type: timeline_event
John M. Olin, at age 80, activates his foundation with determination to "pour his time and resources into preserving the free market system" after being disturbed by the 1969 Willard Straight Hall takeover at his alma mater Cornell University, initiating systematic conservative philanthropy targeting elite university law schools. The foundation begins strategic funding of law and economics programs and professorships at law schools nationwide, pioneering at University of Chicago and expanding to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, George Mason, Washington University, Rochester, Princeton, and Cornell. Olin's university strategy represents academic institutional capture - funding programs that train future judges, lawyers, and policymakers in Chicago School economic theory favoring corporations over regulation, market solutions over government intervention, and efficiency over equity. With help from Olin Foundation funding, University of Chicago Law School grows into "the uncontested leader in law and economics by the 1970s," producing scholars including Robert Bork who reshape legal doctrine to favor corporate interests. The foundation's approach, intensified when William Simon becomes president in 1977, perfectly complements Powell Memo objectives by capturing the "campus" dimension Powell identified as critical - systematically influencing legal education at elite institutions that train America's judicial and regulatory officials. Over 35 years, Olin disburses $370 million to embed market-fundamentalist ideology in legal scholarship, demonstrating how tax-exempt philanthropy reshapes academic disciplines in service of corporate power.