Carla
Knorowski, chief executive officer of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Foundation, has resigned.
In
a press release, the foundation says that Knorowski has accepted a position as president
and chief development officer for the U.S. Naval War College Foundation in
Rhode Island, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Knorowski was an unpaid trustee of the
Rhode Island charity’s board in 2017, according to the nonprofit’s most recent
filing with the Internal Revenue Service. It was not immediately clear whether
Knorowski is still a trustee, nor is it clear whether Knorowski’s resignation
is effective immediately. Rene Brethorst, the foundation’s chief operating
officer, will serve as interim director pending a foundation search for
Knorowski’s replacement.
In
the press release, Knorowski called her position as the library foundation’s
CEO a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“While
leaving is bittersweet, I am confident in the work that Rene and the board of
directors are doing and the vision they have for the future of the
organization,” Knorowski said in the release.
Knorowski’s
resignation comes less than a month after ALPLM director Alan Lowe left the
institution, reportedly after being terminated by the governor’s office. Lowe
and the foundation had clashed over a stovepipe hat with questionable
provenance, with Lowe saying the foundation hadn’t kept the institution
properly informed of efforts to prove whether the hat that the foundation bought
in 2007 actually belonged to Lincoln. The hat was assigned a value of $6.5
million when it was included in the bulk purchase, for which the foundation borrowed more than $20 million. At last report, more than $9 million still was owed. The foundation
last year threatened to auction items to pay off the bank loan, but no auction
has been scheduled.
Within
the past month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has named a board for the presidential
library that includes former U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, a Republican who also served
as secretary of transportation under Barack Obama, as its chairman. It is the
museum’s first board since it became a standalone state agency in 2017. The
appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.
“I
like the feel, because it’s bipartisan,” said Steven Beckett, a Pritzker appointee
to the board who also is a Champaign-Urbana lawyer and director emeritus of the
trial advocacy center at the University of Illinois College of Law. “I’m
looking forward to it. It feels like an opportunity to be on a real board to
address real policies and real issues.”
This
isn’t Beckett’s first attempt to oversee the ALPLM. Five years ago, he chaired
a museum advisory board that ultimately disintegrated amid a power struggle
over control of the institution that pitted the museum’s executive director
against the head of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which was
eliminated in 2017 when the ALPLM became a standalone institution. The IHPA
board terminated the agency’s director, and the museum’s director submitted her
resignation at former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s behest.
Beckett
says that Lowe’s departure raises concerns. “It sounds like it was involuntary,”
he said. “That can’t be good. It sounds like there’s work within the organization
to be done. I’m genuinely concerned that things are in turmoil and that the board
will be able to help resolve it.”
Beckett
acknowledged that he and Knorowski did not always see things the same way while
she was head of the foundation and he sat on the ALPLM’s advisory board. He
said he had difficulty getting information about the museum’s and the
foundation’s finances. “I felt like I was pulling teeth,” he said. “I felt like
the finances were closely guarded.”
Knorowski
could not be immediately reached for comment.
Contact Bruce
Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2019.
