Cracks in the foundation - Letters - Letter to the Editor

Washington Monthly, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Herb Berkowitz

Regarding Charles Peters's "Tilting at Windmills" (November) item on the lawsuit by William Robertson and his sisters against Princeton University: The plaintiffs are not asking "to get back" the $525 million in the Robertson Foundation kitty. They are asking for control of the Robertson Foundation and its funds so they can donate the money to programs and/or individuals at other colleges and universities that take the Robertson Foundation's "government service" mission seriously.

Last month, the Robertson Foundation's university trustees voted--over the unanimous objections of the Family trustees--to subsume the Robertson Foundation's investments into the university endowment fund, known as the Princeton Investment Company (PrinCo). When they set up the foundation in 1961, Charles and Marie Robertson did so in a manner intended to ensure that the foundation's funds would not be comingled with Princeton's. So much for "donor intent."

Herb Berkowitz

Wilmington, N.C.