Knoxville philanthropist Roy Cockrum, who won the Powerball jackpot in 2014, continues to be plagued by scammers preying on vulnerable and innocent people who get hurt financially, he says.
Cockrum set up a nonprofit foundation with 25 percent of the lump-sum payout of $153.5 million at the time he won the lottery, with grants going to nonprofit theater organizations throughout the country, including the Clarence Brown Theatre at the University of Tennessee.
In addition to that money, he personally supports other arts organizations like the Knoxville Symphony; the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates; the University of Tennessee Medical Center; and religious institutions, including the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee.
A $2.25 million gift from Cockrum for a Retreat Center at the Episcopal Diocese’s Grace Point camp near Kingston was announced on Saturday by the Right Rev. Brian Cole, the diocese’s bishop.
Cockrum took a vow of poverty to serve in a religious order, the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, an Episcopal religious community in Massachusetts, after spending 20 years as an actor and stage manager away from his native Knoxville. He left the order and returned to Knoxville in 2009 to care for his ill parents.
In 2019, the last year a form 990 for the IRS is shown on the website Guidestar, nearly $59 million was in the foundation. The foundation has grown since then to about $75 million, Cockrum said in an interview Friday.
Cockrum said his name and…
