Catherine Vincent Deardorf established the Charitable Foundation bearing her name late in her life. Her family had acquired wealth in early Fort Dodge, and she chose to acknowledge and thank the community via the foundation. She selected professional advisers and trusted friends to serve as the first directors at the foundation’s establishment in 1993.

After graduating from Fort Dodge High School, Catherine attended Radcliffe College for two years before graduating from Columbia University’s School of Journalism in 1929. Catherine was the social editor of the Fort Dodge Messenger for a number of years, and its owner from 1959 to 1963.

In 1936, she married architect John Deardorf.  The couple made their home in San Diego until 1958 when they moved to Catherine’s Aunt Helen Vincent Roberts’ home across from the Blanden Art Museum in Fort Dodge.  Catherine referred to the home as the Roberts House throughout her life, but it is now often referred to as the Deardorf Home.  The house was part of the bequest Mrs. Deardorf left her Charitable Foundation.  Because she wished the home to benefit the Blanden Art Museum, which she had served as a trustee, donor, and volunteer, its ownership and funds she had designated for its maintenance were transferred to the Blanden Charitable Foundation in 2006.

Initial foundation holdings were exclusively American Home Products stock.  We are told that Catherine was advised by her father to invest in the local Fort Dodge Serum Company, which at the time of her establishing the foundation, had become part of the Animal Health Division of American Home Products.  Foundation directors soon began to diversify the portfolio, which continues to provide funds for the grants made annually.

Catherine Vincent Deardorf passed away March 7, 1994, and is buried at the historic Oakland Cemetery, Fort Dodge, Iowa.