The Allen Hilles Fund is a small, charitable foundation
that provides financial support in the areas of education,
women's issues, economic development in disadvantaged
communities and activities of the Religious Society of
Friends. The Fund was established by Edith Hilles Dewees
in memory of her father, Thomas Allen Hilles, and began
operation in 1983. Grants focus on the cities of Philadelphia
and Chester, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware.
Born in 1888, Edith Hilles Dewees was a remarkable woman
- unconventional, an activist - a 19th century woman taking
a leadership role in the advancement of social issues
and the freedom of women.
A Vassar graduate, class of 1914, Edith
Hilles went to work, first in Philadelphia and then to
New York with the state labor department - a daring action
for an affluent lady at that time. She held various other
jobs, yet somehow managed to earn an Agriculture degree
from Pennsylvania State University. Like Kathryn Hepburn,
thirteen years her junior, she wore trousers long before
they were fashionable for women. In 1929, still single,
she adopted two newborn infants, a boy and a girl.
In 1931 Edith Hilles married Lovett
Dewees, a widowed doctor with a 12-year-old son. Born
into the Episcopalian faith, she converted to the faith
of her husband and became a Quaker. Showing compassion
for others in need, the couple led active lives.
At their home, a farm in Chester County,
they housed people who were trapped in difficult circumstances
- a conscientious objector and his wife; a Jewish family
who could not find housing in the area because of prejudice,
a college friend with two children who was getting a divorce,
a student couple with no money.
During World War II, the pair helped
bring children to the United States to avoid bombing in
England, especially in London. Two of these children stayed
with the Dewees family for five years, until the war ended.
Edith Hilles Dewees was active in many
charitable ventures including the American Friends Service
Committee, Sleighton Farms School for delinquent girls,
the School in Rose Valley which she helped found.
Edith Hilles Dewees died in 1982 at
age 94. In her will, to honor her father who had raised
her as a single parent and to whom she was devoted, she
created the Allen Hilles Fund, a charitable family foundation
that would provide support in the areas of education,
women's issues, economic development in disadvantaged
communities and activities of the Religious Society of
Friends. The Fund focuses on the city of Philadelphia.
In 1999, the Board consisted of 3 family members - her
daughter-in-law and 2 grandsons and 3 non-family members.
