Lawsuit by academy grads inches forward

Filed earlier this month in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, the defendants' motion for a protective order states that the underlying case against 28 trustees was "mischievously pled" and was intended to "harass" the trustees.

The Anne Arundel County Circuit Court will determine how the case will proceed at a meeting set for Jan. 31, court clerks said this week.

The lawsuit was brought in November by two graduates who claim that some of the Alumni Association's officers - retired admirals - have violated the group's bylaws by ignoring term-limit requirements.

"I don't care what rank you are, you can't operate outside the rule of law," said Michael O. Tackney, one of the plaintiffs.

Mr. Tackney and co-plaintiff Alfred W. Tate, both members of the Class of 1964 who did not make the military a career, have spent about $90,000 on the lawsuit, Mr. Tackney said.

"We have raised this from contributions from alumni," Mr. Tackney said, adding that the case has widespread support among academy graduates.

Mr. Tackney said he was never active in the Alumni Association until about two years ago, when he started reading the many e-mails his fellow grads were circulating, complaining that the Alumni Association ignores rank-and-file members while catering to high-ranking career officers.

"I said this is an outrageous situation going on at the Naval Academy," Mr. Tackney said.

The 28 Alumni Association trustees who are being sued include at least five Navy flag officers who retired at the rank of rear admiral or higher, a retired Marine Corps major general and nine retired Navy captains.

Mr. Tackney and Mr. Tate claim, for example, that the Alumni Association's chairman, retired Adm. Carlisle A. H. Trost, a former Chief of Naval Operations, was elected chairman of the alumni association's board of trustees in 2003, and violated the organizations's term limits in 2006 by running for - and winning - the chairman's position again.

"Our biggest concern is the entrenched management at the association is not member-oriented," Mr. Tackney said.

Adm. Trost, an Annapolis resident, declined to discuss the case, saying he didn't want to harm the other 27 defendants.

A spokesman for the Alumni Association, retired Cmdr. Lawrence "Skid" Heyworth III, Class of 1970, said the association has acted properly.

The disgruntled grads never showed any interest in the association before filing the court case, Cmdr. Heyworth said, and never tried to work within the organization to effect change.

"This thing came out of the blue from two guys who have never been elected to anything in the organization, who aren't happy," Cmdr. Heyworth said.

"Our mission is to support today's U.S. Naval Academy and today's midshipmen, not the U.S. Naval Academy of the 1960s or 1970s, not the midshipmen of the 1960s or 1970s," Cmdr. Heyworth said.

At stake in the case is control of an organization whose roughly 50,000 members donate millions of dollars a year through the Alumni Association's sister group, the Alumni Foundation.

The foundation often solicits donations from the association's members, and the contributions go for construction projects and scholarly undertakings at the academy.

Between 2000 and 2005, the foundation raised nearly $254 million "from more than 36,000 alumni, friends, parents, corporations and foundations," according to foundation records.

Private contributions have helped restore Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and build a number of private facilities, including the recently opened $16.5 million Hooper Sports Complex on Greenbury Point.

No one in the case is alleging financial mismanagement, Mr. Tackney said, and the lawsuit is not being brought to win money or to influence operations at the Naval Academy.

"Money is not on the table, this is simply a matter of principle," Mr. Tackney said.

"The (alumni) association is run like a military chain of command, it is not a collegial board," Mr. Tackney said.