The true measure of a man is not what he says but what he gives. In 1974, at the age of 95, R.B.Price Jr. gave his beloved community the Boone County Community Trust. With the initial capital investment totaling $650,000, R.B Price created a living, perpetual source of funding designed to aid Boone County’s local, charitable organizations – the ones who do the real work for those in need within the community.
R.B. wanted to give something back to the place that had enriched both his business and personal life. As a banker and community leader, R.B. had been involved in providing financial advice and services to businesses and individuals alike. His generosity was widely known and he felt compelled to share with others his good fortune and civic-minded ideals. The Trust was the perfect opportunity to make this happen. With a board of three directors, R.B, Jerry Epple, trust officer with Boone County National Bank and his nephew, A.M Price, then President of Boone County National Bank, the Trust distributed the first of many, biannual donations to needy applicants.
In the intervening 43 years, the Trust has continued R.B.’s dream of community responsibility and charity by donating more than $3.6 million dollars to over 235 local organizations. Through prudent financial oversight and individual bequeaths of capital, the corpus of the Trust has grown from $650,000 to over $3.7 million dollars.