Hillsdale officials counter that Mizzou simply is trying to qualify for the money without embracing Hibbs’ intentions.

“Rather than comply with Mr. Hibbs’ explicit wishes, the University of Missouri searched for a workaround,” a statement from Hillsdale said.

To that point, Hillsdale provided emails from 2006 that were sent by former Trulaske College of Business dean Bruce J. Walker.

In a March 26 email, Walker wrote to two colleagues: “Let’s discuss and try to determine what we must do to satisfy the conditions in Mr. Hibbs’ will without making this too burdensome for everyone involved but without the risking losing $5 million.”

In that same email, Walker said, “… the Austrian School is quite controversial. We didn’t want to wade into that controversy, so we focused on some Austrian tenets that are compatible with what we do in our business school.”

Walker also notes that Hibbs was “rather rigid in his economic and political views … ,” but then concedes, “he was actually quite a pleasant fellow.”

In an April 2006 email, as the effort to compile the report to Hillsdale was wrapping up, Walker sent an email that included the professors in the Hibbs positions.