History
Introduction to Kelley’s Gift
Kelley’s Gift
Kelley’s Gift by Dale Illig is the story of how Dale first met Kelley, the Will Contest with Palm Valley Lutheran Church, the Condemnation of the Palm Estate by the City of Round Rock, and how the proceeds from that condemnation became the seed money for what became the W.D. Kelley Foundation after Kelley’s death.
Kelley’s Gift is a video version of the W.D. Kelley story; with the help of a grant from the W.D. Kelley Foundation, Dr. Dan Setterberg and his VideoLab students at Austin College produced a video using interviews, historical family pictures, and original music to document the story of W.D. Kelley and how the W.D. Kelley Foundation came to be.
Timeline
1978
W.D. Kelley hires Georgetown, Texas attorney Dale Illig to represent him in a will contest case involving his Aunt Mary H. Palm
1979
Kelley is successful in the will contest case
1986-87
City of Round Rock condemns Palm Farm
1988
Kelley executes estate planning documents creating the William D. Kelley Charitable Trust at his death
1996
W.D. Kelley passes away
1997
IRS gives tax-exempt status for the Charitable Trust
1998
Dale Illig, Trustee, begins making grants from Trust
2001
A determination made that the Charitable Trust was not the best entity for operation of a foundation, at which point the W.D. Kelley Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, was formed
2002
All assets of the William D. Kelley Charitable Trust are transferred to the W.D. Kelley Foundation; Dale Illig, Herb Nelson and Thomas Baird are selected as the initial members of the Board of Director
Gallery
Family photographs of the Palm Valley: W. D. Kelley and his brother Charles, who lived in Glendale, California, spent their summers with their aunts and uncles at the Palm House in Round Rock. These are some of the pictures of those early halcyon days.
