Making Meaningful Impact Together

HENRY V. HEUSER, JR. fundholder

Henry V. Heuser, Jr. likes to say that he and the Community Foundation of Louisville stay “attached at the hip.” It’s been that way for decades. Henry strongly supports a wide range of causes, including public education, public parks and libraries, environmental efforts and the arts, particularly the orchestra, a love of his since he saw his first performance while still in elementary school. “It was really a revelation,” he recalls. “I didn’t understand how 55 to 70 players coordinate their instruments together and was completely enthralled.”

More recently, the Community Foundation helped Henry meaningfully impact Louisville’s need for a denser urban tree canopy after his appointment as co-chair of the Louisville Metro Tree Advisory Commission. “It’s a social justice issue and the Community Foundation has really been helpful as we have evolved now into an organization called TreesLouisville,” he says.

“As a result of their support and help, we have raised a tremendous amount of money and have planted tens of thousands of trees. We’re growing into a major influence with certain areas such as Rubbertown where we’re planting 10,000 trees because that’s the source of our major air pollution, and we are going to take on a 54,000 tree campaign.”

As a part of the Community Foundation’s legacy funds, Henry appreciates the Community Foundation’s expertise as times change. “Especially in our scholarship area and also the Vogt Innovation and Invention Award,” he says. “Business has changed. I’m really a fan of how the Community Foundation of Louisville has supported creative improvements to the way the program started out 20 some odd years ago, and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction and comfort to know that when I’m gone, that the same infusion of talent and evolution will happen for the better.”

Learn more about the Vogt Educational & Leadership scholarship.