History

  • E. Hadley Stuart with Walt Disney at Disneyland's opening day.
  • E.A. Stuart with Shirley Temple.
  • Family Picnic at Carnation Farm, 1918.
  • Our founders, E.A. (left) and E.H. Stuart at the site of Carnation Company's first condensery.
  • E.H. Stuart
  • Board Member Dwight Stuart, Sr., in 1973 at the United Negro College Fund Southern California Campaign event.
E. Hadley Stuart with Walt Disney at Disneyland's opening day.

History of the Stuart Foundation

Elbridge A. Stuart, founder of the Carnation Company, established the Elbridge Stuart Foundation in 1937. Four years later, on the 57th anniversary of his marriage, he created the Elbridge and Mary Stuart Foundation. Elbridge H. Stuart, the son of Elbridge and Mary, formed the Mary Horner Stuart Foundation in 1941.

The Stuart Foundation, created by the merger of these three trusts, became an independent family foundation in 1985, dedicated to the protection, education and development of children and youth.  The Foundation has since contributed over $250 million for the benefit of children and youth in Washington and California.

My keenest desire now is that its [the country's] opportunities and its possibilities may remain open and available to my son and to my grandchildren and to their children after them as well as to all other young men and women who have high ideals and are willing to make sacrifices for their attainment.

Elbridge Amos Stuart

 

The Foundation’s Board of Directors has developed a vision for focused, strategic investments intended to make a positive impact on the field of education for all young people in California and Washington.  The Board also believes in supporting programs that affect populations in greatest need, including foster youth and the economically disadvantaged. The Board is particularly interested in systemic interventions that can be scaled up and sustained, such as school leadership development, the use of youth and parent-serving organizations as catalysts, and innovative school models.  The Stuart family remains active in the Foundation’s grantmaking, with three of Elbridge A. Stuart’s great-grandsons serving on the Board.