The Hancock & Julia Banning Endowment supports Pasadena Community Foundation’s grantmaking in the area of education. This is a Fund for Pasadena, which benefits local organizations working to sustain and uplift our community.
Judy (Julia) grew up in Pasadena and attended Westridge School, the University of California, Berkeley, and California Institute of the Arts. Throughout her life, Judy was active in philanthropic organizations, including the Junior League, the UC Irvine Arboretum, and Planned Parenthood. She was also a docent at Huntington Gardens. Her personal passion was floral design.
Bill (Hancock) was a third-generation descendant of Phineas Banning, the founder of the Port of Los Angeles. He served in the United States Navy during World War II, during which he flew F6F Hellcats in the South Pacific. Shortly after Bill returned from combat overseas in 1945, he met Judy at a Christmas party. It was love at first sight, and Bill and Judy were married for 65 years. They lived in South Pasadena until 1958, moved to Santa Monica, and eventually to Balboa in 2005. Bill passed away in 2014, and Judy passed away in April, 2016.
Bill and Judy were lifelong supporters of education. In 2015, Judy created an endowment at PCF – the Hancock & Julia Banning Endowment for K-12 Education – to support our community’s educational organizations in perpetuity.
The Power of Endowment
Endowments are the cornerstone of PCF’s mission to build hometown legacies. The corpus of each endowed fund is invested with PCF’s portfolio for long-term growth. Each year, the endowments generate the funds that support PCF’s local grantmaking, which enriches the arts community, protects our environment, provides health care and critical social services, and bolsters public education in Pasadena. Endowments are permanent legacies for our community; these funds will continue to grow and provide philanthropic support forever. Learn more about creating an endowment at PCF.
Created in 2015