Editing MacArthur Foundation (section)

==History==
[[John D. MacArthur]] owned [[Bankers Life and Casualty]] and other businesses, as well as considerable property holdings in Florida and New York. His wife, [[Catherine T. MacArthur|Catherine]], held positions in many of these companies. Their attorney, [[William T. Kirby]], and Paul Doolen, their chief financial officer, suggested that the family create a foundation to be endowed by their vast fortune. 

When MacArthur died on January 6, 1978, he was worth in excess of a billion dollars. He left 92 percent of his estate to found the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Its first board of directors, per MacArthur's will, also included [[J. Roderick MacArthur]], John's son from his first marriage, two other officers of Bankers Life and Casualty, and radio commentator [[Paul Harvey]].<ref name=AboutOurHistory/> [[Jonas Salk]], the inventor of the polio vaccine, later joined the board of directors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sherrow |first=Victoria |title=Jonas Salk |date=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438104119 |edition=Revised |page=99 <!-- |access-date=September 1, 2016-->}}</ref>

The elder MacArthur believed in the free market.<ref name="chronicle">{{Cite news |last=Husock |first=Howard |url=https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Trust-Chan-and/234491 |title=Trust Chan and Zuckerberg to Decide How to Spend Their Money for the Public Good |date=December 4, 2015 |work=The Chronicle of Philanthropy |access-date=October 12, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hauer |first=Peter W. |title=The Big Picture: The Past, The Present, & Your Children's Future |date=2011 |publisher=Author House |isbn=9781420815351 |page=355}}</ref> However, he did not direct how foundation money was to be spent after he died. MacArthur told the board of directors, "I figured out how to make the money. You fellows will have to figure out how to spend it."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frantz |first=Douglas |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/07/07/charitable-patronage-still-gets-foundations-work-done/ |title='Charitable Patronage' Still Gets Foundation's Work Done |date=July 7, 1985 |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=October 12, 2016}}</ref>

Between 1979 and 1981, John's son, an ideological opponent of his father with whom the elder MacArthur had an acrimonious relationship, waged a legal battle against the foundation for control of the board of directors.<ref name="Nielsen">{{Cite book |last=Nielsen |first=Waldemar |url=https://archive.org/details/insideamericanph0000niel |title=Inside American Philanthropy: The Dramas of Donorship |date=1996 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=9780806128023 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/insideamericanph0000niel/page/132 132]–34 |access-date=September 1, 2016 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The younger MacArthur sued eight members of the board, accusing them of mismanagement of the foundation funds. These court cases were dismissed by each jurisdiction for lack of merit.

In 1984, MacArthur again sued the board of directors including William Kirby, his father's trusted attorney, asking a [[Cook County]] circuit court to liquidate the entire MacArthur Foundation. He dropped the suit later that year when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kleban Mills |first=Barbara |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20088625,00.html |title=The MacArthur 'Genius' Awards Are Jeopardized as the Dying Patron Attacks the Foundation |date=September 10, 1984 |work=People (magazine)|access-date=September 1, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Browning |first=Graeme |url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/07/27/The-son-of-the-man-who-established-the-15/2082459748800/ |title=The son of the man who established the $1.5&nbsp;billion foundation |date=July 27, 1984 |access-date=September 1, 2016 |work=United Press International}}</ref>