Church Leaves Legacy with Charitable Remainder Trust to Support Cheshire

Joseph (Joe) T. Church ’71 grew up in Montville, Connecticut, a little more than an hour from Cheshire Academy. “My parents felt I possessed the inherent aptitude but lacked the discipline for greater things in life than was being offered in my hometown public high school,” Joe says. “They felt that CA could foster my innate abilities while instilling some positive direction into a youth with no compass.”

Joe thrived at CA, participating in lacrosse, track & field, Key Club, Student Council, and as a dormitory proctor. “Cheshire Academy armed me with a variety of basic academic tools and a worldly exposure by virtue of a diverse student body like I’d never seen and then pointed me toward the next stage of my educational adventure with a profound confidence.”

In gratitude for his excellent education, Joe began annual giving to CA in the 1980s. More recently, he and his wife Nancy established a charitable remainder trust to create the Joseph T. Church ’71 & Nancy A. Church Endowed Fund. “Our goal is to assist some future student that we shall never know make the right decisions at CA that helps catapult him or her to much greater things in this world.”

Joe acknowledges then Dean of Students and later Headmaster Dr. Earnest J. Beaulac, Jr., who, after one Friday afternoon of youthful “curiosity and deviousness decided to severely punish but not crush me.”

Joe encourages his fellow alumni to think back on their time at Cheshire. “It is a rare occurrence that something or someone didn’t have a positive influence on your life,” Joe says. “Your gift to Cheshire Academy will help current and future students experience the same and perhaps make a positive difference in this world. It’s a wonderful feeling.”