Alice Bemis Taylor

Alice Bemis Taylor (October 15, 1877 – June 22, 1942) was a philanthropist and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.

For her significant contributions to Colorado College, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Colorado Springs Day Nursery and other organizations, she was named "Lady Bountiful" by the press. #tag:ref|Maude married Reginald H. Parsons. Lucy Gardner died of scarlet fever; She lived less than three years. The eldest, Judson, died of pneumonia while at a St. Louis, Missouri school. He died before his parents' deaths.

She lived a life of a child of wealthy parents, having attended private schools in Colorado Springs, spent the summers on the East Coast and, with her sister Maude and her mother, studied and traveled in Europe in 1896. Taylor enjoyed playing tennis, riding horses, picnicking in the canons and at Garden of the Gods and ice skating. She attended parties given by the Bells at Briarhurst and the Palmers at Glen Eyrie and formed the "Cheap and Hungry Dances" with her sister and girlfriends.

Philanthropy Her mother "had the heart and will to bring all the happiness she could to others" and her father "valued the 'blessedness of drudgery'". As a result, Taylor had a "devotion to duty" that spurred her philanthropic interests and desire to make the world better for her fellow man and woman. She had the ability to "envision the lofty enterprise and at the same time to execute the daily kindness." She founded the Bemis-Taylor Foundation in 1927 to manage her multiple philanthropic projects. It was dissolved in 1974. The Colorado College Special Collections benefited from a donation by Taylor of 290 works and letters by writers and poets from the United States and Britain.

A dining hall, built off of Bemis Hall, was constructed in 1956 and named for Alice Bemis Taylor.

Other She provided the largest contributions by an individual to the city's Community Chest and provided anonymous donations to those in need.

Colorado Women's Hall of Fame In 2010, Taylor was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.

Death On June 23, 1942, Taylor died; She was buried next to her husband at Evergreen Cemetery. Her estate left a total of $15.7 million to Colorado College, the Fine Arts Center, Day Nursery, and Bemis-Taylor Foundation. Her daughter, Doree, received $75,000 in Bemis stock, her mother's home and its furnishings.