The “In the Service of Canada” Book of Remembrance (page 157) commemorates Ted Bade’s passing and his obituary notes that he was lost on an air rescue mission on Sep 20, 1973 in Telkwa Pass, British Columbia.
In 1994, as part of the celebrations associated with the 25th anniversary of graduation, the Class of ‘69 created an enduring project in the form of an endowment in Ted’s memory. The endowment is managed by the RMC Foundation and the initial purpose was to provide financial support via bursaries to deserving applicants who were paying their own expenses: ROTP cadets repeating a year as well as RETP cadets.
Classmates representing all three colleges of entry contributed towards the initial endowed capital target of $50K. Under CRA charitable donation regulations only the earnings on the endowed capital could be distributed as bursaries. This process worked well for about a dozen years with earnings being distributed via bursaries and the endowed capital continuing to grow through ongoing donations.
Starting in 2007 the endowment was unable to distribute earnings in accordance with its stated purpose because policies changed with respect to both ROTP and RETP cadets. As a result, the endowed capital as well as the earnings continued to grow but were essentially “stranded” or “orphaned” within the RMC Foundation as no distributions could be made against the approved purpose. As of January 2021, the endowed capital had reached a total of over $100K and the undistributed earnings stood at over $125K.
Over the past year a study was undertaken to address this situation by updating the “purposes” of the endowment. It was determined that this action would require the approval of the donors of the endowed capital. RMC Foundation records identified the donors who needed to be consulted and an interim steering committee of classmates representing the three colleges drafted new purposes as well as a plan of action for distribution of the accrued earnings and the longer-term disposition of the endowed capital.
In late May the Bade Endowment donors were polled and unanimously agreed to a series of steps as follows:
- Formalized the role and membership of the Bade Endowment Steering Committee and delegated ongoing authority to this committee to execute current and future distributions.
- Approved revised purposes for the endowment that would allow maximum flexibility in supporting current and future needs of the cadets and the colleges as well as support for the military heritage of the colleges past and present.
- Approved major distributions ($25K each) to the RMC Future Museum, the RMC St Jean St Maurice Project (Cadet mess) and the Royal Roads University Heritage Gardens Project. These distributions were executed and acknowledged in June including RRU publishing their gratitude in the university’s newsletter (https://www.royalroads.ca/news/class-69-gives-back-memory-ted-bade).
- Approved the plan for the longer-term endowed capital that would see the fund frozen as of 2021 and allow for capital to be distributed in 2031 (CRA limitation) in accordance with the approved purposes and with any residual being credited to the Foundation’s TDV fund.
Effort continues through the steering committee to identify additional opportunities for distributing accrued earnings. In early October a further distribution of $12.5K was approved in support of a Military Heritage Project at RRU championed by 9318 Dave Bindernagel and 10263 Don Lovell of the Vancouver Island Branch of the Ex-Cadet Club. This project will see the procurement and installation of a plaque memorializing ex-cadets of Royal Roads who died on duty.
The plaque will of course include 7715 Ted Bade as well as 8102 Bill Card from the Class of ’69. Current plans would see the plaque unveiled at RRU in September of 2022 and, in addition to Class of ’69 representation, it is hoped that Ted Bade’s daughter Nikki will be able to attend the unveiling.
The Class of ‘69’s experience over the past year suggests that other classes with Endowment Funds or Class Accumulating Funds might wish to regularly revisit their “purpose” to ensure that donated funds are working as intended. As one Class of ’69 donor commented “I gave so that the money would be put to work…. not to sit and accumulate earnings”.