In a press release, Gutmann expressed pride that the award had gone to a first-generation low-income student and a former foster youth. After the announcement, Wendy Ruderman, a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, interviewed Mackenzie for roughly twenty-five minutes. We argued about the case, I advised him that this was ridiculous, and this had to be a status thing. A few weeks later, the prosecuting attorney decided not to press charges against Lovelace, either, citing a lack of evidence. Death: December 31, 2008 (80) Immediate Family: Son of John Morrison and Catriona Morrison. The hardships we experience are the things that well look back and be the most grateful for, she said during the interview. Within a half hour, police officers arrived at the hospital. Lisa Smith, the mother of one of Mackenzies best friends at Whitfield, said that her daughter once asked why Mackenzie was always injured: My daughter kind of looked at me funny, and I looked back at her and said, What are you trying to say?, When Fendell asked Mackenzie about her bruises, Mackenzie offered vague comments about being clumsy. At Mackenzies request, Penn had not listed her contact information in its online directory. They rented a house in nearby Bellevue, Wash., where Amazon was founded in the garage in 1994. released a report on its findings. What happened after that? Winkelstein asked. When youve grown up with privilegeand everything around you is pretty and pristine and predictableyour tolerance for anything outside that world isnt very high, Martinez said. Mackenzie had been an organizer on campus for a variety of causesshe advocated for the university to defund campus police and to reimburse public schools for unpaid property taxesbut in the months before she applied for the Rhodes she had been involved in a more straightforward matter: improving building safety. But Mackenzies friends and teachers noticed that in her mothers presence Mackenzie physically recoiled. Logan hadnt known that her husband and emergency responders had allegedly waited for almost an hour together before he was taken away in an ambulancetwelve minutes later, he was declared dead. Dr. Morrison was arrested at the time but the case was dropped by prosecutors who said they could never prove Mackenzies claims. If I look back at all the signs, at the days leading up to and proceeding my accident, she wrote, the signs all seem to point in the same direction. Down-to-earth! Records show that Mr. Tuttle made a small contribution $25 to the Ron DeSantis campaign for Florida governor that year, while Mr. and Ms. Tuttle had each previously contributed $500 to the Republican National Committee. These stories attract attention, in part because they offer comfort that, at least on occasion, such things happen. Before leaving, the caseworker, who was white, explained that she didnt really need anything else from us and she was sorry to bother us, but was glad everything worked out, Mackenzie wrote. When she visited friends and former teachers, she tried to take up as little space as possible. Last June, Ms. Scott announced another round of giving, $2.7 billion this time. Rhodes Scholar claimed she grew up poor and abusedthen her story started to unravel, the New York Post wrote. A spokesperson for his office said that new evidence had been uncovered. Make the most of the year, and look twice before you leave. The university offered her a deal: as Raffaele described it to Mackenzie in an e-mail, the university would take no action against your undergraduate degree, if she gave up the Rhodes, along with her Latin honors (shed graduated summa cum laude). notified Mackenzies lawyer of the decision, writing, I am very saddened by the result in this case as I have always believed Mackenzie 100% on everything and I always will., Morrison declined to speak with me on the record, except to write, Our greatest desire is that Mackenzie chooses to live a happy, healthy, honest and productive life, using her extraordinary gifts for the highest good. Speaking for her side of the family, she added, We will always be here for her., After the trial, Mackenzie decided to change her last name. There just might be a small part left that loves me in some way, at least I hope., In September, 2014, early in her junior year, Mackenzie drove to school and looked for her history teacher, who had become one of the few people in whom she felt comfortable confiding. doesnt recall Mackenzie asking for witness names before it issued its report, and that it is standard practice not to identify witnesses. investigator, Mackenzie, and her mother. Ms. Scotts father ran an investment advising firm called J. Baker Tuttle Corporation, which by her teenage years was paying him about $360,000, or over $900,000 in todays dollars, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. I felt like a passenger in my own body, she said. The D.S.S. There were only seventy-one students in Mackenzies grade, and soon everyone seemed to have an opinion about her life. The kind of philanthropy portrayed in The Testing of Luther Albright resembles the sort practiced by her mother, Holiday Tuttle. A teacher from Whitfield wrote, While her mother used her wealth to evade conviction, there was never any doubt in my mind that she abused her child and is diabolical in having no remorse. A childhood friend wrote that Mackenzie had confided at the time that her mothers boyfriend would come into her bedroom at night and how her mother would do nothing about it. (Morrison did call the police when he came to their house to show Mackenzie pictures of his new gun. Subscribe today ], Her mother was a respected figure in the St. Louis medical community, and, when Mackenzie was injured, she saw doctors affiliated with her hospital. That summer, Mackenzie decided to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship, to get a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford. Luther asks Liz if her life with no black-tie fund-raisers. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/business/mackenzie-scott-charity.html, Illustration by Israel G. Vargas; Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic. The Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted the Inquirer article, saying it was thrilling that a Rhodes Scholarship had gone to a first-gen low-income foster youth, and Mackenzie retweeted what he wrote. Dorothy L. Espelage, a psychologist specializing in bullying prevention, recalled in an interview how she was sitting in a parking lot at the University of Illinois, where she worked at the time, when her phone rang. One student died, and another could have died, because of issues of access in this basement. Mackenzie wrote letters to the social-work school and to Gutmann, the universitys president, expressing her concerns. No big house. Photograph by Robbie Lawrence for The New Yorker, Heres an apocryphal story that I figure prominently in., Can I help you find anything or prevent you from folding that shirt in such a way that I will immediately have to refold it?, I just hope the world doesnt end before people can see our outfits., Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. She was listed alongside the graduating seniors in the class of 1987 yearbook, and where their colleges were named it said merely that she was bound for England. How an unemployed blogger confirmed that Syria had used chemical weapons. I really dont have words, Mackenzie wrote in an e-mail to a mentor at the Penn Womens Center. She wrote that Mackenzie, in her application, had failed to acknowledge her upper middle-class upbringing and provides a description of a life of abuse that the judicial process concluded could not be substantiated. Winkelstein attached orders showing that a circuit court had reversed the D.S.S.s finding of abuse, and that Morrisons arrest had been expunged. If trauma creates a kind of narrative void, Mackenzie seemed to respond by leaning into a narrative that made her life feel more coherent, fitting into boxes that people want to reward. Classmates at Hotchkiss said they remembered Ms. Scott as disciplined about her work, gentle with others and humble in her manner. Schneider told me, We wanted to document everything, because we were, like, This is a pattern. O ne Monday morning in the fall of 2020, Mackenzie Fierceton received an email asking her to meet with Beth Winkelstein, deputy provost of the University of The billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott once recounted, in a television interview, a Chinese folk tale sometimes known as The Lost Horse. The story is about the reversals of fortune a farmer experiences after his prized stallion runs away. At the time that Mackenzie filed her case, the Chronicle of Higher Education was finishing an article about her lost Rhodes Scholarship. Two months later, in December, 2021, she filed a lawsuit against Penn, accusing it of retaliating against her and discrediting her for Penns institutional protection. By then, Gutmann had been appointed the U.S. She She was tirelessshe seemed to be fighting the worlds fight and really engaged in the struggle for a more just world, he said. Her room, on the third floor, was mostly bare, though she had hung seventeen photographs, mostly of college friends. After three weeks at the hospital, Mackenzie was discharged into a foster home. A privileged child, she left a Connecticut boarding school after her family declared bankruptcy. In addition to Ms. Tuttles work at boutiques, public records indicate that before the subprime meltdown, Mr. Tuttle was licensed in Florida as a mortgage broker, a real estate broker and assistant appraiser and registered half a dozen shell companies with names like FAMCO Group and REALCO Group. There was also a nascent sense in the book of philanthropy as a good. Mackenzies friend Kate Minorini told me, Mackenzies mom was using the Whitfield buzz bookthe school directoryto plead her case, so the rumor mill would have happened regardless, but a lot of the hearsay seemed to be based off the defense arguments of our classmates dad. There were rumors that Mackenzies bruises were self-inflicted, that she had thrown herself down the stairs to get attention. Mr. Bezos later said he would find her writing in hotel bathrooms when he woke up on vacation. They didnt respond, though Mackenzies biological mother has denied the allegations of abuse. The university, in its response to Mackenzies lawsuit, referred to Mackenzies mother as an accomplished physician and claimed that a court had found her allegations not to be credible. And unlike with Bystander Revolution, she was front and center. On TLC's Unexpected , Caelan Morrison had to deal with being a teen dad while also navigating his declining relationship with the mother of his children, McKayla Adkins. Some of those approaches were from staff at the influential nonprofit consultancy Bridgespan, others from representatives at Lost Horse. The Trust determined that, in Mackenzies medical records, there is no reference to dried blood, distorted facial features, or cessation of breathing. The report also pointed to inconsistent descriptions of the length of time Mackenzie had spent in foster care. students, she had expressed a similar concern about the sorts of personal statement expected from disadvantaged students: The expression that comes up is poverty porncontinually being pressured by your school, when you get to a higher-education institution, or even in high school, to share your storyand thank donors, and whatever the case is. (Penn said that it doesnt pressure students to tell their stories but supports them when they choose to do so. All rights reserved. Its an interesting business, and, on the whole, having a part-time job has been good for my writing., But she also started taking a writing seminar at the University of Washington. Still, it was a significant statement. Last year, Ms. Scott recalled that period and the help she received to make it through. She had pledged to give until the safe is empty but her remaining Amazon shares were worth more than at the time of the divorce, the result of a soaring market that fueled further debate over billionaires and income inequality. People who had once supported her were finding excuses to turn their backs or walk away., Mackenzie moved into a second foster home, because the first was chaotic; while she was there, the other foster child had attempted suicide. Shortly before the pandemic hit, the chemistry teacher Dan Jewett took on a delicate, sometimes unpopular task. Instead, she gave through the lightly regulated vehicles known as donor-advised funds, which meant she could make massive, tax-deductible donations with no transparency requirements. Morrison continued, She was falling apart under the academic stresses at school and was exhausted, and I believe looking for an out.. A small team led by a recent Princeton graduate helped produce video testimonials by a range of public figures, including Monica Lewinsky and the actor Jared Leto. And we all have enormous energy to devote to helping and protecting those we love.. They take us where we need to go.. Those concerns were temporarily overshadowed when, less than five months later, on Dec. 15, 2020, Ms. Scott announced another, even bigger round of giving, $4.2 billion to 384 organizations, including hundreds of Easterseals, United Way, Y.W.C.A. She had not seen her mother in private since the day she was hospitalizeda court had ordered family therapy, but Mackenzie was terrifiedand had no financial support from her family. Brandt wrote, The only thing she can think is Mackenzie did this to herself. When Brandt asked why Mackenzie would accuse her of such a thing, Morrison replied, I guess she has more problems than I thought. Brandt placed Morrison under arrest. Mackenzie said that Penn First was one of the first spaces on campus where I felt, These are my people. In a letter to herself, an exercise assigned to all the scholars, Mackenzie wrote, I know that my first 18 years on this planet will always be a part of who I am, but how do I move on and start this new chapter of my life without pretending like it never happened?, Elizabeth Cannon, the senior associate director of Civic House, where the program is based, sensed that Mackenzie was more vulnerable than she acknowledged. I was young, and I didnt know how you support somebody whose family is going through a hard time.. I remember there was some blood with my lip, yeah, Mackenzie said. They asked how Mackenzie had been injured. Using her phone to light the pages, she listed the pros of telling: no more physical/emotional attacks, I get out of this dangerous house, the truth is finally out, I dont have to lie or cover things up. Under cons of telling, she wrote, damaging moms life, could go into foster care, basically I would probably lose everything. After she finished, she loosened the screws of a vent panel on the wall outside her closet and slipped the notebook behind it. She gave overwhelmingly to groups led by women, people of color, members of the L.G.B.T.Q. She has built a philanthropic operation that is notable not just for the monumental size and speed of its gifts but also for its seemingly impenetrable secrecy. I dont remember, but I was told I drove, Mackenzie said. He was informing friends, he told them at the time, because the news was about to come out in the tabloids. . Not only did she support his dream, she worked alongside him to build the company. They dated for three months before getting engaged and were married three months after that. Mr. Jewett was the kind of teacher students appreciated, jovial in manner and serious about his subject. For some nonprofits, curiosity has curdled into fear, as leaders fret that when their peers receive grants from Ms. Scott and they are passed over, it could imply that they are mismanaged or ineffective. I just kind of crumbled behind the pressure, shesaid. Her own life has taken sharp turns that have shaped her choices, including her extraordinary leap into philanthropy, which in under three years has exceeded $12 billion in grants. Some were groups that her mother might have gone to a luncheon for in Palm Beach, or her grandmother in El Paso. Commentary was overwhelmingly positive, but philanthropy experts raised significant questions. The new news is that last July Jeff and I moved from New York to Seattle, where Ive spent most of my time helping him start a business selling books over the Internet, she wrote in a letter to Ms. Morrison in 1995. I wish that I had the courage to tell someone. Im finding I have much time to write, all in the early morning, which probably displeases the accountant who lives below me although I recently invested in a rug to muffle my 5 am trips to the kitchen for coffee, she wrote to Ms. Morrison. Princeton classmates recalled her as passionate about books and deeply engaged in her studies. Im telling my story because I think its a microcosm of how institutions of power can manipulate truth, she told me. The report acknowledged, This is a tragic story, but said that truthfulness cannot be overridden by appeal to trauma. It referred to childhood picturesenclosed in a twenty-two-page letter written to the Rhodes Trust, in mid-December, by an anonymous sender who displayed a great deal of familiarity with Mackenzies childhoodthat showed Mackenzie engaging in typical upper middle-class childhood activities, like horseback riding and going to the beach. ), On Medium, she was writing in the language of equity and social justice, guiding philosophies for her giving. Morrison told officers that her daughter asked her to extract some gum from her hair as she stood at the top of a staircase, and as she tried to, Fierceton jerked, fell down two steps, and then sat down. Forbes in January calculated that he had paid out $2.1 billion in charitable giving so far. In the weeks before John Wayne Gacys scheduled execution, he was far from reconciled to his fate. Family declared bankruptcy case, the Chronicle of Higher Education was finishing an article about her with! 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