It was 3:15 in the afternoon on August 6, 1957. Assembled in the board of directors’ room at the Binghamton Savings Bank were Conrad Klee and a small group of other prominent Binghamton residents. They were busy signing papers creating the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation, and they formed the original Klee board of directors. In accordance with the new foundation’s bylaws, all board members were affiliated with major banking institutions either as directors or bank presidents.

During that session, the Klees presented a check for $5,000 to be the initial contribution to the foundation, stating: “It is our present intention, by our Wills, ultimately to provide you with a substantial fund … and the nominal contribution we make at this time is made as a token of our intentions and to provide a modicum of cash to be at your disposal until it is supplemented by further contributions.”

Klee nominated as chair his friend Cornelius Van Patten, who would serve in that capacity for the next 30 years.

The foundation made its first grant, of $500, to the Broome County United Fund in December 1957, and a similar amount the following year.  In 1959, Conrad Klee donated an additional $1,000 to the foundation, and stated that it was his and Virginia’s intent to make contributions to the foundation each year thereafter.  He also requested that primary consideration be given to donating toward scholarships at Harpur College.

At the end of its golden anniversary year of 2007, the Klee Foundation has awarded grants totaling over $20,000,000. Its assets have grown to more than $20,000,000 net of those grants, which have benefited residents of Broome County, in addition to periodic grants to organizations in Guilford, N.Y., birthplace of Virginia Klee.

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