Orchardist Rajkovich leaves more than $2 million for youth
Those who only casually knew Martin Peter Rajkovich might never
have guessed what he had in mind for his adopted community.
Orchardist Rajkovich leaves more than $2 million for youth
Those who only casually knew Martin Peter Rajkovich might never have guessed what he had in mind for his adopted community.
The bachelor farmer who lived near the family’s orchards on Hwy. 25 died June 7, only one day after he made final arrangements to contribute more than $2 million of his estate to benefit the young people of San Benito County. He was 70 when cancer took his life.
An “endowed fund is the perfect vehicle for Mr. Rajkovich’s generous gift,” said Gary Byrne, executive director for the Community Foundation for San Benito County. “The endowment will ensure that Mr. Rajkovich’s gift will continue to provide benefits for San Benito County youth in perpetuity.”
Rajkovich and his brother, George, came to San Benito from Santa Clara County in the late 1950s to continue the family’s farming business. Their first purchase was land near Hudner Lane, for which they paid the sum of $1,800 an acre. The two, third and fourth of the five children of Croatian immigrants, worked hard, skipped vacations and turned what money they had each year back into their business.
Today, Fairhaven Farms encompasses 225 acres of cherries, 50 of walnuts and 12 devoted to apricots.
While George still loves to see things grow, to nurture his trees and crops, the brothers, separated by only 18 months, fell into a natural rhythm working side-by-side, year after year.
It was Martin whose head for business eventually led him into lobbying at the state level, and he worked as a delegate for the Western Growers Association.
Farm and family came first.
Family members gathered at George’s hilltop home overlooking Fairhaven’s orchards this week to remember the stoic, hard-working man who leaves behind the largest single charitable bequest anyone in San Benito County can recall.
Just as Rajkovich would have done, his family members sought not to associate themselves with his generosity. This story belongs to Martin Rajkovich, and Martin Rajkovich alone.
To borrow from the television commercials, Rajkovich made his money the old-fashioned way: he earned it.
“Martin accumulated what he had because he did without,” one family member recalled. “He was just very thrifty.”
Indeed, Rajkovich lived in a house on the farm until recently, when he finally saw fit to purchase the first home he ever owned.
While the family recalls he had many friends, and that he was much loved by generations of nieces and nephews, he was a private man who led a rich life filled with family, hard work and the pleasures of hunting, friends and travel.
The business plan at Fairhaven Orchards was, and is, straightforward: work hard, be honest and invest in the future.
That served Rajkovich well enough that his estate leaves behind two gifts to the community. The first is a $1.2 million donation to establish the Martin Rajkovich Children’s Fund, an endowment designated to benefit sick children under 18 years old in the county. The permanent endowment, to be administered through the Community Foundation, will provide up to $50,000 per year to benefit local youth burdened with illness or disease each year.
It was not Rajkovich’s intention that the fund be used to pay for medical bills or care, but to provide items and activities to advance the quality of life for local children burdened with illness.
Funds could be used for everything from a motorized wheelchair, travel costs to consult with specialists, therapeutic equipment or anything else that might ease suffering or assist in healing.
“Martin upheld a tough exterior,” his brother, George, recalled. “But I know he was often touched by the courage and strength of children that have to deal with life-threatening or life-changing illness. I know he would be glad to help a child heal or to help make a sick child’s life better – especially the helpless, who no matter how strong or brave they act, find themselves without basic necessities.”
“Just imagine all the good this money will do,” Byrne enthused. “I am very pleased to be able to announce this generous gift to our community and I wish to thank Mr. Rajkovich’s family for allowing the Community Foundation to be part of Martin’s legacy.”
But Rajkovich’s legacy does not stop there.
San Benito High School trustees last week accepted a lump sum donation of $900,000 to be used to establish the Martin Peter Rajkovich Agricultural Heritage Fund to benefit the school’s agriculture department.
The Rajkovich brothers both profited from their own involvement in Future Farmers of America while they attended Fremont High in Sunnyvale. Clearly, the experience shaped the work they would embrace for the rest of their careers.
The donation is earmarked to fund construction of a modern new ag department facility on the existing high school campus. The new complex will include a modern barn, livestock pens, a greenhouse, learning areas, an outdoor teaching amphitheater, ag mechanics and welding studios, additional restrooms and project storage.
“This generous gift will not only bring our local ag program and facilities up to date, it will enable our dedicated staff to further augment in-class curriculum with new and exciting hands-on vocational and ag training programs,” said Stan Rose, high school superintendent. “It’s the kind of stuff that gets students engaged and excited to learn. “It [the new facility] really does represent a very suitable homage to our county’s rich agricultural heritage and those agrarian entrepreneurs who spent their lives cultivating our local community as well as our county’s rich soil.”
Rajkovich was especially fond of mechanical applications, and in his last years, had begun restoring antique automobiles. But throughout his life, he displayed a special aptitude for welding and mechanics, his brother recalled.
“As young men and farming partners, I can remember dozens of times when we needed to basically invent some kind of a solution to fix or make something work and Martin was always able to fabricate something much better than the original,” George said. “The family is very happy that Martin’s gift will help teach young people valuable skills like this and leave a legacy in his name in San Benito County.”
The Community Foundation will also administer the high school’s gift, seeing the construction project through to completion. Rajkovich family members will continue their active involvement by contributing expertise and experience by sitting on design, planning and construction committees.
The project is targeted for completion in 2009.
The Rajkovich brothers’ father, Peter, worked his way across the United States, working wherever he could find a job. He was married to another Croatian immigrant, Nikulina. Martin attended St. Joseph’s Catholic Grammar School in San Jose before enrolling at Fremont High. He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1961, joining his brother in 1959 in San Benito County. He was a 44-year member of Hollister Elks Lodge, past president of the local Model A club, a member of the Farm Bureau, the National Resource Conservation Agency and a member of the Cherry Advisory Board and Mission San Juan Bautista.
“Growing up, I learned a lot about relationships through him,” a niece who preferred not to be named recalled this week. “In the end, what he taught me most is just to hug my family every day.”
