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Hendrix Gift Falls Through


From owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)
Date 18 Sep 1997 17:13:24

Reply-to: owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)
"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (334
notes).

Note 333 modified by UMNS on Sept. 18, 1997 at 16:40 Eastern (3547
characters).

CONTACT: Ralph E. Baker

521(10-71B){333}

        Nashville, Tenn.  (615) 742-5470 

Sept. 18, 1997 

Hendrix college gift falls through,
trust's funds prove insufficient

by Jane Dennis*
  

With great fanfare and high expectations, Hendrix College in November 1995
unveiled plans to build a student campus center with a multimillion-dollar
gift from the Harvey and Bernice Jones Charitable Trust. 
The center was to be named for H.G. "Jack" Frost Jr. of Little Rock, a former
student at Hendrix, longtime financial advisor to Bernice and the late Harvey
Jones, and co-trustee of the Jones trust. 
Those plans have gone awry. 
At a Sept. 11 faculty meeting, Hendrix President Ann H. Die announced that the
college has been notified that the Harvey and Bernice Jones Charitable Trust
will be unable to fulfill its pledge to building the student campus center at
the college.
Die said notification came in a letter from Joel Carver, a Jones trustee. She
shared the text of Carver's letter, dated Aug. 26, in a news release.
"I regret to inform you that the assets of The Harvey and Bernice Jones
Charitable Trust are insufficient to honor the pledge to Hendrix College for
the construction of the Student Center," Carver said in the letter. "The
pledge was made by Mrs. Jones in good faith, but was based on inaccurate
financial information."
The announcement came after the trustees of the Jones trust filed a lawsuit in
August alleging that Frost converted $1.6 million of the trust's money to his
own use from 1993 to March 1997.
Frost was fired in March as Bernice Jones' personal financial consultant. In
May, he resigned as co-trustee of the Jones trust and was replaced by Carver,
a Springdale cardiologist, and Dan Ferritor, the former University of Arkansas
chancellor.
Carver stated in the letter to Die that the decision not to fund the campus
center was "purely a financial one."
Carver continued: "Should funds become available, it certainly remains the
intent of all the current trustees to provide some level of funding to Hendrix
College. However, it is the current recommendation of the financial advisors
that earnings of the trust are insufficient to allow us to make a formal
commitment at any time in the foreseeable future."
Carver's letter did not mention Frost, who is also a current member of the
Hendrix board of trustees.
While the amount of the Jones pledge to Hendrix was never revealed, Hendrix
officials said it was to be the college's largest gift ever. The previous
record gift to Hendrix was $3.3 million.
Die said the disappointing news "won't slow us on our march to increased
excellence." The college will focus its fund-raising efforts on top priorities
of the campus, she said. The current priority list puts an expansion of the
school's science facilities and new student housing ahead of a student center,
said Helen Plotkin, a spokeswoman for the college. 
Plotkin explained that the reason the student center was to be built first was
because Jones had offered to build it.
Despite the loss of the Jones gift, Plotkin said the college remains on solid
financial footing. Hendrix recently completed its 40th consecutive year with a
balanced budget, she said, and its endowment stands at $108 million.
"While it is a disappointment to our fund-raising efforts, we're sure we're
going to recoup and regroup and go out there and find another source of
funding to build the campus center," Plotkin said.

# # #

* Dennis is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist.

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