2007 Annual Report - Greater Worcester Community Foundation

Barbara Allen Booth Fund
Making history come alive
“The fund grows as a future resource for the executive director,”
says Barbara Allen Booth.
Barbara Allen Booth grew up in rural Spencer on land
that her “grandfather’s grandfather” received for his
service in the Continental Army under the command of
General Washington.
When she became Mrs. Howard M. Booth, she continued
to connect the history of her family with that of the
T
The Foundation husbands my money on behalf of the museum.
And I don’t need to do any work.
Barbara Allen Booth
nation and region. A long-time donor and trustee of
the Worcester Historical Museum, Mrs. Booth worked
with the museum to turn the papers of her father-in-law
George W. Booth (1870-1955), publisher of the
Worcester Telegram, The Evening Gazette and the Sunday
Telegram, into a memoir. She and her brother-in-law,
the late Robert W. Booth, funded the museum’s main
exhibition gallery.
“History helps people see their lives in a larger context,”
says William D. Wallace, executive director of the
Worcester Historical Museum. “Understanding our
relationships to one another enriches our sense of our
community and ourselves. This bigger picture is very
important to Mrs. Booth.”
Barbara Booth is eager to help the museum tell a larger
story of Worcester and its people. Now an honorary
trustee of the museum, she helped to fund the initial
architectural studies of its future home at the Worcester
Blackstone Visitor Center. In its new quarters, the
museum will double its exhibition space, gain riverside
acreage, and create programs with other nonprofits that
incorporate all dimensions of life in the region, from the
arts and industry to ecology and civics.
Looking forward to preserve the past, Barbara Booth
turned to the Foundation to create an endowed fund
that will support the Worcester Historical Museum in
perpetuity.
“The fund grows as a future resource for the executive
director,” says Barbara Booth, who celebrates her 97th
birthday in 2008. “Creating the fund was a good decision.
The Foundation husbands my money on behalf of the
museum. And I don’t need to do any work.”
On right: “History helps people see their lives in a larger context,” says
William D. Wallace, executive director, Worcester Historical Museum, with young visitors.
10 Greater Worcester Community Foundation • 07 ANNUAL REPORT