1926:

            Charles Robertson graduates from Princeton University.

1960:

            In January, Charles Robertson, and wife Marie, give Princeton University a direct donation of $500,000 to become part of the university’s general investment fund.

1961:

            Mr. and Mrs. Robertson establish the Robertson Foundation, which is incorporated in Delaware, and Marie donates 700,000 shares of Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. stock (A&P), worth approximately $35 million, to endow the Foundation. The Robertsons ask to remain anonymous. As a result of the gift, the Woodrow Wilson School graduate program is expanded.

1970:

            In January, Charles Robertson wrote to the Foundation Secretary to follow up on requested survey of Woodrow Wilson graduates which he feared would show a “disappointing number of MPA [Master of Public Administration] degree holders in public service, particularly in the international agencies.”

1972:

            William Robertson, son of Charles and Marie, graduates from Princeton University.  Marie Robertson passes away at age 56.

1973:

            At the urging of Princeton University, Charles Robertson discloses that he and wife Marie were the anonymous donors responsible for creating the Robertson Foundation.

1974:

            William Robertson is designated by his father to succeed Gene Goodwillie as a Family-Designated Trustee of the Robertson Foundation, effective at the December 14 Board meeting.

1978:

            In July, the Robertson Foundation Board approves the creation of an Investment Committee to oversee all of the Foundation’s investments. William Robertson is appointed to the Investment Committee.

1979:

            In February, Charles Robertson, in a letter to William, states that “Family representatives should … be sure that (the) Foundation controls its own assets.”

1981:

            In April, Charles Robertson passes away at age 75.

1982:

            Robert Halligan, an official in the Federal Government’s Agency for International Development and a Robertson family in law, is appointed to the Foundation Board to fill Charles Robertson’s seat.

1997:

            In June, the Princeton University Board of Trustees and Princeton University President Harold T. Shapiro praise the Investment Committee of the Robertson Foundation for their investment judgment. President Shapiro acknowledged that “during the past eighteen years … the Robertson Foundation Endowment has performed significantly better over that period than has the endowment of Princeton.” As of June 30, 2004, the Robertson Foundation endowment was valued at approximately $560 million.

2001:

            On June 15, Shirley Tilghman becomes President of Princeton University.
In late June, the University-Appointed Trustees of the Robertson Foundation, without notification to the Family-Appointed Trustees, approve the withdrawal of $13 million from Robertson Foundation accounts to fund construction of Wallace Hall. Wallace Hall now houses the Department of Sociology, the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Child Wellbeing, the Office of Population Research and other social-science research programs that are unrelated to the Robertson Foundation mission to train individuals for government service, especially in international relations.

2002:

            General Andrew Goodpaster, a Family Trustee since 1961, retires from the Foundation Board, and Charles and Marie’s youngest daughter, Katherine Robertson Ernst, is appointed to the Foundation’s Board.
            On April 16, at an annual meeting of the Foundation Board of Trustees, the Board considers, but does not adopt, a recommendation to put the Robertson Foundation’s assets under the management of PRINCO. William Robertson reminds the Board of Trustees that the agreement between the University and his parents mandates the assets be managed independently.
            In early summer, despite continued protests about moving the Foundation’s endowment to PRINCO, the University-Designated Trustees of the Foundation and Princeton notify Essex Investment Management Company – which managed over $50 million of the Robertson Foundation’s assets – that its service agreement will be terminated and that the assets will be “folded into” the University endowment. Family-Appointed Trustees are not notified of, or asked to approve, the Essex termination.
            In late spring and early summer, the University-Designated Trustees of the Robertson Foundation refuse to allow the Family-Designated Trustees to review the complete records of the Foundation’s disbursements, despite repeated requests. 
            On July 17, Family-Designated Trustees William Robertson, Katherine Ernst, and Robert Halligan and the two other children of Charles and Marie Robertson – Anne Meier and John Robertson (now deceased) – file the lawsuit against the University-Designated Trustees and Princeton University.
            In November, lawyers for the University-Designated Trustees and Princeton University file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

2003:

            The judge denies the motion to dismiss on June 20, clearing the way for the “discovery” process to begin. The University attempts to appeal this ruling, but is rejected by the appellate court.
On November 5, the four University-Designated Trustees – over the unanimous objections of the Family-Designated Trustees – voted to take over control of the Foundation’s assets by putting them in the hands of the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), a wholly owned unit of the University that manages the university’s general endowment. This violates the express written instructions of the donors, Charles and Marie Robertson, who wanted the Foundation’s assets to be kept separate and apart from Princeton’s assets.

2004:

            On November 12, after a year of discovery, the Robertson Family plaintiffs file an amended complaint, alleging that Princeton “improperly and systematically” diverted “to its own use and benefit” more than $100 million from the Robertson Foundation endowment fund, that misuse of donor funds is systemic at the university, and that the university has “knowingly and willfully misrepresented and concealed material facts” about the improper expenditures in an effort to “defraud and deceive” the plaintiffs and the public.

2006:

            Early in 2006, both the Robertson family and the University file motions for partial summary judgment.  The Robertson family’s two motions ask the court to grant partial summary judgment on the following three points: 1) That Princeton and the university-appointed Robertson Foundation trustees “have fiduciary obligations to the [Robertson] Foundation . . .  to advance its specific mission and protect its assets”; 2) That Princeton’s spending of the Robertson Foundation’s money is not an activity “protected” by the business judgment rule and should be legally subject to the “entire fairness” standard of judicial review, and 3) That having admitted more than $18.6 million in overcharges, Princeton should be ordered to return the “misappropriated funds” to the Robertson Foundation.
            Oral arguments on the various motions for partial summary judgment were heard on Nov. 28-29, 2006.

2007:

            As of June 30, 2007, the assets of the Robertson Foundation are valued at $895 million.
            On October 25, Superior Court Judge Neil Shuster issues detailed rulings on the motions for partial summary judgment.