Bill Long was a man so humble that he didn’t even want his name on a donation — a $4.4 million donation.
The rancher from Pincher Creek, Alta., who died in December 2013, instead organized an endowment in the name of his uncle and long-time ranching partner, Henry Stewart Varley, who died in 1990.
The Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta will administer the endowment, which will generate $150,000 a year in grant funds in perpetuity.
“It’s a forever gift,” foundation chair Dianne King said during a Dec. 19 announcement of the donation.
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“(Long) found a forever way to ensure that rural life will thrive in southern Alberta.”
Long was born in Fort Macleod, Alta., in 1934 and orphaned one year later when his parents were killed in a car accident. He survived three days in the wreck before he and his parents were found.
It was a tragic beginning, but Long found a home with his grandparents, Tom and Connie Varley, and then with his uncle Henry.
The two men, neither of whom married, raised Hereford cattle on their ranch in the Fishburn district of the Municipality of Pincher Creek.
Long’s cousin, Maxiene Bodgener, described him as “a very, very shy man, but very intelligent. Anything that he was going to do, it was checked out.”
Bodgener said Long’s donation to help rural people, communities and activities is entirely suitable.
“I think it is just what Bill would have wanted and it’s going to the agriculture section to help younger ones out and I know he’d be very proud.
“The only thing is, he would not like to hear us talking about him. He’d think we should be talking about Henry Varley.”
Long sold his ranch in 2000 and moved to town but maintained his interest in agriculture and in giving people “a hand up, not a hand out,” said King.
The donation will serve to create a rural life fund within the community foundation. King said the board has yet to determine where and how the endowment will be spent.
The foundation comprises 12 municipalities in southern Alberta. It invests donations and provides grants to community groups and causes.
