Jim Charles and his wife, Euval, were lifelong residents of Lindsay.
“He loved Lindsay,” Jim’s nephew, Ben Holder, said over lunch at a Lindsay restaurant last week.
Holder was in town to deliver grants funded by the J.L. and Euval Charles Charitable Trust to four Lindsay organizations. The grants will be used for projects to benefit the community of Lindsay.
Jim Charles was born in Lindsay in 1905 and graduated from Lindsay High School in 1923. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied business and finance, he went to work at the First National Bank of Lindsay as a cashier. He and Euval were married in 1938, and by 1957 he had acquired controlling stock in the bank and served as bank president.
Always the consummate banker, Holder said his Uncle Jim knew his business.
“He was good at feeling people out and just ‘knowing,’” which ideas would be successful and which ones needed to go back to the drawing board. And “he always wanted the best bang for his buck.”
Jim and Euval were well-respected and active members of the community. In addition to being bank president for more than 30 years, Jim served as president of Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce and was a founding member on the hospital board. Jim’s grandfather had served as Lindsay’s first mayor, and Jim was the first “native son” of Lindsay to serve as mayor of the city, according to 1963 newspaper advertisement for the bank.
The Charles’ were also lifelong members of the United Methodist Church, where Euval was active in church activities and Jim served as treasurer for 25 years.
Jim died in 1990, and Euval followed in 2004. But they left a lasting gift for their beloved hometown. After their deaths, the J.L. and Euval Charles Charitable Trust, held a little over $1 million, designated to benefit the community of Lindsay.
Holder now manages the trust as its executive secretary, along with his sisters, Lea Ann and Claire Holder, who serve as co-trustees.
In its early years, under a different manager, the trust made one-time grants for several projects in the Lindsay community. After Holder began managing the trust, he said he quickly realized the funds would last longer and go further if the trust invested its money and only distributed the income generated from the investments.
For the last eight years or so, Holder said he has distributed grants from that income annually, dividing the money equally between the City of Lindsay, Lindsay Public Schools, the United Methodist Church and Lindsay Municipal Hospital. This year that amounted to around $15,000 each.
Over the years grants from the trust have funded community storm sirens, fire trucks, projects to widen sidewalks at the city park, new band instruments and tablets for the schools, and a nursery extension and nursery renovations at the United Methodist Church.
This year the organizations receiving grants plan to fund projects such as reflooring the gym at the United Methodist Church, purchasing 3D printer equipment for the school’s new STEM lab, and widening bridges at the city park to make them ADA accessible.
“It’s a sign of hope for our society that we have people that are giving and investing in our communities,” Holder said. “Even in the drastic times that we are living in, there’s hope that we’re going to come out all right on the other side.”
