Harvard Parts With Forest; Trust Fund Remains Intact

Harvard officials were thrilled in 1950 when Ernest G. Stillman '08, one of their wealthiest benefactors, gave the University a $1.2 million trust fund to promote the study of forestry.

There was just one snag. Along with the trust fund, Stillman left Harvard an all-too-real forest in upstate New York. Unfortunately, almost no one bothered using the Black Rock forest for research. This left Harvard with a problem: how to get rid of the forest without giving up the trust fund.

After more than five years of legal wrangling with the New York attorney general's office, Harvard finally succeeded in selling the forest this summer to the New York-based Golden Family Foundation. The new owners plan to lease the forest to a consortium of New York education institutions, who will use it for teaching and research purposes.

When Harvard originally announced its plan to sell the forest in 1984, it immediately came under attack from alumni and environmental groups, who argued that the endowment--now worth more than $2.5 million--was primarily meant for Black Rock's upkeep.

Under the conditions of the sale, Black Rock will remain forever wild, according to Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54. Harvard and the Golden Foundation will both contribute to a new endowment to maintain the property.

Nonetheless, the sale drew criticism from at least one of Stillman's sons.

"I feel Harvard has seriously broken faith with my father," said John S. Stillman '40. "It's as though one of President Bok's Faustian nightmares, the subject of his Commencement address, had come true."