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The De Rance Foundation was the world's largest Catholic charity until its dissolution in 1992. It was named for Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé, the 17th-century abbot of the monastery at La Trappe, France.
Begun in 1946 by Harry G. John, a grandson of Miller Brewing Company founder Frederick Miller,[1] De Rance was worth $188 million in March 1983. By October 1984, the charity's value plummeted to $83 million as a result of Harry John's questionable expenditures and investments of its assets.[2] John's wife, Erica, and Dr. Donald Gallagher, two of the three foundation directors, subsequently sued to have John removed as a De Rance director.[3] They claimed he was spending too much on a major television venture based at KIHS-TV in Ontario, California.[4][2] Harry John was found guilty of gross mismanagement and was permanently removed by a judge from the De Rance board in August 1986.[5]
After Harry John died in December 1992, the De Rance board voted to award $30 million of the charity's $100 million in assets to several of John's favorite causes and then dissolved in order to prevent assets from being transmitted to Southern Cross Inc., a conservative Catholic agency.[1] The remainder, $70 million, was used to create a new charitable organization, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund. The fund was further renamed in 2009 as the Erica P. John Fund and reportedly contributes around $600,000 annually to the archdiocese.[6] The fund was involved in leading a class action suit, Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co., at the Supreme Court of the United States in June 2011.[7]
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