Estate gives millions to Salvation Army

CANTON – In death, Warren Wefler has filled the kettles of Salvation Army units in 10 counties.

Almost seven years after he died at age 91, the modest man’s final wishes to leave almost his entire estate to charity, will be fulfilled. After taxes and expenses, it will amount to at least $12 million.

Last week, Stark County Probate Judge Dixie Park approved details in the plan, to split $6 million among Salvation Armys. She had previously OK’D a $6 million gift to the Columbus-based Charitable Healthcare Network.

The next steps include distributing money to each.

The biggest chunk of Salvation Army money is designated for Stark County, where Wefler lived in a farmhouse one door west of Massillon, at the corner of 17th Street and Pigeon Run Avenue SW.

Mandy Hoover, a spokesman for the Salvation Army Northeast Ohio Division, declined comment on the gift, upon the request of executors. John Boggins, the attorney handling the estate, did not return a phone call.

Where is the money going?

However, court documents outline the donations.

The Canton and Massillon locations will get $600,000 apiece; the Alliance unit $500,000. Last winter, in the midst of the pandemic, estate executors advanced the Salvation Army $500,000 for food programs.

The remaining $3.8 million of Salvation Army gifts will go to its locations in Belmont, Carroll, Guernsey, Harrison, Knox, Monroe, Muskingum, Noble and Tuscarawas counties, and are to be divided in this manner:

Mount Vernon, $500,000; Dover, $400,000; Zanesville, $800,000; Bellaire, $800,000; Camp NEOSA, $1 million; Cambridge, $175,000; and $125,000 to be shared by units in Belmont, Carroll, Harrison, Knox. Monroe, Muskingum, Noble and Tuscarawas counties.

None of the money can be used to fund capital projects. All of it must be spent on programs to assist the needy and indigent, and more specifically “to promote the Christian religion and Christian education and to support women’s reproductive health and family planning programs,” according to a written agreement between the estate and Salvation Army.

Wefler, a Washington High graduate, spent much of his life at the family’s 40acre homestead. As a child, he performed at church and social gatherings; he played the ukulele and clarinet.

Later, Wefler and his sister, Verna, were members of the Young Adults Club of St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed Church. He led prayer and scripture readings, and the group often gathered at picnics and wiener roasts at a cottage he owned on Turkeyfoot Lake in the Portage Lakes.

A self-taught industrial engineer, Wefler worked at Republic Steel. He also had a penchant for buying property — thousands of acres, which is how he accumulated much of his wealth.

Most of those who knew Wefler had no

idea how vast his estate had become.

What did Wefler’s will state?

One reason it took nearly seven years to reach this point was due to the wording in Wefler’s last will and testament.

He spelled out $470,00 in gifts to 16 nieces and nephews and other most distant relatives. Although it was clear Wefler wanted to give the rest to charity, he didn’t name any recipients. Instead, he’d written this: h Due to our recession, what will help people who cannot find a profitable job is to give them money, to pay for taxes, food, doctors bills, clothes, rent, utilities, transportation, school, mortgages, and so forth ...

h For all, to help prevent unwed pregnancies in our youth by instituting and sponsoring programs including educational and religious instruction on abstinence.

h Also to aid and assist in the spread of the Christian (religion), including preschool.

Because Wefler didn’t provide specifics, Boggins and the estate had to file an action in Probate Court, asking the judge to advise them on a plan that would best fulfill his wishes.

The two recipients seem to fit. “The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination,” according to its mission statement.

Officials at the Charitable Healthcare Network — the other $6 million benefactor — did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Information on its website shows the nonprofit organization supports 52 clinics and providers across Ohio, including four in Stark County: Beacon Charitable Pharmacy, Hartville Migrant Ministries and two Pregnancy Support locations.

The Healthcare Network is supported by funds from the Ohio Department of Health, foundations and individual donors.

Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 ortim.botos@cantonrep.com.on Twitter: @tbotosrep

Warren Wefler, seated right, is shown in this 1954 photo from the Akron Beacon Journal. Wefler was part of a committee trying to install a sanitary sewer line near a cottage he owned in the Portage Lakes area.