Community to benefit from estate

The Jay County community will be the major beneficiary of the estate of a Portland banker and philanthropist who died in March.
Elizabeth A. Starbuck, who died March 29, made $190,000 in outright bequests in her will on behalf of local organizations.
And after those gifts and bequests to Starbuck family members are completed, 90 percent of the residual of her estate will go to The Portland Foundation, creating eight new endowments and adding to five endowments already established at the foundation. Ten percent of the residual will go to First Presbyterian Church of Portland, where Elizabeth Starbuck was choir director for decades.
A service celebrating the life of Elizabeth Starbuck will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 17, at Arts Place. The public and representatives of organizations that benefited from her generosity are invited to attend.
While the size of the Starbuck estate has not been disclosed by MainSource Bank, which is acting as personal representative for unsupervised administration of the estate, it is believed to be substantial.
“Through her estate, she’s creating a philanthropic legacy unrivaled in Jay County,” said Doug Inman, executive director of the foundation. “She was very deliberate in the way she did this.”
Born in Kokomo on June 4, 1916, Elizabeth Starbuck was the daughter of Adelma Eugene and Florence Marion (Haynes) Starbuck. She was a 1934 graduate of Portland High School and attended Oberlin Conservatory and Westminster Choir College. She also did graduate work at Ball State University.
She joined Peoples Bank, which had been founded by her great-grandfather, Judge Jacob M. Haynes. She was a trust officer for many years and retired as the bank’s vice president. She also served as chairman emeritus of the bank’s board of directors. Peoples Bank was later acquired by a bank holding company that now operates as MainSource Bank.
Among the community bequests in Starbuck’s will are:
•$100,000 to Arts Place.
•$15,000 to the Green Park Cemetery Association.
•$10,000 each to the Jay County Community Center, the Museum of the Soldier, and the Jay County Historical Society, with an additional $10,000 added to the Jay County Historical Society endowment fund at The Portland Foundation
•$5,000 each to Jay County Public Library, Jay-Randolph Developmental Services, Westminster Choir College, and the Jay County Hospital Foundation, with an additional $5,000 to be added to the Jay County Hospital Auxiliary Scholarship Fund at the foundation.
•$2,000 each to Jay County 4-H, Portland Girl Scouts, Portland Boy Scouts, the Jay County Chamber of Commerce, and the Youth Service Bureau.
The 90 percent of the residual of the estate which is going to The Portland Foundation is to be divided as follows:
•26 percent to the general endowment of the foundation.
•20 percent to an endowment to be established at the foundation for Arts Place.
•10 percent each to the Haynes Starbuck Scholarship Fund II and the Elizabeth A. Starbuck Scholarship Fund II to be established at the foundation with the income to be used for scholarships for Jay County High School students. The will stipulates that the scholarships may be renewable at the discretion of the foundation board.
•5 percent to establish an endowment fund at the foundation for John Jay Center for Learning.
•4 percent each to the Haynes Starbuck Scholarship Fund and the Elizabeth A. Starbuck Fund that she had already established at the foundation.
•3 percent each to a scholarship fund she had already established for students majoring in art, a scholarship fund she had already established for students majoring in teaching, the endowment fund for Jay County Public Library, the endowment fund for United Way of Jay County, a new endowment fund in support of projects for senior citizens, a new endowment fund for Jay-Randolph Developmental Services, and a new endowment fund for the Jay County Hospital Foundation.[[In-content Ad]]