A former Clemens Foundation board member said the charity cut its ties to Oregon State University in 2005 chiefly because of an OSU football player's assault on a National Guardsman home on leave from Iraq.

Fred, Dave and Steve Lowther, the three nephews of founders Rex and Ethel Clemens who now lead the foundation board, had longstanding ties to the soldier's family and were offended by the university's response to the assault outside a Corvallis bar, according to Thad Springer, who served for many years on the Clemens Foundation board.

Springer resigned his seat in frustration in 2006 after the board refused to reinstate tuition grants for OSU students.

"They were taking it out on kids that were counting on scholarships. I knew some that got turned down," said Springer, an 84-year-old mostly retired logger.

Calls to the Lowther brothers this week went unreturned. Another former board member, Wayne Howard, who retired from the organization in 2006, declined comment.

Rex Clemens made a fortune with timberland, a sawmill and a veneer mill in Philomath. In the 1960s he and his wife set up the foundation, which over the years paid college tuition for thousands of high school graduates from Philomath, Alsea, Eddyville and the Eastern Oregon town of Crane.

In 2006 the Clemens Foundation provided $1.75 million worth of tuition grants.

The foundation recently limited new grants to students who are at least second-generation residents of Philomath, Alsea, Eddyville or Crane and declared it would pay tuition only for a select few private colleges or for trade, vocational or medical schools.

Springer said the latest changes came as no surprise. He said the Lowthers have been worried about overextending the Clemens Foundation's financial resources and are conservatives concerned about the quality of public education.

In the aftermath of the OSU decision, the foundation said the university had tried to coerce students to adopt a liberal ideology, mainly through a growing sustainability movement.

"They were worrying about that sort of thing," Springer said.

But, he said, it was the assault on the National Guardsman that sparked their emotions and the decision to make the break from OSU.

"I thought maybe everybody would calm down after we had a discussion. The first approach was that it was going to be cut off right then and there," Springer said.

National Guard member Gabriel Sapp of Alsea was home from Iraq in November of 2004 when he was punched by OSU defensive lineman Joe Rudulph outside the Headline Café. The bar and restaurant at the corner of Southwest Fourth Street and Jefferson Avenue is no longer in business.

OSU suspended Rudulph for the rest of the season. He also served five days in jail and was put on probation over the assault. He was reinstated to the football team, but prior to the 2006 season was kicked off the squad for disciplinary reasons.

Susie Sapp, Gabriel Sapp's aunt, went to work for the Clemens Foundation in late 2005, after its executive director resigned.

Gabriel Sapp, now a Corvallis police officer, declined comment except to say he had no knowledge of the foundation's decision and no other connection to the organization.

Springer, whose three children attended OSU using Clemens grants, said it was another emotional reaction by the Lowther brothers that led to a confrontation with the Philomath School District and threats to eliminate the grant program.

In 1999, Springer said, the then-superintendent of Philomath schools insinuated that Hazel Lowther, the brothers' mother, knew of pollution on land she sold to the school district.

"They took it as being called liars. … That's when they really got into the political angle of things," Springer said.

In 2003 the Clemens Foundation made national headlines when it threatened to eliminate the grant program, saying Philomath schools had become too "politically correct." The grant program's eligibility requirements were altered to reflect foundation values.

Despite the shift in goals and politics of the Clemens Foundation, Springer called the Lowthers "good people."

He added that they were trying to do what their aunt and uncle would have wanted.

"Their intentions are the best, I'm sure." Springer paused. "But I don't agree with them."

Kyle Odegard

can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net

or 758-9523.