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HISTORY OF THE CHET WILLIAMS ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP FUND

By Dave Duskin

Ruth Williams passed away in a Marysville nursing home on Monday. October 2, 2000.   She was 84 and, until just before her death, lived in her home near Darrington.

Chet Williams was the manager of the Seafirst Bank branch in Darrington prior to his death.   He was a member of our Rotary club. At his death, the club established the Chet Williams scholarship at Darrington High School.

Chet and Ruth had no children.   Ruth provided that her estate was to go to our Rotary Club for scholarships.   She was very proud that we had thought enough of Chet to establish the scholarship.

Ruth is buried at the Masonic Memorial Cemetery in Olympia, next to her husband, Chester.   

The estate was not large, consisting primarily of an encumbered house.  The probate was handled by Rotarian Dave Duskin, and he recruited another Rotarian, Gene Bryson, the owner of Windermere Arlington, to list and sell the house. 

To make contributions deductible as charitable gifts, our Club established an endowed Donor Advised Fund with the Snohomish County Community Foundation (SCCF), with proceeds from Ruth Williams' estate and contributions from Windermere, Patti Buchholz (selling agent), and the law firm of Bailey Duskin, Peiffle, and others.   The fund was started with $5,584.

All of the funds going to scholarships in the first year, totaling $13,000, were channeled through SCCF to make them eligible for matching funds through the Dollars for Scholars program. 

Regarding the endowment fund, the Board intended to establish a fund that would grow through investments and additional contributions.   It was expected that 5% of the fund would be made available each year to help with the cost of the scholarships.   Any return on the investment of more than 5% will be left in the fund to grow. 

SCCF initially invested the funds through the Seattle Foundation, as SCCF was a new community foundation and did not have a large enough base to diversify investments.  Rotarian Dave Duskin was also on the SCCF board of directors and continued to serve on it after SCCF merged with the Greater Everett Community Foundation.  The Greater Everett Community Foundation changed its name to Community Foundation of Snohomish County (CF-SC).

Since its inception, the Club has, almost every year, used funds generated by the Great Stilly Duck Dash for scholarships that were funneled through and managed by the CF-SC, rather than from the fund's income. This has resulted in the fund's growth.  CF-SC dropped its affiliation with Dollars for Scholars, so the matching program ended.  The club considered channeling the scholarships through the Arlington Chapter of Dollars for Scholars, but it would have removed the club from the selection process and would not have included Darrington.

To meet IRS regulations, the scholarship selection committee has had to have a majority of people who are not members of our club.  Initially, the scholarships were awarded to graduating seniors from Arlington, Darrington, and Lakewood High Schools.  Because the Rotary Club of Marysville provides scholarships to Lakewood seniors, in recent years, they have been limited to Arlington and Darrington graduating seniors.

In the fall of 2025, the Rotary Club received notification from CF-SC that it had changed its policies and, as the donor of the funds held by CF-SC, the Rotary Club of Arlington could no longer serve as the selection committee's lead.  Options given by the CF-SC were to have a third party, such as Dollars for Scholars, make the selection, or transfer the funds to another 501 (c)(3) charitable organization that does not have this requirement. Since the fund was established, the club has established its own foundation. We reached out to the CF-SC, and the Arlington Rotary Foundation (ARF) would meet that criteria. Since our club wished to continue as the selection committee's lead, it requested that the funds be transferred to ARF.

At the close of 2025, CF-SC transferred the fund balance of $99,949.02 to ARF. The funds have been deposited into an investment account with Edward Jones Investment managed by Rotarian John Meno.