Concert Hall Takes Dekelboum Name

Gift from Maryland philanthropist given in honor of couple's long association with Robert H. and Clarice Smith

The 1,100-seat concert hall of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland is now named for Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum, a tribute to a special friendship of more than 50 years. "My late husband, Marvin, and I have long been friends with Clarice and Bob Smith," says Elsie Dekelboum. "Naming this hall is a wonderful way to honor this friendship." The Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum Foundation has executed a substantial commitment to make an endowment gift over the next 10 years. The gift not only names the concert hall and represents the friendship shared by the Dekelboums and the Smiths, but also helps carry on the center's artistic and educational mission combining performance, service and learning.

The newly named Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum Concert Hall (below) mixes state-of-the-art technology with exquisite design at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Elsie Dekelboum met Clarice Smith in the early 1950s. At the time, their husbands, Marvin and Robert, were business partners, building homes in Maryland and apartment buildings in Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia. It was this talented and visionary partnership that turned a Virginia complex consisting of brickyards and pawnshops into a highly successful landmark, Crystal City.

Business collaborations continued throughout the careers of Marvin Dekelboum and Robert Smith as they worked together on several projects. Dekelboum played a very important role in the supervision of the construction of a number of their joint projects, including the construction of Crystal Houses in 1963, Crystal Towers in 1966, Crystal Square in 1972, Crystal Gateway in 1979 and Crystal Park in 1983. Together, they changed the face of northern Virginia.

The Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum Concert Hall allows for sizeable audiences, yet provides a unique sense of intimacy. The hall has a seating complement on the main floor, balcony seats, a choir loft and boxes on both sides of the venue. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble and Opera Lafayette are just a few of the artists who have performed on the concert hall stage this season.

The Dekelboum Concert Hall will feature many internationally known artists as well as home-grown talent in the 2002-03 season, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra accompanied by Wynton Marsalis, Ricky Scaggs & Kentucky Thunder, the Tokyo String Quartet, Boston Camerata, Sarah Chang and the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra.

Elsie Dekelboum, who maintains homes in Chevy Chase and Palm Beach, Fla., chairs the Marvin and Elsie Dekelboum Foundation. She is active in a number of nonprofit organizations and causes, including the Norton Museum of Art, the South Florida Science Museum, Ambulances for Israel and The Jewish Federation. She is a founder of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach and has bequeathed her fine art collection to the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach.   --JP

Freeman Foundation Grant Enhances Asian Studies

The Freeman Foundation, recognized as the nation's leading foundation in promoting a greater understanding of East Asia in the United States, has made a $1.94 million grant to the university to support Asian studies. The four-year commitment, called the Freeman Undergraduate Curriculum Project, will affect units across the university.

The project will impact faculty, teaching, resource materials and study abroad opportunities, and will effect lasting change at the university well beyond the grant period, a primary objective of the Freeman Foundation.

Part of the grant will be used to bring two new faculty members to Maryland. Greg Felker, who specializes in the political economy of technological and industrial change in East and Southeast Asia, has joined the Department of Government and Politics in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. The Department of History in the College of Arts and Humanities has appointed Grant A. Alger, a scholar of the social history of imperial China, to teach early modern Chinese history.

The Department of History will also add a faculty member to teach early modern Chinese history. A search is under way to fill this position. The College of Education will also take a role in the project, working to prepare students across disciplines for life in the global economy. Faculty members from across the university will be encouraged to incorporate into their curricula topics concerning East Asian history, culture and customs. Also, the East Asia Collection of the University Libraries will add both print and nonprint Japanese, Korean and Chinese language materials addressing topics of education, science, technology and environment. Study abroad opportunities will also expand to include experiences at Chinese and Korean universities.   --JP