Giving Rye is a feature series highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Timothy O’Neill and George Whipple of The Apawamis Foundation.
Your Name(s): Timothy O’Neill and George Whipple
Name of your organization: The Apawamis Foundation
Your role: Past President (Tim); Recently elected President (George)
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission
O’Neill & Whipple: The Apawamis Foundation is a charitable organization, founded to provide financial assistance to qualified individuals attending an institution of higher learning. The Foundation grants scholarships to The Apawamis Club’s employees, caddies, and children of employees and caddies.
How long have you operated in or around Rye?
O’Neill & Whipple: We were founded in 2000, and made our first grants in 2001. So, next year we will celebrate 25 years of supporting students! We have provided scholarships to 120 recipients over those 25 years.
What programming or work is the organization best known for?
O’Neill & Whipple: Our principal service is working with and providing financial support, with a focus on need. This year, we have supported 27 individuals in their educational endeavors. Most of those scholars are from Rye and our surrounding communities. Much of our work in extending scholarship grants takes place during the months following the college acceptance season (i.e. spring/summer). In addition, we make an annual donation to the Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA) Caddy Scholarship Fund.
Looking forward to 2026, what will be your top initiatives?
O’Neill & Whipple: The Foundation provides an extraordinary benefit to our scholars. With the cost for a college education always increasing, we hope to be able to increase the grants we provide to each individual scholar. In 2026, we hope to further expand the breadth of our donor base, using our 25th anniversary celebration as a platform to expand the awareness as to the impact of our grants on the scholars.
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
O’Neill & Whipple: We are indeed a 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code, so contributions to the foundation are tax-deductible.
Looking back across 2025, what were your organization’s top achievements?
O’Neill & Whipple: We had a record year of recipients, with 27 individuals receiving educational support.
How can local residents support your organization?
O’Neill & Whipple: The best means of support is financial assistance. Our board does not receive compensation, and we collectively meet each and every candidate in person and evaluate their needs.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
O’Neill & Whipple: The greatest source of our support has been from Apawamis members; over 95 % of them support the foundation each year. Recently, friends of members who have had lasting memories of times at the club have supported us as well. In addition, the US Seniors Golf Association makes a significant contribution to the foundation each year.
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
O’Neill & Whipple: Tim has been a board member for over 17 years, and president for the past 11 years. George has been on the board for 12 years and was elected as our new president in November 2025.
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
O’Neill & Whipple: All of the board members work on a volunteer basis. While it is a part time role, the activity picks up during our core spring/summer season.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
O’Neill: Per my daughters: Earnest.
Whipple: Thoughtful.
Where did you grow up?
O’Neill: I grew up in upstate New York, in the Lake George area. My boyhood home was remarkably rural…I could walk 3 miles behind my house without seeing a road. My wife and I both worked in NYC, then chose Rye as our prospective hometown. We moved to Rye in 1991.
Whipple: I grew up in New York City and moved to Rye in 1983 to raise my family.
What principles guide you when you have to make a difficult decision?
O’Neill & Whipple: We look to financial need, and quality of character, leadership and integrity and participation in extra-curricular, civic or volunteer programs as key rubrics for evaluation.
What excites you most about the future—for yourself or for the world?
O’Neill & Whipple: Our work is patently non-partisan. Collectively, those on the board and those who support us all share the joy of supporting students in need, and watching them develop as they progress through school and then professionally.
Where do you live and how many years have you lived there?
O’Neill: I moved to Greenwich from Rye 4 years ago, having lived there for 30 years.
Whipple: I live on Purchase Street in Rye and have been there for over 40 years.
Thanks Timothy and George!
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