W. W. Burgiss Charities, Inc.

Mission To aid and promote the causes of religion, charities, and education in Greenville County, South Carolina with special attention to the assistance of the sick, helpless, needy, and to the education of the underprivileged. About the Foundation William W. Burgiss (originally spelled Burgess; he changed his last name as a young man, perhaps to differentiate himself from the rest of his family) was born on a farm northwest of what became the village of Greer on August 12, 1863. By the time he was sixteen, he was working as a clerk in a local tin shop, but he was soon engaged in “commercial enterprises,” including buying and selling real estate in both Greer and Greenville. In the early 1890s, Mr. Burgiss became interested in cotton mills. In 1894, he was one of a group of young men who chartered Victor Mill and, when it opened in 1895, he was named president. In 1900, he invested in and became president of Franklin Mill. Also, he was among the first peach growers in the Greer area. Local leaders “lured” him to Greenville about 1905. By 1913, he had constructed the three-story Burgiss Building at the corner of North Richardson and West Coffee Streets, where he located his real estate office, on the site currently occupied by Bank of America. His real estate transactions, however, were not limited to Greenville. Even after he moved from Greer to Greenville, he continued to own substantial amounts of land both in the town of Greer and around the countryside. After 1911, he began to invest heavily in Florida real estate, especially in land in Jacksonville and West Palm Beach. Much of his increasing wealth derived from those profitable investments. By the 1920s, W. W. Burgiss was an exceptionally wealthy man. Like many of Greenville’s progressive business leaders during the prosperous early years of the decade, he turned his attention to charity and community service. On May 2, 1925, the Greenville News announced that W. W. Burgiss had established the county’s first charitable foundation with approximately $1 million in assets, including stocks, bonds, and land in both Greer and Florida. Burgiss’s emphasis, as he made clear in his will, was to support the causes of religion, charities and education, with special attention to the assistance of the sick, helpless and needy and to the education of the underprivileged. The first major project of Burgiss Charities was covering the cost of land and construction ($300,000) of Shriners’ Hospital for Crippled Children, which opened on Rutherford Road in 1927 and was the first integrated charitable orthopedic hospital in the South. The foundation also immediately committed $10,000 to help build a mountain camp for the YWCA, which led to the establishment of Camp Burgiss Glen. In 1937, Mr. Burgiss moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and remained there until his death on February 8, 1945. The majority of his estate was left to Burgiss Charities.