Music Building to be Named for MarAbel Frohnmayer

EUGENE, ORE. — (July 11, 2005) — The building housing the University of Oregon School of Music will be named for the late MarAbel Frohnmayer, a 1931 university music graduate, longtime arts supporter, and mother of University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer.

Donor Lorry Lokey, who has given $2 million for a $15.2-million expansion and renovation of the music building, suggested the new name. Lokey, who is CEO of Business Wire news service, headquartered in San Francisco previously donated $2 million for the project, bringing his total giving to $4 million for the music building project.

The new building name, Lokey’s most recent $2-million gift, and an additional $4.5-million gift from Lokey to help create The University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication George S. Turnbull Portland Center were all announced Monday.

Lokey said he suggested naming the music building after MarAbel Frohnmayer because she is well known in Oregon for her extensive public service and because “she loved and supported music and the music school.”

“My siblings and I are all extremely moved by Lorry’s generous and thoughtful gesture in suggesting that the music building be named after our mother,” said Dave Frohnmayer. “She was a proud graduate of the UO School of Music and would be gratified beyond measure to know that it carries on her legacy not only in spirit but in name.”

The renovation of the music building, expected to begin in August 2006 and be completed by the fall of 2008, will increase space by 50 percent to better accommodate the 500 music majors and 4,000 non-music majors now using a building designed for 300. The renovation will nearly double the number of student practice rooms; provide new acoustically isolated teaching studios; add new classrooms, offices, and space for student music group rehearsals and instrument storage; create a new entrance on East 18th Avenue; and improve the historic courtyard and outdoor stage, just to mention a few of the improvements.

MarAbel Frohnmayer, infused the lives of her family and her community with music. According to her family, she played the piano almost every day of her life, accompanied sing-alongs for family and friends, encouraged all four of her children to sing and play instruments and founded or supported nearly every music and arts organization in the Rogue Valley for 70 years.

Dave Frohnmayer is the second child and oldest son of MarAbel and her husband, the late Otto Frohnmayer, a longtime Medford attorney who graduated from the university in 1929 and received his law degree in 1933.

Two of MarAbel and Otto’s four children obtained degrees from the UO music school and are professional musicians. Mira Frohnmayer received her undergraduate degree in music in 1960 and went on to get a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. She recently moved to Yachats, Ore., after retiring as a professor of music and vocal department chair at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., a position she held for 25 years. Philip Frohnmayer returned to Oregon to get his master’s degree in music in 1972 after graduating from Harvard University. He is a professor of music and vocal department chair at Loyola University in New Orleans.

Although Dave and John Frohnmayer are lawyers—John received law degree from the University of Oregon in 1972—they are also amateur musicians and great appreciators of music and the arts. John, who now lives in Corvallis, is an affiliate professor of liberal arts at Oregon State University who formerly worked as an attorney in Eugene and Portland, Ore. and Bozeman, Mont. He also served as chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts from 1989-1992.

“I’m just overwhelmed—this was such a generous thing that Mr. Lokey did,” said Mira Frohnmayer. “Music has been mother’s legacy for the whole family. Her piano skills were quite exceptional. She had perfect pitch so could play a lot of songs by ear. We often had evening sing-alongs. She would play and we would all sing, especially if we had friends over.”

“Mr. Lokey’s generosity is breathtaking really,” said John Frohnmayer. If his mother were still alive, he added, “she would be terribly modest about it but she would be thrilled.”

“Music was really the theme of her life, the recurring theme that held all her activities together and, in a certain way, the glue that held the family together,” said Phil Frohnmayer.

“Thanks to Lorry and the other generous donors to the project, our school will become a place of improved collaboration and interaction, providing limitless opportunities for students to learn and create,” said Brad Foley, dean of the School of Music and Dance.

“We are excited that the project is moving forward rapidly and is approximately two years ahead of the projected schedule established when I arrived in September 2002,’’ said Foley. “as the funding is not complete, we are raising additional funds to cover inflation and to ensure that the building achieves its maximum potential.”

The university has commitments from private donors to match the $7.6 million provided by the state of Oregon.

Lokey’s $4.5-million gift to the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and an earlier anonymous gift of the same amount from another donor will enable the journalism school to open the University of Oregon Journalism and Communication George S. Turnbull Portland Center in fall 2005. The school plans to offer degree programs by fall 2006. A faculty committee is reviewing program options, including a master’s program in management communications for working professionals and a “senior experience” that would combine senior-level coursework with internships in public relations for the school’s undergraduate and professional master’s programs.

All of Lokey’s gifts contribute to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, the University of Oregon’s $600-million fundraising initiative, which has raised, to date, about $360 million.