"[2] In 2019, New Hanover County’s state Rep. Deb Butler suggested UNCW designate a piece of land for a county-funded Isaac Bear building.

She told Port City Daily in 2019 the conditions at Isaac Bear were “abysmal.” On May 27, 2022, the UNCW Board of Trustees approved plans to construct a two-story building for the selective-enrollment early college.

[3] The original Isaac Bear Building, located at Market and 13th Streets, served as the first home of Wilmington College, outside the public school system.

The Bear family, owners of an intrastate wholesale dry goods firm located on Front Street, made a number of large donations to better the community such as a wing to James Walker Memorial Hospital.

Upon his death, the Isaac Bear Memorial School served to remember "the close friendship and devotion between the brothers and their interest in public welfare.