wfn.org | Settlement of Arizona Endowment

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

12-February-1997 
97084 
 
           Settlement of Arizona Endowment Expenditure  
                       Temporarily Derailed 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The winter meeting of the General Assembly Council (GAC) 
got off to a contentious start Feb. 8 when the Council rejected a report 
from its executive committee that would have settled a dispute over the 
spending of the Jennie Wimer endowment in Arizona.   
 
     Instead the Council ordered GAC and Presbyterian Foundation officials 
to hold further consultations with Grand Canyon Presbytery and the 
95-member Ganado Presbyterian Church to try and resolve the Wimer Fund 
matter.  
 
     The Wimer Fund -- some $134,000 -- was bequeathed to the Presbyterian 
Foundation "to aid the Navajo Indians in becoming Christians through the 
work of the Ganado Mission."  At the time of Jennie Wimer's bequest, the 
Ganado Mission consisted of the church, a hospital and a school.  By the 
time Wimer died, the hospital had become a separate nonprofit corporation 
and the Ganado School had closed, with much of its educational ministry 
assumed by Cook College and Theological Training School in Tempe, Ariz. 
 
     A decision by Foundation and Council officials to give the Wimer funds 
to Cook was disputed by the Ganado Presbyterian Church and Grand Canyon 
Presbytery, where the church is located.  The dispute spilled over into 
last year's General Assembly, where an overture was brought by the 
presbytery seeking restoration of the Wimer Fund proceeds to the Ganado 
church.   
 
     The overture was disapproved, and the Assembly ordered that the 
dispute be resolved according to endowment expenditure guidelines newly 
approved by the Foundation and the GAC.  All parties, including the Rev. 
Paul Stone, pastor of the Ganado church, agreed at that time that the 
guidelines were fair, and both the Rev. Frank Diaz, interim chair of the 
GAC, and Larry Carr, president of the Foundation, agreed that they were 
followed in resolving the dispute. 
 
     Carr and Diaz argued that the mission at Ganado had changed between 
the time of Wimer's bequest and her death and that Cook College was the 
appropriate institution to receive the Wimer Fund money.  "All 
disbursements were made in good faith," they said in a joint statement. 
"We are confident that this satisfies Jennie Wimer's instructions," Carr 
told the Council. 
 
     Diaz and Carr acknowledged, however, that outreach to Navajos "is not 
the primary focus of Cook College," and so as part of the Wimer Fund 
settlement agreed "to make available $110,000 over the next five years 
directly to benefit Navajos living on or near the Navajo Reservation in 
Arizona," with $60,000 earmarked for medical work and $50,000 for 
scholarships.  None of the funds were specifically earmarked for the Ganado 
Presbyterian Church. 
 
     The Rev. Robert Lewis, a GAC member from Scottsdale, Ariz., who made 
the motion to "halt" the settlement, argued persuasively that "full 
consideration to all parties has not been given and the process of 
consultation has been flawed." 

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