On December 14, 2007 St. Olaf College Senior Regent (and former Board of Regents chair) Leonard Hoeft faxed a letter [PDF, 2 pages], written on December 12, to SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb to place before Rice County District Court-appointed Special Master Judge (ret.) Gary Meyer.
Hoeft has been an extremely generous donor to St. Olaf College throughout the years. He was also the single largest donor to WCAL in its 80+ year history and served as the chair of the fundraising campaign for WCAL's Rosemount broadcasting tower.
Among the items that St. Olaf College did not include in its Original Petition and its Amended Petition was a $1 million gift by Hoeft to WCAL. St. Olaf had withdrawn $1.6 million from the WCAL endowment — including Hoeft's gift — between November 2004 and December 2006 and planned to use those funds for any purpose it desired.
The college represented to the Court that it had obtained the consent of the living donors, including Hoeft, to withdraw those funds.
In the letter sent to McNabb, Hoeft submitted information to the court that he had neither been contacted nor given his consent for the College to do this.
