Duke Endowment: Making a difference for nearly a century

One of America’s most highly esteemed philanthropic initiatives was created 99 years ago in North Carolina. It is The Duke Endowment.

 

The foundation was established in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke of Durham, N.C., who was associated with Duke Power, Duke University and America’s tobacco industry.

 

James Duke started The Duke Endowment with an initial gift of $40 million. (That is the equivalent of about $694.3 million in today’s dollars.)

 

Now, as it approaches its centennial anniversary, the Duke Endowment has assets of nearly $6 billion. In nearly a century of giving, more than $4.3 billion has been distributed in grants to support what was near and dear to James Duke – namely higher education, health care, orphan care, rural Methodist churches and pensions for their preachers.

 

The focus has always been on making investments that benefit the people of North Carolina and South Carolina.

 

Mr. Duke was quite a guy, according to Judge William Robertson Perkins, who was James Duke’s personal legal counselor and drew up the language of The Duke Endowment Indenture.

 The text of a speech delivered by Judge Perkins in 1929 in his hometown of Lynchburg, Va., was preserved as part of a collection obtained by the Carteret County Historical Society. Perkins’ remarks are included within an 89-page booklet about The Duke Endowment.

 

As the youngest son of Washington and Artelia Duke, James Duke grew up on a farm. He recalled: “My old daddy always said that if he amounted to anything in life it was due to the Methodist circuit riders who frequently visited his home and whose preaching and counsel brought out the best that was in him.”

 

Judge Perkins said James Duke “invariably added: ‘If I amount to anything in this world, I owe it to my daddy (Washington Duke) and the Methodist Church.’”

 

Washington Duke was a pioneer in the manufacturing of tobacco products. In 1874, he formed W. Duke, Sons and Company in Durham. Both James Duke and an older brother, Benjamin Newton Duke, were involved in the business.

Washington Duke

Brothers James Duke (left) and Ben Duke

 

With James Duke at the helm, the Duke family business grew to become the nation’s largest cigarette manufacturer. The Dukes joined with four other leading manufacturers to form the American Tobacco Company in 1890, At age 33, James Duke became president of the trust.

 

Ben Duke took the leading role to diversify the family’s portfolio by investing in the textile industry; Ben eventually would serve as president of Erwin Mills, which was headquartered in Durham.

 

Washington Duke turned to other pursuits. A chief project was to bring Methodist-supported Trinity College from Randolph County to Durham. Washington Duke offered $85,000 cash and 60 acres of land in 1890, and the trustees accepted. Trinity College was up and running on its new Durham site by 1892.

 

In order to expand the Duke family’s textile empire, Ben and James Duke saw the importance of hydroelectric power. They launched the Southern Power Company in 1905. This was the same year that Washington Duke died.

 

Ben Duke took over the responsibility as the family’s chief liaison with the college, while James continued to pursue industrial opportunities.

 

Coinciding with the establishment of The Duke Endowment in 1924, James Duke agreed to allow Trinity College to be rechartered as Duke University in honor of his father, Washington Duke. 

This is an older photograph of Washington Duke.

James Duke possessed a “great heart” for education, Judge Perkins said. James Duke once commented: “I recognize that education, when conducted along sane and practical, as opposed to dogmatic and theoretical, lines, is next to religion, the greatest civilizing influence.”