R-MA President David Wesley Under Scrutiny in Wake of Flight Scholarship Accusation, Lost Air Force Jr. ROTC Accreditation

A rising tide of controversy is erupting within the Randolph-Macon Academy community in the wake of several developments. Those include a public complaint by a family member of the late R-MA Commandant Ivan Mieth alleging contractual violations involving a flight scholarship created by the family in Commandant Meith’s memory after his death in a fire in 2012; and a multi-faceted litigation filed by terminated staffer Louis Massett in both local and federal court alleging discrimanatory and retaliatory actions in the R-MA work place.

Questions raised on these fronts have led some to revisit the actions, or lack thereof, leading to the June 2023 loss of Randolph-Macon Academy’s Air Force Junior ROTC accreditation. Consequently, questioning glances have been cast at a pattern of staff losses and turnover in the wake of Air Force General (retired) David Wesley’s March 2015 arrival as R-MA president at a salary cited at $150,000, now believed to have been nearly doubled to around $280,000. Asked by e-mail if those numbers were accurate, Wesley, through marketing staffer and Vice-President and Director of Enrollment Management Sung Chu, declined to respond to that question, and others, including one seeking information on the administrative response to the Air Force notice of probation of the Junior ROTC flight instruction program.

We will note that in a response post to the “R-MA community” dated May 17, the day after the Mieth family post referenced above first appeared on The Shaw Report website of long-time colleague and friend Norma Jean Shaw, R-MA President Wesley and Board of Trustees Chairman Harry Austin III gave a general denial of what they termed “a deceptive effort being led by an anonymous online party that provokes confusion among our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”

That denial was republished on the “RMA Friends” Facebook page by site creator and R-MA alumni Kyle McDaniel, who has described his own problematic history with Wesley’s term as R-MA president. The RMA Friends reposting drew some skepticism and combative reactions to the Wesley/Austin denial statement from a number of the cited 1,000 membership social media site.

After posting that he was not the cited “anonymous source” referenced in the Wesley-Austin statement, McDaniel elaborated on his experience with the school’s current leadership: “My sole focus has always been the success of the school. And from where I sit, Dave Wesley has wreaked havoc and this is where we’ve ended up. Not to toot my own horn, but I saw this coming 6 months in to his tenure.

“I just hope the school survives,” McDaniel concluded.

An emerging question seems to be, can you be both an R-MA “friend” and a current school President David Wesley “friend” at the same time?

Viewed from Villa Ave. the sun begins setting above Sonner-Payne Hall’s administrative and boys dorm facility as the Cadets statue stands at attention. Below, R-MA President David Wesley from the R-MA website. Royal Examiner Site Photos Roger Bianchini

This reporter became aware of surfacing allegations against current R-MA President and retired Air Force legal staff General David Wesley from a heads up from Norma Jean Shaw, now residing in the deep, southwest corner of Virginia, to a May 16-posted Letter to “The Shaw Report” website. That letter was from former R-MA Commandant Ivan Mieth’s daughter, Tawanna Mieth Williams of Amissville. In her letter to The Shaw Report, from which we received permission to republish, Ms. Mieth-Williams publicly, and NOT anonymously, cited the following scenario:

Mieth Flight Scholarship

“I am sure that most of you knew my father, Col. Ivan Mieth; he dedicated 21 years of his life to R-MA as Commandant. Tragically, he was killed in a fire 12 years ago. At that time, my family and I established a flight scholarship in his name, to honor his legacy and commitment to the kids.

“That scholarship was started with $25,000 that my mother and I donated. Many others contributed over the years to this scholarship as well.

“Three years ago, in direct violation of the endowment contract – and without consulting the Board of Trustees – my mother, or me (as the contract states must happen), Dave Wesley unilaterally decided to remove my father’s name from the scholarship and cut my mother and me out of the presentation ceremony that we had participated in since the first award over a decade ago. Wesley decided he would just give the money from my father’s flight scholarship to students under the general heading of ‘flight scholarship’ thereby completely removing my father’s name from the scholarship …

“This scholarship was set up to honor a man that meant the world to me, my family, the Academy, and countless R-MA kids,” Mieth-Williams wrote of the 2021 start of the situation with the family-originated flight scholarship in her father’s name. She continued to cite a seeming resolution to the situation surfacing last year.

“With the help of a member of the Board of Trustees (thank you to this person, whom I won’t name) (writer’s note: could this be Wesley-Austin’s anonymous source?) there was an agreement reached last year. This trustee helped me convince Gen. Wesley to honor the original terms of the flight scholarship. The terms: 1) The award would once again be presented in my father’s name. 2) The award would be presented to no more than three students a year. 3) My mother or I would present the award. These were simple and reasonable requests that honored the original endowment contract, and frankly we never should have even needed to make this ‘deal’.

“Outrageously, Dave Wesley immediately went back on his word and again took my father’s name off the scholarship. Moreover, no notice was given to me nor my family … In a last-ditch effort to fix this situation, I met with the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Harry Austin, on March 11, 2024, to again discuss the situation.  As of today, May 15, 2024, there has been no resolution.

“I wouldn’t normally reveal this, but after more than three years of getting nowhere and giving countless chances to Dave Wesley to make this right, there’s still no resolution.

“Despite repeated attempts to convince Gen. Wesley to simply honor his word, it has gone nowhere. The last time the award was presented, in November 2023, the only participation my mother and I were afforded was receiving certified letters in the mailbox saying that the award had already been given.”

If that wasn’t a disappointing enough turn in her story, the Mieth daughter continued to note: “My mother died February 2024. Gen. Wesley robbed her of her last chance at presenting the award in my dad’s name. She died seeing no resolution on this issue.

“If Dave Wesley is treating me this way, with blatant disregard for legally binding contractual terms and with no sense of common decency, what else is he doing in secret?” Tawanna Mieth Williams asks in the conclusion of her Shaw Report post.

It would certainly seem a damning scenario if true, and it seems an easily verifiable matter of the R-MA public record of flight scholarship transactions in recent years.

As noted above, this reporter reached out to Gen. Wesley by email for comment on The Shaw Report Meith family post, litigations filed by former staffer Louis Massett, verification of the R-MA president’s current and starting salaries, as well as any public record of the school’s probationary period corrective actions and eventual loss of its Air Force Junior ROTC program designation. R-MA Vice President and Director of Enrollment Mahagement Sung Chu, who noted he also supports R-MA “with marketing efforts” responded for Wesley, asking if there were a deadline timetable for a response. With the inquiry going out Friday, May 24, we replied to Chu that prior to the then-coming Wednesday, May 29, sentencing hearing of Jennifer Rae McDonald would be helpful.

R-MA response

The following response “attributable to R-MA” was received from Chu’s email Tuesday, May 28: “Regarding the Colonel Ivan G. Mieth Flight Scholarship: Colonel Mieth lived a life of exemplary service and remains a towering and beloved figure within the R-MA community. While we no longer present memorial scholarships in a formal public ceremony, we still work to create meaningful opportunities for scholarship recipients to thank or meet the families of those who are memorialized. We believe this is the best process for R-MA students and dozens of families who have gifted memorial scholarships to the Academy. It was never R-MA’s intent to minimize the purpose of the Colonel Ivan G. Mieth Flight Scholarship.”

What is it the ever-wise “they” say: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

A broader perspective on Sonner-Payne Hall, dating to the 1920s when constructed to replace the original campus main facility destroyed by fire.

As to our other questions regarding R-MA President Wesley’s starting and current salaries; length of and reaction to the Air Force Junior ROTC probationary notice, citing violations of the Air Force ROTC program standards on a variety of fronts; and Louis Masset’s personal injury and retaliatory discrimination litigations, the response was:

“Regarding other matters, including litigation between the Academy and Mr. Massett: For the best interest of R-MA and our students, we will not comment on other matters except to confirm that we are working with legal counsel and law enforcement regarding a deceptive and potentially unlawful effort to provoke discord within the R-MA community.”

On the other hand, critics of General Wesley’s tenure as R-MA president might ask if questions now surfacing about administrative handling of the Mieth scholarship, school personnel, and other processes under General Wesley’s leadership, rather than “deceptive” might be considered an effort to prevent R-MA from continuing a potentially self-destructive pattern of leadership decision-making.