It was an ordinary day. Reading the headline in my morning newspaper that says: "Giver with 'a generous heart' dies." The subhead read: "Namesake of East Hempfield Twp. cancer center passes away Sunday." Story goes: Philanthropist Ann B. Barshinger, known for multimillion-dollar donations to several landmark projects and initiatives in Lancaster County, including the cancer center that bears her hame, died of natural causes Sunday morning at 100 years old. Barshinger, who grew up on a farm near Glen Rock in York County, gave millions of dollars to projects in arts, theater, medicine and education.
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| Ann B. Barshinger |
Born in September of 1923, Barshinger lived thru the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam conflict, 9/11, and 17 U.S. presidencies. She moved to Lancaster County in 2000 and lived at Willow Valley Communities in West Lampeter Township, where she spent her final days. The daughter of Howard and Lizzie Boyd, Barshingeer was a 1941 graduate of William Penn Senior High School. She lived with her parents and a brother, Richard, through most of her teen years in York city. The family moved out to the farm in Glen Rock in her senior year at William Penn; Barshinger lived with a relative in York city to finish out her schooling. Longevity was in Barshinger's genes, her power of attorney, Elaine Kowalski, said Sunday. Her mother, Lizzie Boyd, was one of 11 children, four of whom (including Boyd) lived into their 90s, and seven of whom lived into their 80s. Howard Boyd lived to be 88, and her brother lived to be 96. "It was all genes. She loved her baking scrapple, her sugar. They had a sugar bowl on the table all the time," Kowalski said. Barshinger was quoted in 2003 as saying, "I don't buy anything low fat. If it doesn't have fat, it doesn't taste good," and "at this stage, it doesn't really matter anymore." She married Richard Simon Barshinger in 2001 after 54 years of marriage. At the time of their wedding, Ann Barshinger was employed by Charles H. Bear & Co., while her husband - a 1940 graduate of Red Lion High School and 1943 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College - was employed by the Red Lion Milling Co., which was founded in 1920 by his grandfather, Simon Barshinger. It operates today as Conagra, in Red Lion, and the coupe used their wealth from the sale of the plant to fund their philanthropic endeavors. "One thing about her is they were a rather poor family when she was growing up," Kowalski said. "Some locals wanted to build a church in Red Lion. Since they didn't have much, her parents had her and her brother gather all the stones from their farm field. They donated those stones to the church. Those stones were used to build the church." Barshinger was also generous with her time for her nieces and nephews as they grew up. "She was without a doubt a generous person," said Becky Rishel, a niece of Barshinger. 'She was generous when she didn't have the financial resources she had later on. She came down every weekend to spend with her nieces and nephews. She took us to drive-in movies. She would take one of us each weekend. We'd go to restaurants and stuff. She was always generous with gifts like at Christmastime. She had beautifully-wrapped Christmas gifts. That struck me as a child." Rishel recalled being a child when Barshinger created a club among her nieces and nephews. "It was the 'Be Kind To Animals Club'," Rishel said. "We'd meet and talk about how we can be kind to animals." The Barshingers' donations supported numerous projects at Franklin & Marshall College, including the Ann & Richard Barshinger Center for Musical Arts in Hensel Hall, the Anmn & Richard Barshinger Life Sciences Building and the Winter Visual Arts Center, among others. A $10 million state grant for the life sciences building was matched by a $10 million donation from Ann Barshinger in 2005, according to LNP - LancasterOnline archives. Additionally, Barshinger endows the $4 million Ann Boyd Barshinger Scholarship Fund, which supports tuition at F&M for deserving students from Lancaster and York counties. "She had focus in the way that money was used," Rishel said. "Primarily it was in Lancaster County, but also York County - never outside those two counties. Woman's and children's issues mainly, and a guide dog program. Those were things she cared about." "She was very intentional about (putting her name on donations)," Kowalski said. "She didn't want anonymous giving. A quote she had is, "You'll never see a Haul behind a hearse." She had a generous heart." The Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute, part of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, opened in 2013 in East Hempfield Township, a two-story, 70,000-square-foot center that houses a proton therapy center. In a 2010 interview, she noted that while cancer has not touched her family, "I've had friends whose husbands have been ill, who've had to get up in the middle of the night and drive them back to Johns Hopkins" or other major regional cancer centers. "How scary it is for them, and how wonderful it will be to have this right here in Lancaster," Barshinger said at the time. "It's common that people come up to her in public and thank her for the cancer institute. We have patients who send in thank you notes all the time, and we get them over to her," Dr. Randall A. Oyer, founding executive medical director of the Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute, said in a recent interview.
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| Ann pitches a ball to Hall Of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. at Roberto Clemente Field along Rockland Street in Lancaster City |
"With a big smile, Ann always says, "It's not about the building, it's about the people who provide the care." That's a direct quote because she's said that so many times. And she has also said, "The cancer institute is the best thing I've ever done." Beyond F&M and the cancer institute, the philanthropic reach of the Barshinger's also extends to beneficiaries including Welsh Mountain Medical and Dental Center, which provides medical and dental care at reduced rates or free of charge to low-income patients; VisionCorps; Ephrata Performing Arts Center; Fulton Theatre; Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and the Lancaster Theological Seminary. And Barshinger also was a strong supporter of the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center, a nonprofit health organization that serves south-central Pennsylvania. In 2010, Ann Barshinger was named the Philanthropist of the Year for Central Pennsylvania by the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Central PA. "She will have an impact long after she's not physically here," Rishel said.
Other giving includes the Ann B. Barshinger endowed scholarship at Millersville University (created in 2014); a 2021 donation to Susquehanna National Heritage to assist them with purchase of a classic 1912 electric-powered boat; and a 2009 donation to creation of Daniels's Den Playground, locate in the Manor Church Community Park south of Mountville. "I'm not only going to miss her, but her communities are going to miss her," Kowalski said. "Her famous words were, "Money is like manure, you have to spread it around." She did! I could make a list of 200 places where she had given money. There are people receiving benefits from the money she gave and don't even know it. She was so happy this community accepted her. And they accepted her with wide open arms. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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