Bill Quarles, the patriarch of the Quarles family, is a deep believer in self-determination through entrepreneurship, best described by Dame Dash when he said “it’s important to work for your last name, not your first.”

The Quarles Foundation was started to support current and aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners who strive to do exactly that. How you start is, after all, not how you have to finish.

Small businesses have traditionally been an engine of economic growth and generational wealth-building. The Quarles Foundation was created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a stretch of time during which small businesses, particularly those that are Black-owned, have suffered from government-mandated shutdowns, major decreases in foot traffic, and supply-chain issues. Against this backdrop, the Quarles Foundation felt even more compelled to translate Bill Quarles’ ideals into action.

The Quarles family also understands that entrepreneurship comes in different forms and can enter an entrepreneur’s life at different stages. While the Quarles Foundation believes in its current priorities, its founding family seeks to build an organization that can truly sustain for generations. As such, the foundation will remain as flexible as is required by the varying conditions and times, but will always underpin its work by the values of self-determination, hard work, grit, and humility.

“It’s important to work for your last name, not your first.”

- Dame Dash

The founding of this foundation is inextricably tied to Bill R. Quarles’ vision and legacy. As the patriarch of the Quarles family, he instilled the foundation’s very principles in his children. When asked what he would want in the event that his children “made it,” all he would ever talk about is the Quarles Foundation.

Despite his humble beginnings and limited exposure in the segregated south where he grew up, Quarles was always entrepreneurially-minded. He believed in entrepreneurship as a platform for problem-solving, economic mobility, and creativity. To this day, Bill R. Quarles is also a proponent of “meeting people wherever they are” – in life and in proficiency around business. Viewed as a man of service by everyone he encounters, Bill R. Quarles wants the Quarles Foundation to kick open the doors of entrepreneurship to folks whom the sector tends to overlook.

In addition to being a driving force for the foundation, he is deeply committed to First Trinity Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan, where he serves as the General Superintendent of Sunday School, and as a Deacon. A certified Dean for over twenty-five years, Quarles is the former Dean of the Great Lakes District Leadership and Educational Congress and former Assistant Dean of the Wolverine State Congress. He is extremely passionate about Christian education. Quarles retired from Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home as a Funeral Director and Counselor after nineteen years.

A native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Quarles attended Southern Illinois University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. He and his wife Ruthy have three sons, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Quarles is a proud member of Eureka Lodge #16 PHA and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Bill R. Quarles looks forward to using the Quarles Foundation to benefit communities and to help entrepreneurs pursue their dreams.