The Legacy of the Lost Coins
10/28/2016 by Lisa Dagher
A generous gift was prompted by the re-discovery of an antique coin collection.
At our October 14 Board of Trustees meeting, our board chair, Rev. Dr. Deborah A. Block led a short devotion before we began our business. For our time of prayer, she read Jesus’ words as related in Luke 15:8-10.
“Or what of the woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
After the reading, Dr. Block asked a development staff member to share the story of not quite lost, but almost forgotten coins, we received late this past summer from the great-grandchildren of Rev. James G.K. McClure, McCormick’s first president who served from 1905 to 1928. James M. Stuart, Marian S. Pillsbury, and Alexander D. Stuart are also niece and nephews of life trustee, Margaret Stuart Hart and sent President Frank Yamada a letter dated August 5th with a special gift. They tell the story best:
“… Great-Grandfather was an ardent coin collector. It was a passion that began early in his life, in the latter part of the 19th century and continued until shortly before his death in 1932. By the time of his passing he had accumulated over 3,000 coins, meticulously arranged in custom built trays and stored in his house in Hubbard Woods, Illinois.
Our father, Robert D. Stuart, Jr., remembered sitting with his grandfather, looking through the coins in the trays and hearing the stories of how he came to acquire them. Dad subsequently inherited the collection at Great-Grandfather’s death. It remained in storage for decades until Dad’s death in 2014, after which it passed to us.
The three of us are not coin collectors and made the joint decision to sell the collection at auction – which we did earlier this summer. Because of Great-Grandfather’s close association with the McCormick Theological Seminary, we felt it would be appropriate to donate a portion of the proceeds to you. Accordingly, it is with great pleasure to enclose our three checks totaling $75,000…
We think our great-grandfather would be pleased to know that his descendants are honoring the legacy of his life’s work and important commitments. We are delighted to support the McCormick Theological Seminary and hope that our contributions will help further its’ mission…”
President Yamada expressed his thanks, saying,
“We are grateful to the McClure and Stuart families for contributing to the legacy which their great-grandfather helped to build. At our Legacy Award dinner last fall, we honored Dr. McClure’s granddaughter, Margaret Hart, a life trustee of McCormick. I closed my remarks for the evening by recognizing three students, all Millennials of different race-ethnicities and all from different denominations. I said to Margaret, ‘Thank you for the legacy of your grandfather. These (students), here, are your legacy.’”
We at McCormick are profoundly grateful for the legacy of Reverend James G.K. McClure, and in this season of Thanksgiving, we would like to thank again James M. Stuart, Marian S. Pillsbury, and Alexander D. Stuart for sharing the gift and legacy of your great-grandfather’s coin collection and for sharing this part of his story and yours with McCormick. Our students are part of your legacy, too.
Pictured: Margaret Stuart Hart with her family's continuing legacy, our students.