Longtime Barnes Members Provide Philanthropic Support Through Planned Giving

Laura and Bill Buck at the Barnes Foundation’s 2019 Barnes Art Ball

Members and supporters of the Barnes Foundation for more than 20 years, Laura and Bill Buck were among the first Circles members upon our move to the Parkway in 2012. Since then, they have been integrally involved in our exhibitions program and the Barnes Art Ball. An Honorary Trustee, Laura continues to thoughtfully steward the Barnes’s initia¬tives in vital ways. Sadly, Bill passed away in March 2023. But with his characteristic generosity of spirit, he named the Barnes in his will to provide leading support for the endowment. Bill’s enthusiasm for the arts, education, music, and sports shaped his remarkable philanthropic legacy in Philadelphia, of which the Barnes is honored to be a part, and we continue to cherish the Buck family’s passion for our institutional mission.

A retired professor of history at Temple University, Dr. Howard Spodek joined the Barnes Foundation as a general member in 2010—and in each and every year since. He and his wife, Lisa Hixenbaugh, nurtured an academic interest in the collection and the Barnes’s history as an institution of higher learning. Dr. Spodek, who passed away in August 2023, supported a number of civic, academic, and environmental causes and celebrated his longtime involvement in our organization by making the Barnes a beneficiary of his retirement account. This gift is deeply meaningful to all of us, bolstering our mission into our second century.

We are honored to recognize Bill Buck and Howard Spodek as members of the Barnes 1922 Legacy Society. With commitments like these, the Barnes can continue to serve our community as a cultural treasure, lifelong classroom, center for collections research and scholarship, and catalyst for resonant exhibitions and engaging programming long into the future.

Leave Your Legacy at the Barnes

There are many ways that you, too, can sustain the Barnes’s mission for future generations while enjoying tax savings and other benefits.

Consider naming the Barnes as a beneficiary of your will, retirement account, or donor-advised fund or making a gift that provides you with income for life. Many donors have found these giving vehicles helpful as either stand-alone contributions or part of an outright gift. In recognition of this generosity, you will become a member of the Barnes 1922 Legacy Society.

For more information about which gift would work best for you, contact Kathryn Fogarty at kfogarty@barnesfoundation.org or 215.278.7118.