Articles

Only 1 family member is on foundation board

ORANGE - You don't have to be a native of this city to recognize what H.J. Lutcher Stark has meant to the community.

His name adorns the local high school, art museum and theater.

A foundation he started 41 years ago provided more than $4.6 million in grants and scholarships in Southeast Texas last year.

To many in this area, the Stark name is associated with money, charitable giving and a rich family history.

But some members of Stark family say they feel like they've been robbed of that family history and have been made to look like "money hungry people" who want to discontinue the foundation's charitable deeds.

"We would love to take visitors through the Stark House and tell our family history with pride," said Bill Stark, grandson of H.J. Lutcher Stark. "But, we have been ignored and pushed aside for years and have been made to feel like outsiders in our own history."

Bill Stark said that he and other members of his family have been cut off from any involvement in the Stark Foundation and have been denied what he said is the family's birthright.

Only one member of the Stark family, Bill Stark's cousin H.J. Lutcher Stark II, sits on the Stark Foundation board, which oversees the Stark Museum of Art, Lutcher Theatre and the Stark House museum.

"How can people who have no birthright or love for our family heritage think that they should have the exclusive right to continue running these affairs," Stark said.

But foundation director Walter G. Riedel III said the family has shown little interest over the years in participating in foundation activities.

And, Riedel said, there are no provisions in the foundation's by-laws stating that the Stark family must participate in the foundation.

"That was the choice of the foundation's founders," he said. "There are a number of family foundations around the country that no longer have family members involved. As long as the foundation has its by-laws and mission statement, it can move forward with what the founders intended."

H.J. Lutcher Stark and his third wife, Nelda C. Stark, started the foundation in 1961 for charitable contributions to the city's arts and educational programs.

Lutcher Stark, who died in 1965, left his $73 million fortune to his widow, Nelda, and the Stark Foundation. Lutcher Stark's descendents were virtually left out of the will.

Although it was formed more than 40 years ago, Bill Stark said much of the foundation's charitable giving started only in the last two years.

Riedel and the foundation's attorney said such statements are untrue.

"The family probably doesn't understand that the actual amount of money in the foundation prior to 1999 is much smaller than it is now," said John Cash Smith, attorney for the Stark Foundation. "The money that was there to give away years ago was a lot less."

Nelda C. Stark died in December 1999, leaving the Stark Museum of Art, the Lutcher Theatre and her home, as well as its belongings, to the Stark Foundation.

The properties are worth several hundred million dollars, Smith said.

Riedel said the foundation's "strained relationship" with some Stark family members is another reason they are not involved in the foundation's work. In early 2000, just months after Nelda C. Stark's death, several Stark family members, including Bill Stark, questioned the foundation about rumors of hidden assets and destroyed financial records.

Some former employees of Nelda C. Stark told the Stark family that they had seen foundation workers burn and shred documents, Bill Stark said.

Shortly after that meeting the three executors to Nelda C. Stark's estate, Riedel and foundation board members Eunice Benckenstein and Roy Wingate, petitioned the court to uphold a 1991 settlement between Nelda C. Stark and several descendents of Lutcher Stark.

Smith called the family's meeting with foundation directors "coming back to the well."

Nelda C. Stark settled with her late husband's descendents for $5 million, which was split between the families of Lutcher Stark's twin sons, William II and Homer, whom he adopted with his first wife, Nita, in 1923.

The settlement was reached after several descendents of Lutcher and Nita Stark filed a lawsuit in 1987 against Nelda C. Stark and the Stark Foundation, claiming they were entitled to a portion of Lutcher Stark's estate.

The settlement cut off the descendents from claiming any further part of the family inheritance or money from the Stark Foundation.

Last week, a state judge sided with the foundation and upheld the 1991 agreement.

The foundation sought the court's input to uphold the wishes of the foundation's founders, Smith said.

Bill Stark said his family was surprised by the foundation's legal action and disap-