Community Activities

The Karen Ingeborg Lockhart Foundation (the "Lockhart Foundation") is named for the individual who was the driving force behind the philantrophic activities of the family members and the Company, Karen Ingeborg Lockhart (Nee Pedersen). Karen Ingeborg Lockhart was the wife of Herbert E. Lockhart, the son of Alfred Harris Lockhart, and her husband's successor as head of the family's businesses.

Mrs. Lockhart began her charitable activities in the late 1930's and it was she who convinced her husband to subdivide a portion of one of their larger landholdings, Estates Thomas, into individual residential lots for sale at nominal cost to World War II veterans. This became St. Thomas' first housing subdivision. After the premature death of her husband in 1949, it was she who decided to sell, again at nominal cost, large portions of the family's real estate holdings to the local government, which became the sites of St. Thomas' oldest and largest public high school, Charlotte Amalie High School, and elementary school (Lockhart Elementary School named in honor of Mrs. Lockhart's late husband and father-in-law), and the island's only hospital, the Roy L. Schneider Hospital. A devoutly religious woman, Mrs. Lockhart donated land on St. Thomas to the Episcopal church for the location of a new parish church and parish hall and an additional parcel on which the residence of the parish priest was constructed.

Karen Ingeborg Lockhart

As the charitable arm of the Lockhart family and Lockhart Companies Incorporated, further donations of real property have been made by the Lockhart Foundation to the Episcopal Diocese for the construction of a Bishop's Lodge and to the Roman Catholic Church for the future relocation of its parochial school in St. Thomas. The Lockhart Foundation continues to support Lockhart Elementary School under the Adopt-a-School program administered by the local public school system with annual monetary grants and special awards designed to assist teachers and enrich students' experience. Each year the Lockhart Foundation makes financial contributions to community and service organizations such as the United Ways of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, Girl Scouts of America, Boy Scouts of America, Boys Club of St. Croix, V.I. Institute for Performing Arts, and the St. Thomas Swimming Association.

In 1997, the Lockhart Foundation implemented the Herbert E. Lockhart Memorial Scholarship with the Business Division of the University of the Virgin Islands ("UVI"). This program funds the first year of a full-time student's participation in the MBA program at UVI.