Speakman commitment to community will live on in Riverview Works Fund

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Rod and Gina Ward.
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Since 1869,   the year  Joseph and Allen Speakman opened a  workshop in Wilmington, The Speakman Company was a part of the community.

Rod and Gina Ward.

To this day, its  brass showerheads and  plumbing fittings are known worldwide. The company has often been credited with popularizing the shower at a time when most people took tub baths.

Although The Speakman Company was sold in 2018 after 149 years of family ownership, its legacy will live on, benefiting generations of Delawareans, as the wellspring for the new Riverview Works Fund at the Delaware Community Foundation (DCF).

(Details of the sale  have not been released).

Rod Ward, Speakman’s chairman and a fifth generation family member and his wife, Gina, wanted to find a way to help the people of Delaware. 

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The Wards worked with the DCF to establish the Riverview Works Fund, a donor advised fund, through a gift of Speakman Company stock.  It honors all who were part of The Speakman Company.

The Wards chose to work with the DCF because of the foundation’s commitment to Delaware and its reputation for helping maximize the impact of charitable resources through community knowledge and relationships.

“There are a lot of proven, well-run organizations in Delaware that need support,” Rod said. “We truly appreciate the knowledge and expertise the DCF provides us in deciding where the funds are most needed and will do the most good. Working with them made a lot of sense to create a Delaware-focused donor advised fund.”

The new Riverview Works Fund is one of more than 1,300 charitable funds at the DCF. From these funds, the DCF awards an average of $20 million each year in grants and scholarships to charitable causes and organizations that affect quality of life in Delaware. 

The initial amount of the fund was not announced.  Such funds typically  use gains and interest on investments to provide funding for  recipients over generations.

“The Riverview Works Fund is a model of how the DCF partners with generous people to help empower their charitable giving,” DCF  CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay said.

“The value in this work is the symbiotic nature of the relationship,” Comstock-Gay said. “The Wards are passionate about making a difference, and so are we at the DCF.  We will look forward to learning from them. And as the community foundation, our role is to use our community knowledge and our relationships to help the Wards determine how they can make the greatest impact on the causes they care about most.” 

The Wards will work with the DCF to develop a process to make grants from the Riverview Works Fund to organizations primarily in the education and wellness sectors.

“We wanted to make an investment in the state’s future, to propel positive change and enhance opportunity for many well-deserving Delaware organizations,” Gina said. 

Establishing the fund also honors Bill Speakman, who led the company as a fourth-generation family member for four decades until his death in 2006, when Rod Ward  became his successor

“Bill was a wonderful and beloved individual known throughout Delaware,” Rod said.

In 1906, the company moved to its Riverview Plant, which was on 30th and Spruce Street in Wilmington and was  named for its scenic view of the Delaware River.

 When the company relocated to New Castle in 2003, Speakman worked with the Ingerman Group and the West End Neighborhood House to replace the  plant  with Speakman Place, a community of affordable townhomes for neighborhood homeownership.

Speakman Place is across the street from Speakman Park.  One of the neighborhood streets, Stoddard Place, honors Tom Stoddard, who worked at Speakman from 1928 until his retirement in 2003 at age 93. The Guinness Book of World Records says that’s the longest tenure by an employee at a single company. 

“Tom was one of the great ones,” Rod said.

“Speakman Place was a fitting ending to the Riverview Plant, and a wonderful beginning for new homeowners,” Rod said. 

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