Testimonials

Mission

"My mother Catherine was born in 1898, the third of four siblings, in a summer cabin in Twilight Falls, New York.  She grew up in the Executive Mansion in Albany, New York, during her father’s governorship.  She majored in Art and graduated from Wellesley in 1920.   Early in her life she raised money for an annual performance at the Metropolitan Opera, to benefit the Near East Colleges.  During World War II she threw her energies into helping a Polish hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland.   But it was the racial injustice in America that became the central focus of her life, and the impetus to envision this foundation."

-Theodore Waddell

Grandson of Charles

Evans Hughes

Created by Catherine Hughes Waddell, a daughter of Charles Evans Hughes, and her husband, Chauncey L. Waddell, the Foundation seeks to honor the legacy of its founders and of Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court and Governor of the State of New York.  Accordingly, the Foundation focuses its support on programs of national scope or importance in the following fields of interest:

• Education
  

• Legal and Human Rights
  

• Environment, Population and Health
  

• Arts and Culture
  

In each of these fields, the Foundation seeks to encourage full civic participation by all Americans and works to ensure not only that political and civil rights are upheld, but also that individuals are able to exercise those rights.  Excellent local programs demonstrating impact in these areas may be considered from time to time.

History

Catherine Hughes, the daughter of Charles Evans, married Chauncey Lockhart Waddell in 1922. 

A pilot in World War I and Harvard graduate, Chauncey Waddell along with partner Cameron Reed went on to found the mutual fund group United Funds Inc. and its underwriter Waddell and Reed.  Catherine was an active philanthropist, focusing particularly on racial injustice in America.  She firmly believed that the way to combat ignorant prejudice was through education.  After Catherine’s untimely death in 1961, Chauncey fulfilled their wishes for a philanthropic foundation and named it in tribute to Catherine’s father.

The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.