TK ends multi million donation agreement with FSU

www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/03/01/t-k-wetherell-ends-multi-million-dollar-fsu-donation-agreement-sale-plantation/383503002/

In 2003, then Florida State University President T.K. Wetherell and his wife, Ginger, made headlines. They were donating their 1,000-acre Jefferson County home site – valued at $7.5 million to the university – upon their deaths.

A decade and a half later, plans have changed. This week, the Wetherells put their Oak Hill Plantation in Lloyd on the market for $10.7 million.

The expectation was FSU would likely sell the sprawling property and use the proceeds toward specific requests the couple had designated, primarily in the name of scholarships.

Wetherell, 72, said the arrangement with FSU constituted a life estate: he and his wife would continue to own, maintain and pay taxes on the property until their deaths. It was never turned over to FSU.

He said provisions were included in the legal documents, that upon their deaths, “FSU would do very well; let’s put it that way.”

Tom Jennings, FSU’s vice president for university advancement, said he read about the Wetherell’s plans Tuesday in the Tallahassee Democrat. He has not discussed with the couple its previous arrangement.

“A bequeath like that is totally revocable,” Jennings said.