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Conference receives $145,000 bequest

December, 2000

As Sarah Moore Field reached her 90s, she told her pastor she wanted to make sure that the many charities and missions she had supported in her lifetime would continue to receive her support after her death.

After several conversations on the topic, her pastor, Herbert Schumm, let her know about the Massachusetts Conference's Planned Giving program, which has a staff of professionals available to assist with drawing up wills and bequests.

As a result of her participation in that program, Ms. Field was able to make sure that the causes she cared about would not be forgotten.

Ms. Field died at the age of 103, and left generous bequests to the Salvation Army, Morgan Memorial Goodwill, the YWCA and the American Red Cross. She also left sums to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and to Phillips Academy in Andover.

But her biggest gifts were saved for the church that she so loved during her life. She had been a lifelong member of the Trinitarian Congregational Church of North Andover, and she also believed in the importance of the work of the wider United Church of Christ.

“The church had been like a family to her, and she felt that the church should be first among her commitments,” Schumm said.

After years of work on her estate and on preserving her homestead, Ms. Field's executors in November sent the Massachusetts Conference her gift of $145,367.

“This is a marvelous gift made possible by the generosity of the donor, the support of Rev. Herb Schumm and Ed Nutting, the Conference’s former planned giving director,” said Interim Conference Minister and President Erwin R. Bode.

Through a number of avenues, Ms. Field also left approximately $750,000 to the Trinitarian Congregational Church, where Schumm was the pastor before retiring.

“The house which was her home for 103 years was part of an estate separated from the church property by only a narrow street,” Schumm said. “She virtually lived in the shadow of the 142-foot church tower, and appropriately provided that one of the three endowments left to the church be for the maintenance of the tower.” The other church endowments are for the music program and for mission work.

Meredith Hutchison, Associate Conference Minister for Stewardship and Financial Development, said Ms. Field’s life “offers to all of us a wonderful lesson in the stewardship of God’s gifts.”

“Her faith in God expresses faith in those of us who minister in Christ’s name,” Hutchison said. “Sarah’s life made a difference when she walked with us and her life continues to make a difference now that she is walking with God.”

Ms. Field was born in 1885 to Herbert and Julia Field. Her father was a Lawrence banker whose real estate transactions provided the family's income. She did not marry and had no children.

Bode said the Conference Board of Directors will decide at its next meeting in which Conference endowment fund her bequest will reside.

“She had a strong feeling about endowments,” said Schumm. “She would be very pleased to know her gift would have a continuing benefit.”

For more information about Planned Giving, click here or contact Hutchison, or at (508) 875-5233.