Cornelia Spencer Love (1892 – 1981) was a dedicated librarian and a member of the Chapel Hill Public Library Board of Trustees from its inception in 1958 until 1970. As a part of her estate, Ms. Love left a gift of $350,000, in trust, for the ongoing support of the Chapel Hill Public Library. In 1998, a year after its formation, the Foundation took over management and stewardship of the fund. Today, the Love Trust’s value is approximately $1.4 million.

Ms. Love placed few constraints on her gift, stating that it was for the general, ongoing support of the Library and its operations. In accordance with her wishes, the Love Trust provides an annual supplement to the Library’s general budget. Over the years, the Love Trust has also provided support for a variety of special projects to enhance the Library facility, collections, and services.

Cornelia Spencer Love loved Chapel Hill and loved the Library. We are proud to have stewarded her gift for over twenty years. When she left this gift, libraries were still using card catalogs and book stamps, and computers for research and personal use were not yet commonplace. While Ms. Love may not have been able to imagine a library that runs on WiFi and cloud computing and provides ebooks and apps, she did have the vision to create a lasting gift that has adapted and grown alongside the library it supports.

The Rohrbacher fund was created in 2020 from a generous planned gift of Mrs. Andrea L. Rohrbacher. Former Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation President Rob Maitland worked with Mrs. Rohrbacher years ago to incorporate the donation into her estate plan. Mrs. Rohrbacher was a long-time resident of Chapel Hill after receiving her MSLS degree from the UNC School of Information and Library Science in 1990. She was a lover of our town's library and an active member of the community. She was a member of the Chapel Hill Greenways Commission and the town's Planning Board. An advocate for land preservation and affordable housing, she supported the Triangle Land Conservancy and the Community Home Trust. Mrs. Rohrbacher serves as an ideal example of the power of planned to give by incorporating a gift of her invested stock funds into her will. Those funds grew in the market to become a sizable gift to the LIbrary Foundation that will have a long-lasting impact on the Library. They have already been put to use in the project to furnish the lower-level reading rooms and update the digital media lab at the Library.