The July 4th Knucklehead of the Day Marathon Part Twenty-Four

Our last knucklehead may be the biggest of them all. The twenty-fourth winner is Harvard University. They get the award for losing a 115 Million dollar gift that was made to the University but taken back.

SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison has decided not to give Harvard University a planned gift of $115 million, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

Ellison canceled the gift because Lawrence H. Summers stepped down as Harvard's president this month after a stormy tenure at the university, Oracle spokesman Bob Wynne said. Summers announced his resignation in February, after being embroiled in controversy throughout 2005. Wynne said Ellison began to reconsider his donation when it appeared that Summers would step down.

"It was really Larry Summers' brainchild and once it looked like Larry Summers was leaving, Larry Ellison reconsidered," Wynne said. "It was Larry Ellison and Larry Summers that had initially come up with this notion."

Ellison's promise to Harvard last year created a sensation throughout the philanthropic community because it would have been the school's largest single contribution. The gift would have created a global health foundation named after Ellison.

Wynne said Ellison planned to make a donation to another institution, but had no details as to the size of the planned contribution or where it will be made. Wynne said he didn't know if Ellison had notified Harvard of his intentions.

What AP doesn't mention is the cause of the controversy for Summers. The Harvard President made some truthful but non-PC comments that enraged the left. They won the battle by getting Summers to step down. At the cost of the 115 million dollars and maybe another half a billion.

Harvard University is our last and costliest knucklehead of the day. I hope you enjoyed these.