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Grace and Franklin Bernsen Through their establishment of the Foundation bearing their name, in 1968, Grace an Franklin Bernsen provided their longtime home community and its surrounding area with a continuing source of significant monetary support for a broad range of non-profit and charitable causes and undertakings, which they so enthusiastically encouraged and aided during their own lifetimes. |
In a City widely known for its civic spirit, and for the generosity amply demonstrated by many of its early leaders, the Bernsens' commitment, as expressed through the ongoing conduct of the Foundation which they created, has made possible notable contributions to the quality of life for citizens of the Tulsa area.
Born in the Eastern United States, Franklin Bernsen received his early education in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, before graduating in 1915 from Williams College. There, his class book made note of a "good-natured personality and ready line of talk," prophetically adding that, with his "keenest determination to see to a finish whatever he has though worth while starting... you have the qualities which insure his success in the business world."
Joining his family, by then in California, in the early days of what would later become known as the "Golden Era" of the silent motion picture industry, the handsome young Bernsen appeared as an "extra" in several film productions, including A Night at the Show, featuring Charlie Chaplin.
The young Bernsen's experiences in California also included work in the Taft oil field for General Petroleum Company, where he first became familiar with a name he would later be associated with, that of the Lucey Manufacturing Corporation, as well as driving for a Canadian family that wished to tour the State. Included in that family, the Charles A. Wilsons of Ontario, was a daughter, Grace, a 1912 graduate of the West Lake School for Girls in Los Angeles, who was destined to become Mrs. Franklin Bernsen.
After serving overseas in World War I, Bernsen joined the Lucey Manufacturing Corporation, in what would remain a principal business association throughout his lifetime. Quickly catching the attention of the management as a prospective salesman, he was sent to Covington, Oklahoma, a community east of Enid, in the north central area of the State.
In that exciting era of burgeoning growth in the State's oil industry, Bernsen attained rapid success. Less than ten years after joining Lucey, he became President of the Lucey Products Company, located in Tulsa.
In Tulsa, the Bernsens became know for their philanthropic efforts. Socially prominent, a founding member of Southern Hills Country Club with a penchant for world travel which they frequently enjoyed, they were noted for their significant contributions to such institutions and organizations as the First Presbyterian Church, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Boy Scouts.
The Bernsens also provided funding for a much-needed mothers' milk bank at St. John's Hospital. When the advent of infant formula ended the need for the milk bank, they donated a neonatal, intensive care isolette (a complete care center for newborn infants) to that hospital.
At the time when the provision for special care for newborn infants was being made, Franklin Bernsen was quoted as saying that "To know this equipment saves even one life -- or improves the quality of life for a new human being -- is ample repayment for my wife and myself."
The Bernsens early embraced a concept of philanthropy which gained wide favor over succeeding years -- that of making major gifts, now often referred to as "impact grants" -- over and above contributions to continuing operations. The Foundation furthers this philosophy through periodic large grants such as those making possible a new school building for the Tulsa Boys Home, a new home for the Little Light House, and St. John's Hospital's new Bernsen Rehabilitation Center.
Within the thirteen years following the death of Franklin Bernsen in January of 1984, the Foundation which he and his wife created had made grant distributions of more than eleven million dollars in assisting scores of charitable and non-profit enterprises seeking to better the lives of Tulsans and their neighbors. It is a record of impressive stewardship in the public interest, at the behest of an extraordinarily warm hearted, forward-looking Tulsa couple.
Please direct all grant application correspondence to:
The Grace and Franklin Bernsen Foundation
15 West 6th Street, Suite 1308
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119-5407
(918)584-4711
(918)584-4713 Fax
eMail the Bernsen
Foundation
