Although ISU officials have apologized, Murray Blackwelder said the Marie Powers estate was handled adequately.

“I do not feel that I was overbearing,” said Blackwelder, former vice president for external affairs.

Last week, after criticism surrounding the ISU Foundation’s handling of the Powers’ farm donation, the Foundation decided to open case documents.

The same day the documents were opened to the public, Ben Allen, interim vice president of external affairs, said, “The records contain comments critical of a former executive officer.”

One of the hundreds of documents released is a letter written by David Crumley, the attorney who represented the Powers’ estate and expressed concern about the way the gift was handled.

In the letter, Crumley wrote “Blackwelder came on much too strong.”

Blackwelder is now vice president for advancement at Purdue University and a member of the ISU Foundation Board of Governors.

Powers left her $1.2 million estate to the ISU Agricultural Foundation to be operated as the Kiley Powers Farm in her will.

In 1996 the Foundation petitioned the Webster County district court for a cy pres.

Upon approval from the judge, the ISU Agricultural Foundation used the money obtained through the farm sale to fund an addition to Kildee Hall and an agronomy scholarship.

Blackwelder said the decisions that were made in the case were not his alone, but a compromise between all parties involved, including former president Martin Jischke, former dean of the College of Agriculture David Topel, and Crumley.

“It was collaborative decision,” he said.

Blackwelder said the gift was very unusual since the university had no knowledge of Powers’ will prior to her death.

“In my 27 years of fund raising, this was a first,” Blackwelder said.