Business & Tech

Binghams' Big Gift to Lions Club? A Big Rig

Edmonds couple donates Paccar stock for truck that will be used to transport a mobile health screening unit.

Some couples like to take an afternoon to watch airplanes take off and land. The Binghams preferred to watch shiny, new big rig trucks take test runs when they lived near the former Kenworth facility in Seattle more than 60 years ago.

Red Bingham's fascination is simple. And here is how he'd like to share the fruit of his love affair with these vehicles: a six-figure gift of company stock to buy a new Kenworth T660 for the Northwest Lions Foundation, which will use it to transport a mobile health screening unit.

"I like to watch these trucks roll," the 86-year-old Bingham said before a recognition ceremony Thursday at the plant in Renton. "It's first-class equipment."

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Bill Kozek, the general manager of Kenworth as well as the vice president of Paccar, presented the Binghams with a plaque and other gifts in appreciation of their generous donation to the Lions Club. Bellevue-based is the parent company of Kenworth, which is headquartered in Kirkland.

"I thought it was too good to be true," Kozek said of the Binghams' generosity, "until I saw it on 'Evening Magazine.'"

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The Binghams' investment in Paccar began more than six decades ago.

One afternoon, while watching the trucks from their Seattle home, Beverly suggested they buy five shares of Paccar stock. Sixty-two years later—after several more purchases and plenty of appreciation—the couple decided to donate more than 3,000 of their shares to the Northwest Lions Foundation to purchase the truck that pulls a new health screening trailer that travels across Washington state and part of Idaho. The gift is worth about $148,000. 

Red is a 42-year member of Lions Club International.

"He's the instigator," Beverly, 85, said of their decision to donate the stock. Still, it isn't a choice they made lightly. "We mulled it over for quite a while."

The Binghams now call Edmonds home. Their daughter and son still live nearby and joined them for Thursday's event. Faye Morley lives in Maple Valley and works as the children's ministry director at Maple Valley Presbyterian Church; Bert Bingham lives in Redmond and works in the computer games industry.

Following the ceremony, the family of four toured the Renton plant.


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