Acorn Trusts
In Memory of: Glenn A. Thomas
Glenn A. Thomas grew up in Green and attended school in this School District in the 1920s. Pictured here is a young Glenn Thomas and his wife. He was a member of the armed services and spent most of his working years as a tool and die maker for a company in the Detroit area. He retired to the Port Huron area of Michigan. He often returned to visit the Ontonagon countryside that he loved.
He died February, 1991. He left his entire Estate to establish a Trust, administered by the Ontonagon Area Scholarship Foundation, to provide scholarships for our graduates.
In Memory of: Evelyn (Ellman) Salter
Evelyn Salter was born in Detroit, October 27, 1907. She received her teaching certificate in 1929 and spent her entire career teaching in the Detroit Public Schools until her retirement in 1968. While teaching in Detroit, she met Allen Salter (an engineer whose roots were in Ontonagon) whom she married in 1933. The couple acquired a vacation home on the shores of Lake Superior near Green where they spent their summers. For many years, she operated the Porcupine Mountain Gift Shop out of her beloved lake home. She carried many beautiful and unique items in her shop including crafts from Beria College in Kentucky, a special needs school that depends entirely on private donations.
Evelyn took great pleasure in her summers in Ontonagon, treasuring the natural beauty of the area and her own private lake property. She wrote beautiful letters and composed poetry; in her writings, Evelyn expressed a deep love of nature and her strong religious faith that brought a special appreciation of her surroundings. She also loved to entertain; friends knew her to be an excellent cook and gracious hostess.
It is consistent with her quiet generosity and gentle concern for others that Evelyn Salter bequeathed her estate to organizations involved with education and community service including the Ontonagon Area Scholarship Foundation.
Allan & Sally Berman
Best friends, partners and sweethearts. That was Al and Sally Berman. They met in the staff lounge at Palatine High School, Palatine, IL, in the fall of 1969, became an “item” in the spring of 1970 and were married in December of that year. Al divided his time between an English department classroom, the wrestling room and various outdoor athletic fields; Sally’s habitat was the chemistry lab. Together they organized and ran wrestling tournaments and summer baseball road trips to play Wisconsin teams. Given a golden early retirement package, they retired together in June, 1994 and moved to their home on Lake Superior, near Ontonagon.
Once in the U. P., they became regular attendees at girls’ basketball games, helped out at track meets, became active members in the Ontonagon County Historical Society, and joined the Friends of the Porkies. Staunch believers in education, they began supporting the Ontonagon Area Scholarship Fund. When Al died in 2010, Sally established a memorial scholarship in his name, and she has added donations every year. The scholarship now bears both of their names in recognition of their commitment to preparing youth for future success.
“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” (Chaucer)
The Banfield-Chabot scholarship trusts are connected in a very special way. Carole Pearse and Dan Chabot were childhood friends and classmates at the old Ontonagon High School (OHS), Class of 1956. Carole went on to college, but Dan could not because of family circumstances at the time. A few years later he learned that an anonymous benefactor had set up a college trust fund that he could borrow from, and he, too, went on to graduate from Michigan State. Eventually, he would learn that Carole had been his benefactor, and they remained lifelong friends. When Carole died in 2009, her husband, Mark Banfield, whom she met at MSU, established an OASF scholarship fund in her memory, and Dan and his wife, Mary Ellen, established one of their own, so that today’s deserving students might benefit from the same good fortune that had been bestowed on him. Now, in recognition of this remarkable story, and to continue the legacy, one of Chabot’s sons has made a substantial donation to both funds, boosting them from other scholarship categories to the distinguished Acorn level. Both the Chabot and Banfield families hope that when their time comes, today’s graduates and scholarship recipients will recall this inspirational tale and its Golden Rule message — “pay it forward, pass it on.”
Carole & Mark Banfield
Carole Pearse was the only child of the late John L. Pearse, DDS, and Martha Walter Pearse, of Ontonagon. She graduated from Michigan State in 1960 with a major in divisional sociology and a minor in elementary education, and in that same year married Mark J. Banfield. From 1961 to 1964, Mark was stationed at the Pentagon with the Air Force; they returned to MSU in 1964 while Mark finished the MBA program.
Over the years, Carole was active in church and community affairs and with her sorority, Kappa Delta. Among other interests, at various times she also served as a medical assistant, volunteered at many military/veterans functions, and at the Washington International Center, which conducted activities for foreign embassy employees. She also was a counselor at hospitals, and coached a series of girls’ soccer teams. Since 1986 the family lived in Chester Springs, PA, where Carole volunteered at Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital and at an American Cancer Society retail outlet until her untimely death.
“Carole always had an interest in education and in providing an opportunity for all individuals to achieve their goals by attaining the skills needed to earn a decent living regardless of their native intelligence or culturally-imposed hurdles,” Mark says. “The efforts of all those who have sustained the OASF over the years would evoke a resounding “Well Done” and “Carry On!” from her.”
Mark Banfield is a native of Elmira, NY and retired in 1998 after a long and successful career as a securities and investment counselor for a variety of firms. Carole and Mark have three children and four grandchildren.
Dan & Mary Ellen Chabot
Dan Chabot is the son of the late Laurence and Mae Chabot and a 1956 graduate of Ontonagon High School. His father was a longtime president of the school board and his mother worked for many years in the high school principal’s office. Dan was an early officer of the Ontonagon Labor Day Committee and a founding member of the Norwich Country Club. He earned a degree in journalism from Michigan State University and worked for several newspapers, including the Ontonagon Herald, before joining the staff of the Milwaukee Journal, where he spent 25 years. For much of that time he was the editor of its popular Green Sheet section and authored a column. He also has written several novels.
Mary Ellen is the daughter of the late Arnold and Dolores Hilden of Ontonagon. A successful entrepreneur, for many years she owned and operated a popular collectibles and Christmas shop in Thiensville, a Milwaukee suburb. Dan and Mary Ellen have three sons and six grandchildren and are now retired and living in Florida.