College won't name a wing for racist who gave $500,000

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Augsburg College officials have changed theirminds about naming part of a new building for a major donor becausethey learned he had mailed thousands of hostile letters tointerracial families.

The college will, however, keep the $500,000 that Elroy Stockdonated last year, as well as other contributions made over 20 years.

"The positions and actions of Mr. Elroy Stock, as reported inthe media, have disturbed, angered and saddened hundreds ofindividuals and families, including members of the Augsburgcommunity," college President Charles Anderson said.

"For some persons, to have the name of Mr. Stock on a wing ofour new building would be misunderstood to mean the college agreeswith his stance," Anderson said.

Anderson, who is white and has a black daughter-in-law, said hereceived three anonymous letters himself from Stock.

WCCO-TV reported that Stock, a 65-year-old retired executive ofWest Publishing Co. who lives in Woodbury, had been sending unsignedletters to interracial couples for 14 years.

The station said the letters included such comments as, "A dogbreeder would not think of producing mongrel dogs, so why should thehuman race be mongrel?"

After a five-year investigation, postal officials linked theletters to Stock in early 1987, said Sterling McKusick, a retiredU.S. Postal Service inspector. McKusick had received about 1,000complaints, the earliest dating to about 1982.

But Stock could not be prosecuted because he had not broken anylaws. Complaints ceased shortly after Stock was confronted byauthorities in March, 1987, McKusick said.

Stock, a 1949 Augsburg graduate, gave the Lutheran college$500,000 for a new worship, drama and communication building. It wasthe largest single gift last year to the college, which has 2,100students.