The Corella and Bertram F. BONNER FOUNDATION Mr. and Mrs. Bonner established the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation with the hope and expectation that the impact of their support would be far reaching. It is clear that their personal journeys played a significant role in the development and direction of the Bonner Foundation.
After Mr. Bonner passed away in 1993, Mrs. Bonner traveled extensively to campuses in the Bonner Network, carrying on the Bonners’ legacy of hope, service and gratitude until her death in July 2002.
colleges and congregations, the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation seeks to improve the lives of individuals and communities by helping meet the basic needs of nutrition and educational opportunity.” The Foundation has done this primarily through developing and implementing comprehensive strategies to engage colleges, universities and congregations with their local and regional communities.
2018
summer $74,713 of summer stipends awarded
The Bonner Foundation mission statement reads: “Through sustained partnerships with
corella and bertram f. bonner
spring bonner hits 80,000 hours of service
The Bonners’ community service can be traced to their early work providing food for families in their then–home of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Upon moving to Princeton, N.J., in 1956, they began a broad-based, ecumenical crisis ministry program housed in the Nassau Presbyterian Church. In 1989, Mr. Bonner hired Wayne Meisel as the founding president of the Bonner Foundation. Then, in 1990 – after working with the late John B. Stephenson, president of Berea College – Bertram and Corella established the first Bonner Scholars Program at Berea College in Kentucky.
spring bonner launches studentdesigned online application process
fall bonners have dedicated 8,000+ hours of service to metanoia, its first community partner
SPRING cofc bonners host their first sophomore exchange
2016
Also from a humble beginning, Corella Allen Bonner started her journey in the rural southern town of Eagan, Tenn. She had lived in coal-mining towns in West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky before the age of 14, when she, her mother and her siblings sought opportunity in the northern city of Detroit, Mich. There, she found work as a cafeteria cashier, attended Wayne State University at night and made sure that her younger siblings went to school. She worked her way up to manager of the cafeteria and eventually was
transferred to the Statler Hotel chain’s New York headquarters. It was there that she met Bertram Bonner. They were married four years later, in 1942.
2017
Bertram F. Bonner put himself through college taking night classes and had been named head treasurer of Hetty Green Banks by the time he was just 22. He made many loans to New York builders, which inspired him to become involved in the real estate business. He was successful from the beginning, and – even though he lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929 – was able to regain his fortune slowly, thanks to his hard work and tremendous business acumen. His six-decade career can be credited with the building of more than 30,000 homes and apartments.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING... BONNER LEADER PROGRAM
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