{"id":13356,"date":"2015-11-04T15:33:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/?p=13356"},"modified":"2015-11-04T15:33:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:33:26","slug":"southwest-florida-community-foundation-announces-new-fund-mans-frugal-nature-savvy-investing-and-hard-work-help-him-save-millions-to-donate-back-to-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/2015\/11\/04\/southwest-florida-community-foundation-announces-new-fund-mans-frugal-nature-savvy-investing-and-hard-work-help-him-save-millions-to-donate-back-to-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Florida Community Foundation announces new fund; Man\u2019s frugal nature, savvy investing and hard work help him save millions to donate back to the community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Frank<\/a><\/p>\n

FORT MYERS, Fla. (Nov. 4, 2015) \u2013 Frank Stern was one of those self-made millionaires who never dressed the part or lived extravagantly. He even avoided driving on toll bridges to save a dollar \u2013\u00a0literally.<\/p>\n

Every dollar Stern saved \u2013 more than $4 million during a 14-year span \u2013 was endowed to a donor-advised fund at the Southwest Florida Community Foundation upon his death at age 95 in February 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is people like Frank who inspire us in our work to do everything we can as effectively and efficiently as possible to create change in our region,\u201d said Sarah Owen, president and CEO of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stern followed a low-key and healthy lifestyle, and he remained active in his businesses until a few years before his passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he took the bridge once or twice,\u201d said Larry Sickler, a long-time supervisor for FTE Developers, one of several local businesses operated by Stern and his brother Ed Stern. \u201cHe never went across the Midpoint Bridge because he didn\u2019t want to pay the toll. He always said, \u2018I can get where I want to go without paying a dollar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrank was really into investing and making sure his money did a lot of good when he was gone,\u201d said Michael Davis, a financial advisor who met Stern 12 years ago and helped him plan his charitable giving. \u201cFrank was extremely frugal, and he wanted to make sure he didn\u2019t run out of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stern made his fortune in real estate investment and development during the first wave of seasonal residents to Fort Myers and Cape Coral in the mid 1900s. He discovered Southwest Florida after his father, a butcher, retired to the area and started purchasing land.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrank never had anything handed to him,\u201d said Sickler. \u201cEvery dollar he had he gained by working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Wisconsin, Stern tapped into his entrepreneurial spirit in high school, renovating and selling Ford motorcars. He was working toward a business degree at the University of Texas during the onset of World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe figured if he volunteered, he would get a better job,\u201d said Charles Marble, a long-time friend and Stern\u2019s caregiver. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to be in the infantry, so he went to flight school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stern was stationed in England and flew unarmed recognizance missions into enemy territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like Forest Gump because he witnessed a lot of history,\u201d Davis recalled fondly. \u201cFrank had so many stories about the war in Europe. He even took a picture of one of his friends with Churchill and Eisenhower. He was a real gentleman and very interesting to talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force and was active in its reserve program for 20 years. He established his permanent roots in the Fort Myers area in the 1960s. He never married or had children.<\/p>\n

Stern was committed to giving back to the community where he\u2019d made his fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was thinking about starting his own foundation until he learned the Southwest Florida Community Foundation was right here and basically doing the same thing,\u201d Marble said. \u201cFrank donated to a number of projects but would never accept a plaque or have anything named after him. That wasn\u2019t Frank\u2019s style. He was not looking for accolades from anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he left a never-ending legacy for Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrank was a fine man. He was honest and fair, a very good person,\u201d said Sickler. \u201cOnce he opened up, you\u2019d see all these great qualities. We started off as business partners and ended up as family.\u201d<\/p>\n

As leaders, conveners, grant makers and concierges of philanthropy, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is a foundation built on community leadership with an inspired history of fostering regional change for the common good in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Community Foundation, founded in 1976, connects donors and their philanthropic aspirations with evolving community needs. With assets of more than $93 million, the Community Foundation has provided more than $61.2 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves. Last year, it granted more than $2.9 million to nonprofit organizations supporting education, animal welfare, arts, healthcare and human services. It also granted $782,000 in nonprofit grants including more than $551,000 in regional community impact grants and additional $450,000 in scholarship grants.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, call 239-274-5900 or visit\u00a0www.floridacommunity.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT MYERS, Fla. (Nov. 4, 2015) \u2013 Frank Stern was one of those self-made millionaires who never dressed the part or lived extravagantly. He even avoided driving on toll bridges…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[5680,5681,5682,5683,5684,5685,59,16,17,5686,5687,5688,1046,716,590,5265,366,5689,5690,858,894,19,2542,3563,21,5691,5692,4614,1590],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}