The city of Ellinwood, the Ellinwood School Foundation and the Golden Belt Community Foundation will evenly split nearly $3 million dollars in a bequest from Vivian Archer, formerly of Ellinwood.

Vivian grew up in Ellinwood and lived there her whole life, serving as Ellinwood city clerk. Vivian May was born Dec. 7, 1911 and died July 7, 2010.

"Vivian had a lot of love in her heart for Ellinwood," said Ellinwood resident Richard Kimple, who knew Vivian all of his life and is an ESF board member.

Vivian and her sister Dorothy never married. Dorothy worked for Mobile and accumulated a large amount of Exxon-Mobile stock which she passed onto her sister Vivian.

According to Robert Peter, Ellinwood city administrator, in her will, Archer gave some specific requests for certain relatives and charities that were paid out first, with the remaining being evenly divided.

The Ellinwood City Council plans the save the nearly $1 million of the bequest and use only the earnings for city improvements.

"We cannot use the principle for any purpose," said Peter. "We can only use interest earnings."

He said the city council would use the interest earnings for things that improve the quality of life in Ellinwood such as the parks, pool and recreational items "Things we have trouble finding money for," said Peter.

The council believes this is how Vivian would have liked to see it used, he said.

The city received the money in Exxon stock and cash. Peter said the money was conservatively invested with a professional financial planning company.

"We are elated with Vivian’s gift," said Kimple.

He said the foundation uses its funding to enhance the quality of education for students in Ellinwood. With the cuts in state education funding, particularly in art and music, the foundation plans to use the bequest to benefit the schools and library.

"The school board has to make decisions about limited resources and programs," said Kimple. "They ask us to fund things they have had to turn down."

A school board member and the Ellinwood superintendent are members or ex-officio members. "We want to have an overriding impact on as many kids as we can," said Kimple.

Ellinwood is known for its quality education, said Kimple. "We hope it (Vivian’s gift) will nurture similar gifts, so we can provide quality education in Ellinwood for kids."

Vivian and her sister Dorothy set up a scholarship fund at the Golden Belt Community Foundation before they died. The money is for Barton County high school seniors or students currently attending college.

"It is a significant gift," said Christy Tustin, Golden Belt Community Foundation. The scholarship will be renewable and need based.

"We anticipate awarding four to eight scholarships per year," said Tustin. The criteria are that the student is truly in need of financial help and doesn’t have significant other awards, she said. Work experience, community service and special talents will also be considered.

The name of the scholarship will be named after Vivian, Dorothy and a third sister, Vida, and will be called the Vida M., Dorothy C. and Vivian M. Archer Scholarship.

Tustin anticipates the scholarship will be available to award in spring of 2013.

She said the endowment will be invested in a mix of appropriately conservative investments that will allow for growth and maintain principal.