastal Health Systems WPEC- Channel 12 The Palm Beach Post The Florida PennySavcr Village of Royal Palm Beach First Union National Bank Pepsi -Cola Adelphia Women's Health Services Vendor Categories Booth space available to vendors in the following categories: Arts Crafts $70.00 or $85.00 Green Market Business Booths 1 50.00 Merchandise Booths $175.00 Deadline for booth entry application October 10, 1998 'Discount rates for members mies list. He mounted his own For application or information, contact the Palm West Chamber of Commerce (561)79(M200 or visit us at 13901 Southern Boulevard, Loxahatchee www palmswest.com campaign to stop the Vietnam War from Washington to the General Motors Corp. boardroom, where he criticized the company that made his fortune for not speaking out against the war. But "I wasn't crusading against my father," Stewart Mott said. "No way.

I was just going a different path." Besides high-profile work, there was high-profile play, like his 40th birthday party in New York in 1977, which he still talks about. The former Columbia drama student asked his 6.S0 guests to dress in Medieval garb and staged his own script of a King Arthur legend. Now 61 and living mostly in North S.ilt-m. N.Y.. Stewart Mott has stayed largely out of the limelight in recent years.

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