Since the moment they met at a Bible study class, faith has served as the foundation of Kettering residents Nancy and Bob Roberson’s 40-year marriage. Whether it’s serving at church or encouraging clients to leave behind charitable legacies, they have built a life centered on sharing their blessings of time, talent and treasure to help others.
“It’s important for us to live out our faith, and it’s fun to use our talents and interests to bless others,” said Nancy, founding attorney at Roberson Law. “Our faith is the source of our giving.”
While Bob and Nancy credit their parents and church for teaching them the value of giving back, their desire to “be the change” also was inspired by challenging life circumstances. Growing up, Bob dedicated his time to helping his mother, who had disabilities, and his aging grandparents. This led him to become a caregiver at their church, where he regularly prays for and visits with ailing parish members. When she was only 27 years old, Nancy’s first husband, David, passed away, leaving her to raise their daughter, Amy, as a single parent. This motivated her to co-found and facilitate several support groups for widows for more than 30 years. It also led her to put herself through law school so she could help others like her plan for sudden, life-changing events. For many years, she has spoken free of charge to religious and civic organizations about the importance of death and disability planning.
Professionally, Nancy often encourages her clients to take advantage of The Dayton Foundation’s planned giving options. A volunteer on its Development Committee since 2010, Nancy is a longtime champion of its services. She and Bob also opened a Charitable Checking AccountSM in 2006 to support the causes and organizations they care about most.
“Our CCA makes it easy for us to give money to the organizations we want to help. We appreciate getting one statement at the end of the year that enumerates our charitable gifts and facilitates preparing our income tax returns,” said Bob, a retired State of Ohio employee whose 30 years of service included tenures with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Greenon Schools. “The Dayton Foundation staff are so helpful, friendly and efficient. We enjoy having an easy, anonymous way to give.”
“The Miami Valley needs The Dayton Foundation to provide a neutral community foundation to promote charitable giving,” Nancy added. “We do not want to use a commercial charitable giving vehicle because giving through the Foundation connects us to the community and enables us to contribute to causes that most need our support.”
Connecting to community causes and helping their neighbors is important to the Robersons, who feel that “God has blessed us to be blessings for others.”
“The Greater Dayton community is like an overgrown small town in which people are connected to each other in many ways – professionally socially and spiritually, to name a few,” Nancy said. “Belonging to the Greater Dayton community means working to build and protect its shared goals. The Dayton Foundation helps us do this.”