The chocolate trust : deception, indenture, and secrets at the $12 billion Milton Hershey School / Bob Fernandez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fernandez, Bob, 1965-

Contributor:

Classes of 1883 and 1884 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Milton Hershey School (Hershey, Pa.)--Corrupt practices.

Milton Hershey School (Hershey, Pa.).

Milton Hershey School (Hershey, Pa.)--Finance.

Corruption.

Finance.

Physical Description:

xiii, 234 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Camino Books, [2015]

Summary:

The name "Hershey" is synonymous the world over with only the sweetest associations-a philanthropic, self-made millionaire, a bucolic Pennsylvania farm town, and of course, chocolate. As Milton Hershey amassed his fortune in the early 1900s from the colossally successful Hershey Chocolate Company, he put it back into the community, and nowhere was this generosity more visible than in the founding of the Milton Hershey School. Intended as a haven for fatherless orphan boys, the school took in young boarders with the intention of instilling them with Christian values, a strong work ethic, and the promise of a better future. But all was not what it seemed. The Chocolate Trust tells a different history of the Milton Hershey School-a story of children who worked the farms as indentured pupils, and who were often mistreated or violated by those on staff. It tells the story of a trust that has raked in billions of dollars in endowments, dollars that are steered away from the intended beneficiaries-the children. And it looks at the recent history of the school, and a decade that has seen more dropouts than graduates. Bob Fernandez's riveting and sobering account of the Milton Hershey School uncovers how funds were diverted from the school and put toward the multimillion-dollar Hershey Medical Center, a luxury golf course and an expansion of Hershey Entertainment, all while state officials and Trust businessmen claimed that there just weren't enough poor children in America to help. Through shrewd reporting and original accounts, The Chocolate Trust makes it clear that the legacy of the Milton Hershey School has made Hershey, Pennsylvania far from "the sweetest place on earth." Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Homestead: Milton, Kitty, and Orphans 1

2 Boys on the Farm: The Depression 13

3 Post-Milton: "What We Know" and "How We Feel" 25

4 Looting the Trust: A Political Deal to Divert Tens of Millions from Orphans 38

5 Winds of Change: Girard College Finally Admits Black Boys; So Does Hershey 56

6 The Soul of the Orphanage: Up scaling the Institution; Call Them Scholarship Winners 62

7 "Orphan Army": They Felt They Owed It to Mr. Hershey 75

8 Recurring Problem-The Chocolate Profits: How Should the Trust Spend Its Billions on Poor Kids? 105

9 Koons: Danger on Campus; a Serial Pedophile 122

10 Sorry Kid, No HIV in Hershey: Justice Department Investigates; the Trust Settles for $700,000 131

11 Abbie's Death: A Revolving Door for Poor Kids Leads to Tragedy 143

12 Zimm's Palace: Greed and a Decade of Soaring Trust Board Compensation 166

13 Reform Slips Away Again: Attorney General Kane Quickly Closes the Investigation 183

14 Slave Labor in the Cocoa Lands: Hershey Profiting Off the Toils of Children in West Africa 196.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Classes of 1883 and 1884 Fund.

ISBN:

9781933822594

1933822597

OCLC:

902852992

Publisher Number:

99963686183