Longtime Grand Junction Resident Gifts Multi-Million Dollar Royalty Interest, Establishes Waldeck Endowment Fund

Our Community Foundation is pleased to announce a large and unusual donation. In January 2010, Ellen Jo Waldeck, a longtime resident of Western Colorado, gifted a company holding a mineral royalty interest to our Community Foundation. Bill Frey, attorney for the Waldeck family, reports the value of the gift to range between $8.5 and $13 million as reported by an independent appraiser. The actual cash payout from the royalty interest will vary from month to month and year to year.

The newly established Waldeck Endowment Fund will support nursing scholarships at Mesa State College and provide financial support to eight other charitable organizations in Mesa County: Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, Homeward Bound, Partners, Habitat for Humanity, Marillac Clinic, Latimer House, Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado, and Roice-Hurst Humane Society.

Says Jo Waldeck, “I’m so pleased to be able to make this gift to the community I’ve called home. I’ve been thinking for awhile, what do I need all of this money for? Nobody needs this much money. I’ve had a good life and there are so many people out there with lots of needs, especially nowadays.” Jo was herself a nurse and first worked as a nurse at St. Mary’s during World War II. She has always seen nursing as an excellent career for women. Jo’s daughter, Susan Diaz, commented: “Mom has always had a very large heart for those who don’t have very much. We wanted to help some of the organizations in town providing basic needs to people who need help the most. My mom is leaving the world a better place – helping people she doesn’t even know – now and 50 and 100 years from now. This is what she wants her gift to do.”


For more information or to learn about charitable legacy gifts, contact the Western Colorado Community Foundation, 243-3767.

» You may also email us for any questions and or comments.