The many FWA members who remember the late Barbara Epstein will be touched to know that Barbara remembered the FWA with a bequest to the Educational Fund.  Barbara’s gift of $25,000 supports the Fund that underlies the FWA mentoring projects, a cause very dear to her heart.

A stockbroker for many years, Barbara was a senior vice president at RBC Dain Rauscher at the time of her death in September 2006.  Always eager to promote FWA programs, Barbara was instrumental in helping the Education Fund to receive two separate grants from the foundation set up by her employer to support volunteerism. 

Barbara, in gray suit, at the Dain Rauscher grant presentation ceremony with mentees and members.

A mentor to several students at Murry Bergtraum High School over the years, Barbara displayed a personal interest in all the students, and worked hard to maximize the benefit of the relationship for them, never giving up on them even when problems arose, recalls Wendy Leibowitz, current mentoring committee co-chair.  “Barbara believed strongly in the program’s mission and she made every effort to come to all the activities, even in the last few years of her life when her health was declining.  And she stayed in touch with her students over the years.”
 
Cecelia Beirne, who chaired the mentoring committee in the first years of Barbara’s participation, said “she was a wonderful mentor.”  Cecelia particularly remembers the mentor/mentee dinner that she had at her apartment – “the most elegant event the girls had ever been to.”

Others within the organization knew her from her participation in several FWA International Conferences:   Italy, Belgium/Netherlands, and Ireland among them.  Barbara loved travel and fine dining and the theater, and shared much of those experiences with her friends and family, including her sister, Irene Spencer, a travel agent. 

While we miss Barbara, we are very happy that her memory will continue to be with us in the work to which she was so committed.   

Does your firm make grants to organizations where its employees volunteer?  Have you thought about including the FWA in your estate plans?*  For information on how you can follow Barbara’s example in these areas, please contact Jennifer Durst, FWA Director of Development at jdurst@fwa.org.