Rowland and Patricia Rebele
The Rebele's are pillars for the Arts at UC Santa Cruz, the University as a whole and the Santa Cruz County community, giving valuable financial and volunteer support to a broad array of programs and causes for many years.
They established the Rebele Chair in Art History at UCSC in 1996, and also created the Rebele Art History Endowment at the University Library. The Rebele's have provided support for a wide variety of other campus programs including Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the Arboretum, the University Center, Arts & Lectures, Pacific Rim Music Festival and Friends of Long Marine Laboratory. In 2009, the Rebeles were honored by UCSC at the 3rd annual "Founders Day" gala as extraordinary individuals due to their outstanding contributions to society.
A re-entry graduate of UCSC with a BA in Art History, Patricia served for eleven years as a trustee of the UCSC Foundation Board, and is currently serving on the Arts Dean's Leadership Board. She was previously on the board of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Rowland has served as President of the Santa Cruz County Symphony Board, and also the California First Amendment Coalition. The Rebele's were pivotal in founding the Family Shelter at the Homeless Services Center in downtown Santa Cruz that now bears their name.
When asked why they support the Arts at UCSC, they replied, "because the arts enrich all of us and are paramount to creating a civilized society. In addition, the arts entertain and inspire us, broaden our understanding, enrich our society and in so many ways make this world a better place. We support the arts at UCSC because this is a place where students can come to learn from highly qualified instructors, and participate in, all of the arts."
Professor David Kaun
You can read the story of Professor David Kaun’s life through his philanthropy: his passion for music; his commitment to education, teaching, and students; and the sheer joy he takes in giving back. “It’s wonderful fun,” he said in describing his experiences as a donor. “I’ve helped some students, which is really a great pleasure.
Prior to Professor Kaun joining UCSC in 1966, where he is still an active member of the Economics faculty today, he was affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh and the Brookings Institution. His major research interests were in the areas of the quality of work and higher education, the ideological basis underlying economic paradigms, military defense procurement and defense industry contractor behavior, and an analysis of the impact of conservative "think tanks" on public policy.
While preparing to teach an economics course, he came across an article written by Andrew Carnegie, titled: Wealth, in which the author argued there are three basic actions individuals can take with surplus wealth: leave it to their families, and run the risk of “ruining” their children; leave it to the government, and be unable to control how it is used; or spend it and give it away during their lifetime, an action Carnegie called “the true antidote for the temporary unequal distribution of wealth.” To Kaun, this made eminent sense. “I do believe that the only intelligent thing to do with your money is to spend it in the ways you want, and to do some good in the process.”
David's passion is exposing and engaging youth in the Arts. His primary areas of funding to UCSC include: The David E. Kaun Music Scholarship Endowment, Shakespeare Santa Cruz's STAT (student outreach) program, merit scholarships for the UCSC Resident String Ensemble, and the Albert and Sara Kaun Chamber Music Endowment at the University Library. When asked why he supports the Arts at UCSC, he replied, “There are two reasons. I've spent close to fifty years of my life here at UCSC, and don't seem to want to quit. Must be a cool place to "work." And I'm totally persuaded that if the world is ever going to find its way to understanding and joy for everyone, it will be essentially through the arts.”
Professor Emerita Audrey Stanley
Audrey Stanley, whose very name is synonymous with UCSC's celebrated Shakespeare Santa Cruz festival, has given generously to the Arts on our campus since becoming a founding faculty member in 1969. The first woman to direct Shakespeare at the celebrated Oregon Ashland Festival, Stanley joined forces with Karen Sinsheimer (wife of the UCSC Chancellor at the time) to combine the best of Shakespeare scholarship with the best of performance, all in a unique and spectacular redwood setting near the campus theater. The gleam in Stanley's eye developed into discussions on both sides of the Atlantic, and finally in 1980 five Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) actors came to town to visit and perform. And with that felicitous event the dye was cast for the very first Shakespeare Santa Cruz season. With Stanley as founding Artistic Director the inaugural season featured A Midsummer Night's Dream and King Lear, directed by Stanley and starring her RSC friend and compatriat Tony Church. Since that time Stanley has lent her own directorial talents, acting abilities, international network of world-class actors and made generous financial donations to support the innovative celebration of live dramatic performance.
Believing that the arts are needed more than ever during times of national strife and economic downturns, this last year Stanley withdrew a large sum from her special life-savings to donate to the three endowments that support Shakespeare Santa Cruz, but she expanded her giving to include Arts Excellence so that all the Arts on campus are celebrated. The C.L. Barber Endowment supplies educational stipends to SSC students, actors, and scholars. The Stanley-Sinsheimer Festival Glen Endowment, named in her and Karen’s honor—will continue to realize the Bard's vision that "the play's the thing!" As well as the Visiting Artistic Directorship Endowment, which Stanley originally donated the seed funding for to help support the SSC Artistic Director’s salary and benefits. This endowment also provides strong ties with faculty and takes advantage of the unique interdisciplinary nature of UCSC.
Stanley visits rehearsals, holds the title of Associate Artist, attends performances multiple times each season, encourages others to come, initiates and participates in many outreach events, and has been an active member of the SSC Board of Directors for many years. In addition to making annual financial contributions, Stanley looks to the future, and in 2011 Stanley, Karen Sinsheimer and Carolyn Hyatt made a gift to SSC that sparked an idea for a challenge match and later inspired the Chancellor to contribute funds as well.
Now Professor Emerita of Theater Arts at UCSC, Stanley continues to be active in the life of the theater. Her 2005 play Call Me Vincent, about Van Gogh and Gauguin, won a finalist award from New Plays of Merit in New York. In June 2007, Ms. Stanley attended the 56-year reunion of the University of Bristol Dramatic Society Summer Touring Company, which she founded way back in 1951. During Winter Quarter 2010, she was honored by the Dixon Endowment and taught Acting with Shakespeare for the UCSC Theater Arts Department. She will be giving a workshop on the “Physicality of Shakespeare's Language” for the Shakespeare Association of America's Annual 2012 Meeting in Boston. Like the theater she founded, Stanley continues to contribute vibrantly to theater education, research, and practice. When asked whether, in times of economic crisis, Shakespeare Santa Cruz should survive, Stanley says, “YES!!!! My conviction stems from my experience of being brought up in the UK while we were at war with Germany and Japan. I learnt or experienced an amazing lesson—which is when a country is really at its lowest ebb, it seeks out and cherishes the Arts. I was raised on seeing some of the most amazing theater in London. Actors of the brilliance of Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Donald Wolfit, Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, Flora Robson, Peggy Ashcroft, to name just a few, brought Shakespeare’s plays to an audience hungry for uplift and hope and the excitement of a language that went deep into our hearts. It was the beauty and wonder of that experience that has stayed with me and sustained me in the darkest days of trying to make SSC the deepest and most challenging Shakespeare company in the world.”