http://www.jmu.edu/performingartscenter/webcam/

James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison Magazine - Summer 2008 - Index

Grand
gestures
Roberts family reaffirms a commitment
to the arts By paM Brock
when dick and shirley hanson
roberts (’56) increased
their original $1 million gift
for the future performing
arts center to $2.5 million
earlier this spring, it was with
a sense of balance, romance
and history that has characterized
their lives together.
in a romantic tribute to his
wife two years ago, dick,
the self-descr bed wild-eyed
dreamer, convinced the modest
and somewhat embarrassed
shirley that they
should give $1 million to name
the performing arts center’s
concert hall in her honor.
watch JMu
Build the
perforMinG
artS center
Construction of the JMU
Performing Arts Center
began in the fall of 2007,
directly across from the
Quad on Main Street.
When the building is complete
in 2010, the center
will provide a venue with
the potential for worldclass
production values
for JMU music, theater
and dance programs.
n See it live with the
“Live-View Web Cam,”
which requires your Web
browser to have both
Java and JavaScript
enabled
n Get an updated view
every 10 minutes at www.
jmu.edu/performing
artscenter/webcam/
n Web Cam made possible
by a gift from Elaine
Toth Hinsdale (’85)
“it was, on my part, to honor
my wife of 50 years,” he
explains. “i wanted there to be
something at Jmu to remind
students 10, 20, 30 years
from now that someone who
went there before they did
thought enough of Jmu that
they could have a world-class
educational experience.
shirley says, “when we
returned to campus for the
performing arts center
groundbreaking last october,
we were overwhelmed, and
that’s the only word i can
use, by the excitement and
by the Jmu musical groups’
premiere performance of
Portraits in Bluestone, which
was written by a Jmu alum.
“i can only say that we feel
so fortunate that we are able
to be a small part of bringing
the new performing arts center
to life at Jmu. it’s just a
wonderful feeling,” she adds.
at the groundbreaking, her
husband continued to muse.
“Just fleetingly i thought it
would be nice to be able to
expand the gift,” says dick,
who is no stranger to the
grand romantic gesture.
after the couple meticulously
restored their georgian-style,
colonial revival home in the
bay colony of virginia beach,
he named it shirley hall. listed
in the virginia historic landmarks
register, the home
is filled with antiques and
antique furniture. “since the
1960s,” he explains, “shirley
and i together have developed
an increasing appreciation for
the beauty of the architectural
symmetry reflected in 18th-
and early 19th-century buildings.
that same sense of symmetry
exists in 18th-century
american furniture.”
the robertses seized the
opportunity to create that
alignment at Jmu when they
learned in the weeks before
the centennial celebration
that two of the three premier
naming opportunities for the
performing arts center had
been claimed.
bruce and lois forbes (‘64)
were about to name the
entire performing arts center
with the largest gift in Jmu
history — $5 million.
in 2005, ed estes raised the
curtain on the arts with a $2.5
m llion gift to name the theater
and dance facilities the dorothy
thomasson estes (’45)
center for theatre and dance,
in honor of his late wife.
to dick and shirley roberts,
the resulting opportunity to
name the music facilities was
akin to enabling a bird to fly. “i
thought it would be wonderful
to name the whole center for
music performance for shirley.
i guess you could say there
was a subliminal symmetry.”
the overall $2.5 million gift
from the robertses names the
shirley hanson roberts center
for music performance.
“we realized too that, in
effect, the performing arts
center was completing the
Quad,” dick adds. “that was
the place shirley spent her
four years at madison — and
completing it in a complementary
fashion. the new
performing arts center would
not be a cookie cutter of wilson
hall.”
taking the longer view, the
robertses are quick to point
out that despite the bricks
and mortar gift, they are,
after all, underwriting the
Jmu arts program — opening
it to the wider community —
and nurturing the madison
experience for students.
underscoring that connection
was shirley’s experience
at Jmu as a student
and a return visit to campus
in 2006 for her 50th class
reunion, where both dick
and shirley had fallen in love
with madison anew. “it was
apparent to us that there
was a very close relationship
between the students and the
faculty,” shirley says. “and
this really impressed us — particularly
for a university that
has grown as rapidly as Jmu.
“every time we asked, ‘how
do you like Jmu?’ the answer
was always, ‘we love it, we
feel so close to our professors.’
invariably, they say, ‘it is
so friendly here.’ they were so
enthusiastic,” she says.
“we both have talked
over the table, more than
once, that we get that same,
uniform feedback. at a university
as big as Jmu, that’s
something very precious
— something that needs continued
nurturing.” M
Dick and Shirley Hanson Roberts (’56), third and forth from left, increased their original $1
million gift to $2.5 million to match that by Ed and Susan Estes, (yellow and green jackets).
sUMMeR 2008
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