[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 62 (Thursday, April 11, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                    TRIBUTE TO HONOR BILL SOMERVILLE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 11, 2024

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the work of Bill 
Somerville, an extraordinary philanthropist, maverick grant-maker, 
advisor and a generous, creative, and devoted advocate for those in 
need. He retired as President of the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation 
(PVF) on December 31, 2023 and is being honored for his work on April 
12, 2024.
  Bill Somerville served for 17 years as the highly regarded Executive 
Director of the Peninsula Community Foundation. Eager to exercise his 
creativity he established PVF in 1990, with funding by the David and 
Lucile Packard Foundation. Since that time PVF has given nearly $250 
million in grants, and in 2023 made grants totaling $23.6 million, with 
a lean staff of 8 people. PVF gives grants of $500 to $10,000, without 
requiring the usual proposals or paperwork.
  Among his many accomplishments, Bill Somerville proposed placing 
Stanford graduates in a year-long fellowship to bring more young people 
into philanthropy. He created the Parent Involvement Worker Program 
which places recent ESL graduates into classrooms to ease the 
transition for students. He wrote Grassroots Philanthropy with Fred 
Setterberg to show other foundations how to use wealth to improve the 
world. He is a consultant and advisor at Stanford and other area 
universities and has shared his approach to philanthropy with more than 
400 community and family foundations.
  Larry Purcell, the beloved Director of the Catholic Worker House in 
Redwood City, said recently that, ``everywhere I look as a Catholic 
Worker in Redwood City, I see the footprints of Bill Somerville. He 
organized entire communities by targeted grants to the poor `` 
Somerville funded the first truck that the Catholic Worker House used 
to pick up and distribute free fresh food to the poor. Bill helped 
establish a food bank which is now the San Mateo County Second Harvest 
Food Bank which serves tens of thousands of families a month.
  Mr. Speaker, as I did on August 2, 2019, I ask the entire House of 
Representatives to join me in honoring the transformational work of an 
extraordinary man, Bill Somerville, and thank him for his unique 
leadership. He has strengthened our communities and bettered our Nation 
through his vision/ passion, and integrity, and he stands as a role 
model of what a citizen can do to create change in the lives of so 
many.

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