Hw Durham Foundation

H. W. Durham was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He moved to Memphis in 1917 and founded the Cosmopolitan Life Insurance Company. Following the sale of Cosmopolitan Life in 1955, Mr. Durham and his wife, Roberta, established the H. W. Durham Foundation as an Operating Foundation to construct, maintain and manage the Durham Retirement Home in Bartlett, TN for active senior citizens.

After Mr. Durham's passing, Thomas H. Durham, Jr. (H. W's nephew) took over as President of the Foundation and director of the Retirement Home. His background included serving as a ball-turret gunner during World War II, after which Thomas completed law school and served as clerk to District Judge Marion Boyd. After he completed his clerkship, he served many years as a procurement lawyer for the U.S. military as well as a board member of the Home and assistant director there.

In the summer of 1988, the Foundation’s Board closed the home and used the proceeds of the sale of the property to reconfigure the foundation as a Grantmaking Foundation dedicated to serving the elderly in Memphis and the Mid-South. The Foundation’s focus on Aging Issues honors Mr. Durham’s stated desire to serve “God’s Older Children”.

To assure the family's dedication to the further fulfillment of Mr. Durham’s desire to return to the community many of the blessings bestowed upon him in life, Thomas Durham and the Board hired H. W.'s grandniece, Jenks McCrory, as the third generation to serve the Foundation. Then as Thomas neared retirement, he hired H.W.'s great-grandnephew, Christopher Cooper, to serve as the fourth generation. Mr. Cooper is currently the President of the Foundation, and Ms. McCrory serves as Chairman of the Board.