Gilbert and Thyra Plass Charitable Trust

Mission

To support a variety of charitable causes benefiting citizens in Brazos County, Texas.

Annual submission deadlines

July 31

Program areas

Arts, culture, and humanities
Education
Environment, animals
Health
Human services
Religion

States served

Texas

Geographic limitations

Brazos County, Texas

Trustees

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

The Gilbert and Thyra Plass Charitable Trust is organized exclusively for charitable, educational, religious, or scientific purposes. The Trust supports a variety of charitable causes in Brazos County, Texas.

Requirements

• To be eligible, organizations must qualify as exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
• Organizations must maintain an office in Brazos County, Texas.

Limitations

The foundation does not fund requests to support endowments.

Average giving

Average grant size: $5,000 - $10,000
Average number of grants per year: 14
Average total giving per year: $110,000

Annual application period and deadlines

Applications are accepted year-round. Applications must be submitted by July 31 to be reviewed at the annual grant meeting that occurs in September.

Communications

Applicants will receive an automated email confirming their submission. Grant decisions are generally communicated by October for applications received by the deadline.

About the Foundation

The Gilbert and Thyra Plass Charitable Trust was created under the Last Will and Testament of Thyra Nichols Plass. Dr. Plass was born on April 8, 1914. She grew up on a farm in Illinois where she took piano lessons and first discovered her love for music. She became an organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Delavan, Illinois at age 15 after only one organ lesson. The next year she won a scholarship competition at Illinois Wesleyan playing the organ. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in organ performance and sacred music from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Her husband, Dr. Gilbert Plass, earned a BS from Harvard and a doctorate in physics from Princeton. Dr. Plass was head of the Department of Physics at Texas A&M University from 1968-1977. He was the author of 6 books and more than 100 articles, including a series of papers on global warming. He was as knowledgeable and passionate about music and the arts as he was about physics. The couple remained in Bryan, Texas for the rest of their lives. Dr. Thyra Plass passed away on October 27, 2003, and Dr. Gilbert Plass passed away on March 1, 2004.