Wilkie leaves an indelible mark on Fort Worth

In this season of sharing, we pause to remember one of the greatest gifts ever to the city and people of Fort Worth.

It came in 1973 in the person of Val Wilkie Jr., the man who was the master of gift-giving in his role as head of the Sid Richardson Foundation, where he served for 38 years.

Wilkie, who died Tuesday in Sunapee, N.H., at the age of 91, was known as a kindhearted visionary who oversaw the donations of hundreds of millions of dollars to area institutions — large and small — benefiting education, the arts, healthcare and urban development.

The consummate educator, with degrees in history from Yale and Harvard, Wilkie did not sit in a bureaucratic maze of grant applications, detached from the everyday world of his adopted community. He connected with the organizations and individuals seeking funding, always offering advice and guidance on ways to improve.

Even when he turned down a request for funds, Wilkie did it in a way that would give the applicant encouragement. He often offered to mentor the person, a task he performed willingly and with a passion.

Wilkie consistently collaborated with other foundation leaders in order to avoid supporting duplication of services, and to help particularly small nonprofit groups to become better stewards, instructing them in ways that could lead them to become self-sustaining.

He was a champion of the human spirit, and his own spirituality guided his relationship with people, no matter their economic, social or political status.

A World War II veteran and former prisoner of war, Wilkie had a toughness to him, but it was his compassion, his true concern for all human beings and his community that was usually on display.

This former headmaster of a New England boarding school would come to Fort Worth and leave an indelible mark on a city that is much better than it would have been had he not come this way.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Wilkie was not merely admired and respected.

He truly was loved.

This story was originally published December 24, 2014 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Wilkie leaves an indelible mark on Fort Worth."