Socialite and Philanthropy
The Jorgensens were among the social elite of Los Angeles. She began working with St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, where she coordinated events and recruited volunteers. She hosted the dinner for Prince Charles, as well as the Black and White Ball with Bob Hope.
The Jorgensens became good friends with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the early 1960s. Earle Jorgensen urged Ronald Reagan to run for Governor of California in 1966, a position Reagan won. Earle Jorgensen would later become a member of Reagan's White House "Kitchen Cabinet". The Jorgsensens became very active philanthropists; they donated money to many charitable causes and civic organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America, the YMCA, the Los Angeles Music Center, and several hospitals.
The Jorgensens supported the California Institute of Technology, and established the Earle and Marion Jorgensen Scholarship Fund as a means to assist students. It helps undergraduates financially. Caltech President David Baltimore said, "We are truly grateful to Earle and to his wife, Marion, for their many years of friendship and support."
Included among the other philanthropic endeavors that benefited from Mrs. Jorgensen's support over the years were the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild, the ARCS Foundation, the American Red Cross, Loyola Marymount University, and the Prince of Wales Foundation.
Read more about this topic: Marion Jorgensen
Famous quotes containing the words socialite and/or philanthropy:
“Socialite women meet socialite men and mate and breed socialite children so that we can fund small opera companies and ballet troupes because there is no government subsidy.”
—Sugar Rautbord, U.S. socialite fund-raiser and self-described “trash” novelist. As quoted in The Great Divide, book 2, section 7, by Studs Terkel (1988)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)