“It seems to me that every person, always, is in a kind of informal partnership with his community. His own success is dependent to a large degree on that community, and the community, after all, is the sum total of the individuals who make it up. The institutions of a community, in turn, are the means by which those individuals express their faith, their ideals, and their concern for fellow men.
“The partnership between a man and his community is often an unconscious relationship, but this fact does not make it any the less real. For me, this sense of partnership has become a growing reality over the years. In the simplest terms: Flint has given me much that is good; I try, in return, to make available to the people of Flint much that is good, placing human values first.
“Flint has many splendid institutions expressing, as I have said, the faith of Flint people, their ideals, and their concern for fellow men. My own active partnership with my community is expressed mainly through another institution, called the Mott Foundation.”
— C.S. Mott