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The Klein Family – Honoring a Loved One
The Klein Family
Wilma Klein and her husband, Hank, spent a lifetime educating youth through teaching and volunteer service in Kentucky. The importance of service, hard work, education, and strong values were instilled in them at early ages by their parents. Wilma was a longtime teacher and principal and Hank was a buyer for the Kroger Company with a passion for wood-working.
Following their retirement, Hank and Wilma moved back to Hank’s hometown, New Albany, Indiana, where Hank used his passion and skill for wood-working and began a community service project: building toys for the Salvation Army.
When Hank passed away 2011 in he left his entire woodshop to the students of Borden High School for their use and Wilma began concentrating on the joint charitable wishes of the couple: leaving scholarships to their respective high schools and establishing a scholarship in memory of their parents. She was able to accomplish all of their local charitable goals by working with the Community Foundation.
Wilma’s first step was establishing the Henry E. and Elizabeth Bachman Klein Memorial Scholarship Fund which helps students enrolled in the nursing program at Ivy Tech Community College. Wilma said, “It seems fitting that the scholarship is given to the nursing school at Ivy Tech. Hank’s mom, Elizabeth, would have loved to be an RN but she never had the chance. This is such a great and lasting legacy to honor them and impact the lives of future students.”
Next, Wilma established the Henry J. and Wilma Klein Scholarship Fund which offers scholarship assistance to defray expenses of furthering the education or career beyond high school of graduating students who are enrolled in the Prosser Construction Technology Program or any successor programs in wood-working, cabinet and mill, residential construction or other building trades or skills-related programs.
The values and passions that were instilled in Hank and Wilma will be felt for generations to come because of the choice they made to honor their loved ones through an endowed scholarship that was named for their parents and personalized to reflect their values. Hank and Wilma Klein’s own passions and generosity are felt every year by the students they’re impacting. Whether it’s the students at Borden High School who are still using Hank’s tools to carry on this tradition of making toys for the Salvation Army, or the future scholarship recipients of Hank and Wilma’s scholarship, their passions and interests will forever have an impact on students in Southern Indiana.
