MILDRED ANDREWS FUND - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

The MILDRED ANDREWS FUND, established in Cleveland in 1972 by PETER PUTNAM†, was ranked the 4th largest independent foundation in northeast Ohio in 1990. The private operating foundation has funded HIGHER EDUCATION and ART, with an emphasis on sculpture. It has not accepted applications but has given to pre-selected organizations. In 1977 the Mildred Andrews Fund granted $297,000 to the Louise Nevelson sculpture gardens in New York City. The next year the fund and one of its trustees, MILDRED ANDREW PUTNAM† (mother of Peter Putnam), drew national attention after commissioning a sculpture by George Segal commemorating the 1970 slayings of 4 Kent State Univ. students by the Ohio National Guard. Kent State refused the gift of the $100,000 controversial artwork, entitled Abraham and Isaac; Putnam donated it to Princeton Univ. instead.

In 1991 the Mildred Andrews Fund gave its largest grant to date, $10,500,000 to the Nature Conservancy (Washington, DC), which Mildred Andrews Putnam and her son, Peter, had supported in their wills (the combined bequests totaled $37 million). Other grantees that year included CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, for renovation of the Putnam Estate, which had been donated to the university. With assets of $11,537,690, the Mildred Andrews Fund disbursed over $1 million in 1992 for 6 grants, ranging between $1,000 and $600,000. The fund maintained offices on EUCLID AVE. in 1995; Robert C. Bouhall served as the foundation's trustee.

See also FOUNDATIONS, PHILANTHROPY.

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