Seven members chosen to join Wellik Foundation

The Arizona Community Foundation announced the appointment of seven new members to the Board of Directors of the Wellik Foundation, a supporting organization of the Arizona Community Foundation. All seven new members are Wickenburg residents, representing a wide range of professional expertise and personal attributes.

The new board members are Richard Blakeley, Gary Edwards, William Green, Alvin Hancock, Myrna Harrison, Barbara McArthur and Cathy Weiss. The remaining board members are Jan Baker Bryant, president; Bob King, secretary; and Dick DeVore.

Richard Blakeley is an Arizona native who spent 35 years as Director of Rehabilitation Services at Wickenburg Regional Medical Center until retiring last year to see physical therapy patients on a part-time basis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Southern California. He spent 14 years on the Board of Education and served as president, affording him extensive knowledge of Wickenburg’s educational needs. He and his wife Carol have seven children and 13 grandchildren.

Gary Edwards is Wickenburg’s Town Manager and spent most of his professional career in city management in Missouri, North Carolina and Florida prior to moving to Wickenburg. He also spent more than a decade as chief of staff for Missouri’s lieutenant governor and as communications director and chief of staff for the U.S. House of Representatives after beginning his career in radio broadcasting. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications, a master’s degree in public administration and is ICMA credentialed as a city manager.

William Green is a Realtor who has lived in Wickenburg since 1980 and was a personal friend of Viola and George Wellik. He owns Double J Court Self Storage with four locations in Wickenburg, and served as president of the Glendale Board of Realtors. He is active in the Wickenburg community, having served as president of the Rotary Club and Desert Caballeros and as vice president of the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts. He is currently chairman of the Housing and Community Development committee for the Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Town of Wickenburg’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. William and his wife Lyn have two daughters and four grandchildren residing in Wickenburg.

Alvin Hancock runs a privately-owned construction company, AH Construction. His family has been in the Wickenburg area for several generations and he is a leader in the local and state Mormon community. He is a former board member of the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts. He is on the Board of Directors for Rotary Club of Wickenburg and is involved with Amigos de Guatemala, a volunteer program to build additions to primary schools in Guatemala.

Myrna Harrison is an accomplished artist and retired college president. After serving as a teaching assistant at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s, she served as president of two Bay Area community colleges, pursuing art studies and displaying her artwork in local galleries, before moving to Arizona in 1980. She then served as president of Rio Salado Community College, Gateway Community College and Phoenix College before retiring in 1993 and moving to Wickenburg. Her expressionist, color-saturated paintings of the desert, canyons and mountains surrounding her home evoke the landscape of the southwest. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and graduated with honors from New York University.

Barbara McArthur is a marriage and family counselor with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Arizona State University. She and her husband James, an attorney, moved from Tempe to Wickenburg in late 1970s to raise their children. She served on the original board Viola Wellik created to distribute scholarships in honor of her late husband George before she established the Wellik Foundation, and is a former school board member. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University.

Cathy Weiss has served since 2003 as executive director of the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts. Prior to this position, she was general manager of Rancho de los Caballeros, an historic guest ranch and golf club in Wickenburg. She spent her career in the hospitality industry, working for hotels and resorts in New York, California and Arizona. She is a member of the National Association of Arts Presenters, Western Arts Alliance, Arizona Arts Presenters, Arizona Town Hall, the Mayor’s Task Force for ‘Destination Wickenburg,’ and the Wickenburg Tourism Authority, and is past president of the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce.

The Wellik Foundation was established by the late Viola Wellik, who wanted to preserve the values and traditions of small-town culture in Wickenburg. In 1998, she established a supporting organization at ACF to benefit the residents of the Wickenburg area. Her bequest resulted in a significant philanthropic endowment to ensure the community has a continuous source of funding to address current and emerging community needs. Since 1998, the Wellik Foundation has awarded more than $2.5 million in grants to Wickenburg-area nonprofits.

The Arizona Community Foundation is a statewide nonprofit organization with four regional offices serving 13 affiliate community foundations. Established in 1978 and certified under the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations, ACF is among the top 30 community foundations in the nation with $460 million in trust and endowment assets. Last year, ACF and its affiliates awarded $72.4 million in grants and scholarships to more than 3,500 nonprofit organizations, schools and government agencies. More information is available at www.azfoundation.org.

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