An Oldham family feud pits Sullivan University founder's widow against his children
Before Alva Ray Sullivan died last year, he had transformed Sullivan College from a single business course into the first fully accredited private career college in the South — one that now offers doctoral and master’s degrees on four campuses across Kentucky.
But since his death at age 83, his family has been riven by lawsuits that pit his widow, Hazel, against his two adult children — her stepchildren — Glenn Sullivan and his sister Lisa Zaring.
The court files in three separate but interconnected suits read like an episode of “Succession,” the HBO series about a rich family’s feud over control of their fictional television network.
Like the fictitious Roy family, the Sullivan business was a true family affair. At one point Hazel, Lisa and Glenn all worked for the for-profit business and Hazel, according to one of the suits, “vehemently opposed“ Alva’s appointment of Glenn as CEO and chancellor, in 2006 and Lisa’s continued involvement with the university.
In the first suit, Lisa and Glenn allege Hazel secretly deeded a $4 million home she and Alva had bought together rather than let it pass to a trust that bore his name.
Next, with the finding that Hazel didn’t rightfully own the mansion at 3601 Deer Pond Cove in Oldham County’s posh Glen Arbor neighborhood, Lisa and Glenn moved to evict Hazel's tenants, who were paying her $12,000 a month for the privilege of living there.
The renters, Rachel Rodgers and Rex Nichols, also have ties to a prominent Louisville family. Rachel is the daughter of the Rev. Bob Rodgers, the televangelist and senior pastor of the giant Evangel World Prayer Center, while Nichols is a wealthy entrepreneur from Texas. They are also both pastors at Evangel, according to its website.
They were wed in 2016 in a Scottish castle, according to a Facebook post from Bob Rodgers, who attended.
(If Nichols’ name rings a bell, it may be because he and Bob Rodgers were defendants in a suit that was tried and settled in August that accused them of plundering the assets of a wealthy woman on her deathbed by selling her a $250,000 mausoleum in Evangel’s cemetery.)
When you think of an eviction, you probably don’t imagine tenants being tossed out of a 19,121-square-foot mansion that Zillow, the real estate site, says sits five meticulously landscaped acres with a pool and poolhouse, a four-car garage, a billiards room, a theatre, an elevator and a 24-foot high, multi-tiered fountain.
But that is what is at stake in a bench trial initially set for Nov. 14 but which will now be decided by a jury in a trial scheduled Dec. 22 before Oldham District Judge Brittany McKenna.
She already warned at a hearing Oct. 31 that if Nichols and Rodgers don’t leave voluntarily, the stepchildren could have them arrested and jailed for trespassing.
Nichols and his wife initially offered $4 million to buy the home before its title was clouded.
In a third suit that is pending, Glenn Sullivan and his sister, Lisa Zaring, allege that when their father began to suffer from dementia — and didn’t know what year it was, let alone what day — Hazel exercised “undue influence” over him and transferred at least $8.3 million from their joint account to her own. Overall, the suit said she unduly influenced him to give her $20 million in liquid assets and $5 million in real estate from him.
During the marriage of nearly 18 years, Hazel’s stepchildren allege, she used their father as a “personal bank” and that he pleaded with her to reduce her spending on “new luxury vehicles, clothing, spa trips to Dubai and to cover failed businesses of her children from a prior marriage.”
Hazel’s lawyer, John Cox, says the claims she looted her husband‘s fortune are baloney. She was entitled to his accounts, just as they would have gone to him if she had died before him, Cox said.
And the lawyer added he will be able to prove through audio recordings that Alva wanted her to get the house. Alva wanted Hazel taken care of after he was gone, he said.
“He loved her,” Cox said. “And she loved him.”
But Alva’s children say through counsel that Hazel’s proclaimed love for their father is belied by the nasty messages she left for him, berating him for his dementia.
That included a handwritten, four-page letter dated Sept. 25, 2020, in which she wrote: "You don’t think! You just do absolutely nothing.
“You don’t answer voicemails. ... You don’t take a shower."
Ending one angry screed, she wrote, “You are hopeless!”
According to the lawsuits, Alva planned and saved diligently for decades so his family could pay the expected huge inheritance tax on the university.
Will Sullivan University be able to survive and continue to help its students fulfill their dreams?
Benjamin Lewis, the attorney for Glenn Sullivan and Lisa Zaring, said it's on firm financial footing “notwithstanding Hazel’s effort to undermine its legacy."
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He also credited its faculty and staff and student body.
“The litigation is unfortunate” but necessary to ensure Alva Sullivan's wishes are carried out, Lewis said.
"Our court filings speak for themselves, and detail Glenn and Lisa's position on the various issues in dispute," he said. "We look forward to presenting Hazel's misconduct to an Oldham County jury in the near future, including the written messages she sent to Mr. Sullivan berating him for his infirmities during his final, and most fragile years."
Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 396-5853 or awolfson@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Sullivan University founder's widow, children in fight over estate
