The alma mater of late oil tycoon, Aubrey McClendon, has filed a claim against his estate seeking collection on nearly $10 million in unsecured pledges to the university, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
In the claim filed with the estate on August 12, Duke University listed the amount of $18.75 million for the total pledge, with over $9.9 million remaining as a balance due. The funds were pledged for work study scholarships, athletic projects, campus projects including a new student plaza and the McClendon Auditorium housed inside the university’s Fuqua School of Business.
McClendon, a 1981 Duke University graduate, was a generous contributor at the North Carolina college as well as within the Oklahoma City area. The university’s influence on McClendon is visually apparent in the Georgian architecture found on the campus of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the oil and gas company he co-founded with Tom Ward.
McClendon’s wife is also a Duke graduate. His children also attended Duke University.
Duke’s claim is uncommon in that the university is attempting to collect on a charitable pledge rather than a conventional debt. Questions linger about whether the estate will be solvent in light of the debt amassed prior to McClendon’s untimely death on March 2.
