INSPIRE

A long-time teacher, Hinds believed in the power of education. She was very active in her church and was a classically trained pianist, attending the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. After graduating from college—the first in her family to do so—she briefly worked in social services, but soon discovered her true calling: educating children at the elementary school level. Hinds taught third grade, was a reading lab teacher and retired as an administrator in the Bronx, NY. She loved her students in the South Bronx and talked about them constantly to her family and friends. If the children saw her as a role model, she believed, they would have the confidence to achieve their goals.

Throughout her life, Hinds was a strong advocate for equitable access to higher education and particularly for helping underserved students. She didn’t share her intent to support UNCF with anyone, but it was apparent she knew that this gift would have a significant impact. Her bequest designated UNCF as the beneficiary of her teacher’s retirement fund, and her gift is now helping countless students in their journey toward achieving a college degree.

Farrell and his wife, Ellen Bass, gave in another way to support UNCF in the future. Farrell is a former judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest court for the city. Born and raised in West Orange, NJ, Farrell graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1960 and received his master’s degree in German from Columbia University in 1966. Before school, he was a high school teacher and chair of the English Department at Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, MD.

After graduating from American University’s Washington College of Law in Washington, DC, Farrell clerked for a judge on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and worked as a prosecutor at both the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. He served as chief of the appellate division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1982 to 1989, when he was nominated to the DC Court of Appeals. After taking senior status in 2008, he continued to hear cases until his retirement in January 2019.

Farrell has been a longtime donor and an admirer of UNCF. Over the years, he and his wife gave to UNCF to establish two charitable gift annuities (CGA). When asked why he and his wife decided to establish CGAs with UNCF, he shared, “I’ve long thought I owed a debt to a higher education philanthropy organization. In the early 1960s, a grant from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, since renamed the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, enabled me to begin graduate studies in English that eventually led to my chairmanship of the English department at a preparatory school in Maryland for several years. My gift to UNCF is partly a modest way to repay that generosity.”

While these donors chose different ways to leave a lasting mark through UNCF, they had the same goal of leaving a legacy and changing the lives of talented, deserving students. And that’s an impact that helps ensure better futures for us all.