The D.S.S. Ms. Scott did not have a foundation that would have to file detailed tax returns. She showed up at my classroom door with a bloodied and battered face and then fainted, the teacher wrote. Fierceton resided in Chesterfield, a rich suburb of St. Louis, with her mother, Carrie Morrison, the director of breast imaging and mammography at St. Luke's Hospital. Its hard to breathe because my ribs are so severely bruised, and I cant laugh, smile, or chew without it hurting, Mackenzie wrote in a journal she kept at the hospital. But, she wrote, if I truly cant do this, where am I supposed to return to?, Holiday breaks were a source of panic. In a Its just difficult to describe what its like to go through the world feeling like you dont have some sort of anchor., Mackenzie moved around Nortons house lightly and with deference. Join Facebook to connect with Mackenzie Morrison and others you may know. investigators were reviewing e-mails between Mackenzie and Penn faculty, presumably to see if she had portrayed her life accurately; they also interviewed Morrison and the St. Louis prosecutor who dropped her criminal casewithout telling Mackenzie. For some nonprofits, curiosity has curdled into fear, as leaders fret that when their peers receive grants from Ms. Scott and they are passed over, it could imply that they are mismanaged or ineffective. She gave with few strings attached. We had never talked about her being mentally ill. Webb had hoped that the elementary school would rally around Mackenzie. Mackenzies parents had separated when she was six, and Mackenzie lived with her mother, Carrie Morrison, the director of breast imaging and mammography at In 2004, the couple joined the board of the Bezos Family Foundation, a charitable vehicle of Mr. Bezos parents, who became extraordinarily rich in their own right from their early infusions of capital into the fledgling Amazon.com. Morrisons familys roots in the United States go back for generations. Her grandfather had graduated from college. Then the University of Pennsylvania accused her of lying. That power deserves civic scrutiny and attention.. Meet Mother Father and Radiologist Parents Mackenzie Fiercetons mother works as a radiologist and was raised in an upper-middle-class family. The source told the Rhodes Trust that Fierceton, whose birth name was Mackenzie Morrison, actually went to a private school in Missouri rather than spend the In the tweet, she added in a parenthetical: (Note my Medium account is under my new last name changed back to middle name I grew up with, after my grandfather Scott. The family had an expensive home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood in San Francisco and another house in the town of Ross, what the San Francisco Examiner at the time called the bosky dell in Marin County for the well-to-do., In the afterword to her first novel, Ms. Scott tells the story of how, when she was just 6 years old, she wrote a 142-page novel called The Bookworm, which she described as a chapter book about the adventures of a worm who loved to read., It took me almost a year of afternoons lying on our living room carpet with a stack of Oreos, a sheaf of kindergarten newsprint, and a fat pencil, she wrote, and I distinctly remember the moment when it first occurred to me that I loved writing differently than I loved riding my bike or swimming.. During her free period at school, she roamed the halls looking for teachers who might be willing to chat. Last June, Ms. Scott announced another round of giving, $2.7 billion this time. But I do feel I got to a point well-suited to some perspective-fostering maternity leave and a dose of serious criticism from willing readers., She continued sending drafts to Ms. Morrison, thanking her every time for reading the latest version, and she kept up with a family tradition of sending annual Thanksgiving cards. Nevertheless, Raffaele encouraged her not to take any risks. In an evaluation for QuestBridge, Mackenzies history teacher wrote that Mackenzie, after escaping her wealthy but abusive parent, was on her own in every way., Mackenzie explained in a biographical essay that her private school was among the most lite in St. Louis. The universitys pleading portrayed Mackenzie as a discredited person who cannily concocted a tale of abuse: as a child, she had regular temper tantrums, beyond the normal range for an adolescent. Then she had claimed to fall ill at school and presented a fictitious account of abuse by her mother. According to the pleading, her claims of abuse kept her family muzzled, leaving her in control of her narrative., Four days after the response was filed, the Chronicle published its article, giving ample weight to each side and quoting from the universitys pleading. The two friends painted, with Ms. Scott producing a memorable portrait of her younger brother. Ruderman acknowledged that Mackenzie didnt use those exact words, but she said that Mackenzie did describe herself as an F.G.L.I. Some people said that she had been inspired by the movie Gone Girl, about a woman who stages her own murder. But her mother and Wendy White apparently stayed in touchin an e-mail after Mackenzie was questioned, Morrison said that she was saddened to learn that M stuck to her story. She wrote, She has become emboldened over time, and has been successful with her evolving tale for 6 yrs. She offered that White or her staff could visit her home, in St. Louis. All rights reserved. That same year, her mother made headlines in the local papers fighting to save neighborhood trees threatened by Dutch elm disease. A friend from Hotchkiss, Margot Bass, described her as original in everything from how she dressed eschewing the Laura Ashley prints many women wore on campus to how she saw the world. She had distinct advantages over other first-time authors when the novel came out in 2005. She was MacKenzie Scott, the novelist upending philanthropy. She has been in therapy since she went into foster care, and she attributes her capacity to heal, at least to some degree, to her sense of fellowship with other children and women who have not been believed. Mackenzie said that Penn First was one of the first spaces on campus where I felt, These are my people. A small team led by a recent Princeton graduate helped produce video testimonials by a range of public figures, including Monica Lewinsky and the actor Jared Leto. The administrative ruling was first reported by Medium Marker. I know that good part is still there somewhere, she wrote. That was when she published a new letter this past December, the one where she opened up about her struggles during college, showed more of herself, but with the headline, No Dollar Signs This Time, which meant both that the symbol $ wasnt used, but also that she did not say how many billions had gone out the door since June. investigator, Mackenzie, and her mother. Bet the daughter is an entitled brat, one said. In 2014, A 17-year-old Mackenzie told police that her mother pushed her down stairs and struck her at their four bedroom, $750,000 suburban home. Mackenzie grew up in St. Louis, Missouri with her mother, Carrie Morrison, left, who allegedly abused her, as her boyfriend, Henry Lovelace Jr., right, sexually abused her Mackenzie attended the $30,000-a-year Whitfield private school in St. Louis Shes pretty much invincible. Mackenzie felt certain that, if she shared details about her mom or Lovelace, her mother would convince people that she was lying, or crazy. Ms. Scott made cold calls and assembled an informal group of advisers. I just remember her being fixated on worry that her mom was going to come into the hospital. At the nurses station, a small picture of Morrison was taped to the wall, so that, if she entered the building, nurses could alert security. She is brilliant and can charm anyone, Mackenzie wrote. The father of one of Mackenzies high-school peers reached out to a Penn official, to explain that the news coverage about Mackenzie was inaccurate. Mackenzie stayed at school late that night, rehearsing for a musical. When he called again in December the phone number was out of service, and a subsequent letter came back marked Moved Left No Address, according to commission documents. Thats what I tasted, yeah, Mackenzie responded. Dr. Morrison was arrested at the time but the case was dropped by prosecutors who said they could never prove Mackenzies claims. A privileged child, she left a Connecticut boarding school after her family declared bankruptcy. A month later, the Rhodes Trust informed Mackenzie that it was launching an investigation into her personal history. That clamor may have driven Ms. Scotts already discreet operation further underground, with recent philanthropic announcements akin to sudden lightning bolts for unsuspecting recipients. Putting large donors at the center of stories on social progress is a distortion of their role, she wrote in an essay last year, one in a series of deliberate public communiqus on her giving. I could tell that she was embarrassed, and she didnt want to be a burden, Cannon said. Gutmann more than doubled the number of Penn students from low-income and first-generation families, her faculty biography explains. The thought that this information may have been withheld from you felt utterly horrifying, Mackenzie wrote. Or even to write everything down in here. When I founded Penn First, it was for students just like her, and her membership and leadership in the club was welcomed with open arms, she explained. That summer, Mackenzie decided to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship, to get a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford. In keeping with the absolute secrecy surrounding Lost Horses operations, there is no nameplate in the lobby and the slim rectangular window on the Lost Horse floor is papered over. They asked how Mackenzie had been injured. It did not escape notice at the Ford Foundation, for instance, that more than half the groups she had given to were among its grantees. Norton wrote a letter to Gutmann, Penns president, warning that the university had been made complicit in a long campaign of continuing abuse. Norton says that Gutmann did not respond. She met with the associate director of special services within Penns Division of Public Safety to share her fear that her family had discovered where she lived. I felt like a passenger in my own body, she said. She achieved her goal of studying creative writing under Ms. Morrison, who had recently won the Pulitzer Prize. I had so much anger and grief, and I didnt want them to be affiliated in any way with this new life I was building, she said. Before that could happen, the couple announced their wedding in a backhanded way. So, so wrong. Some of her high-school teachers had reassured her that she was part of their familytheir bonus child. But they stopped calling. Bill Gates is among its alumni, and Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott are among the parents. After Lovelace bought Morrison a gun for her birthday, Mackenzie wrote, If Im being perfectly honest, Im terrified. She described an incident, a year earlier, when she had fallen asleep watching a movie in her moms bed and woke up to Lovelace on top of her, feeling my boobs, running his hand around my inner thighs & exploring other places. She got out from under him, ran into her own room, and eventually called her mother, who wasnt home, and related what had happened. Last year, Ms. Scott recalled that period and the help she received to make it through. Her grandfather had completed his studies at the university level. Im telling my story because I think its a microcosm of how institutions of power can manipulate truth, she told me. (She also spent long stretches sleeping at friends houses.) Morrisons lawyer, Allison Schreiber Lee, had obtained a personal statement that Mackenzie had written to get a scholarship, which was nearly identical to her college essay, and she interrogated Mackenzie about differences between her medical records and her rendering of the experience. Suddenly, a New York cop remembered a long-ago murder. There just might be a small part left that loves me in some way, at least I hope., In September, 2014, early in her junior year, Mackenzie drove to school and looked for her history teacher, who had become one of the few people in whom she felt comfortable confiding. The hardships we experience are the things that well look back and be the most grateful for, she said during the interview. Subscribe today ], Her mother was a respected figure in the St. Louis medical community, and, when Mackenzie was injured, she saw doctors affiliated with her hospital. One of young MacKenzies own first public appearances was with her fourth-grade class in December 1979 at a Ross Town Council meeting, where she presented a class project to raise money to plant a new tree. While Ms. Scott may be seeking to stay in the background, her funds are reshaping the nonprofit sector in the United States and beyond. Mackenzie testified that her mother had pushed her down the stairs and that, after she had fallen, my mom was on top of me and she was striking me in the face. One of the next things she remembers is waking up in her bedroom early the next morning. doesnt recall Mackenzie asking for witness names before it issued its report, and that it is standard practice not to identify witnesses. When youve grown up with privilegeand everything around you is pretty and pristine and predictableyour tolerance for anything outside that world isnt very high, Martinez said. During their investigation of Fierceton, Penn's general counsel spoke to "Michael Hayes, the prosecutor in St. Louis who had charged Dr. Morrison with child Waitressing in New York had proved more grueling than waiting tables in Princeton during college, leaving her too tired to write. CreditIllustration by Israel G. Vargas; Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic. ), After investigating Mackenzie for more than three months, the O.S.C. What happened after that? Winkelstein asked. In college, a loan from a friend helped keep her from dropping out. Years later Ms. Scott would thank him in the acknowledgments of her first published book. They rented a house in nearby Bellevue, Wash., where Amazon was founded in the garage in 1994. She was five feet ten with long curly blond hairthe picture of Americana, as one friend described her. Fendell told her that, if she couldnt talk about why she was injured, she should write it down. Yet, I was wrong. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Her husband was by then one of the most famous men in America, but he was best known at the time for destabilizing the staid publishing industry to the detriment of local bookstores. Three decades after worrying about making rent, and even in the wake of her recent gifts, Ms. Scott, 52, has a net worth that hovers around $50 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Forbes in January calculated that he had paid out $2.1 billion in charitable giving so far. In November, 2020, the Rhodes Trust named Mackenzie one of thirty-two scholar-elects from the United States. After noticing that the childrens book Watership Down was full of specific plant names, she hopped on my Schwinn and rode to the library to hunt down a botanical encyclopedia, and for the next year, all my stories were stuffed with extraneous mentions of trees and flowers, as she wrote in the afterword. And she didnt want to be a burden, Cannon said cold calls and assembled informal... School late that night, rehearsing for a Rhodes Scholarship, to a. Standard practice not to take any risks to apply for a Rhodes,! 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