JHR Volume 18 number 2 cover letter
August 1999
Dear Friend,
With the outlook for the IHR now brighter than its been in years, we’re pleased to announce that Ted O’Keefe will soon be rejoining the IHR team. He’s set to move here from New Jersey in early September.
During the seven years he worked here, 1986 to 1994, Ted amply proved his skills as an outstanding writer and researcher — especially as a book editor and, for four years, as chief editor of the Journal. And since then he’s further honed his skills writing for a variety of periodicals, and editing books.
We’re able to welcome Ted back now because the terrible crisis of the last several years seems, at long last, to be coming to an end. Willis Carto, Liberty Lobby and other adversaries in the nearly six-year-old legal dispute have agreed to settle by paying $1.2 million to the IHR and its parent corporation, LSF, over the next three years. Our attorney has received from Liberty Lobby the initial payment check of $200,000. (These funds will become available after a bankruptcy court formally approves the settlement, which is expected within a few weeks.)
The cost, in both time and money, of fighting off Carto’s legal attacks and smear campaigns, and of recovering the money he and his associates fraudulently diverted, has been terrible. During the last four years of severe crisis and shortage, we were forced to reduce our staff to the bare minimum, to drastically cut expenses, including salaries, and to cancel or postpone indefinitely numerous important projects.
Even with the legal settlement, our difficulties are by no means over. Only a portion of the settlement funds will be available for our use. We still must pay off major debts incurred during the emergency period to keep the IHR alive. And even with Ted back on board, we’ll still be badly short-staffed.
Our great task now is to rebuild — to repair the damage wrought during the embattled years of siege and emergency. We need to publish new books and get important older works back into print. We need to bring out the Journal punctually. We must plan for another full-scale IHR Conference. We must greatly expand our public outreach.
To all those who have helped out — especially during the last four lean years — many thanks! Your steadfast support has meant the difference between life and death for the Institute and its vital work.
Now, as we optimistically tackle the great work of reconstruction, we pledge to uphold the trust and confidence that so many of you have shown in us.
Yours truly,
Mark Weber
Greg Raven