S I D D EW B E R RY A N D L I N DA M O N SO N
INTRODUCING THE
REVA AND SID DEWBERRY FAMILY SCHOOL OF MUSIC In March, George Mason University’s Board of Visitors announced that the School of Music would officially become the Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music. This renaming honors the Dewberry family and their lifetime legacy of giving to the school and makes it the first donor-named school within the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The exciting change was honored at the Grand Piano Celebration online concert. In previous years, the Dewberrys have made contributions of nearly $1.4 million to create the Linda Apple Monson Scholars Fund and have helped lead the Steinway Initiative that allowed the school to achieve even higher status as an All-Steinway School in 2007. Recent and pledged support of $1.8 million will fund the creation of a scholarship endowment.
“ My dream is to put Mason on the top of the heap. I think we’re well on our way to doing that.” Sid Dewberry, Philanthropist, who began piano lessons with Linda Monson at age 75 to fulfill a lifelong goal
During the virtual event, it was also revealed that recent additional gifts from the Dewberrys would increase the total commitment to $5 million for the Monson Scholars Endowed Fund. The Dewberrys are joined by generous donors Nina Toups, the Claude Moore Foundation, and Anne and Ronald Abramson in this effort to further support scholarships for Mason music students. The Dewberry family has a long-standing commitment to Mason, reflected in the naming of Dewberry Hall within the Johnson Center and the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering within the Volgenau School of Engineering. THE NAMING OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC WA S H O N O R E D AT T H E G R A N D P I A N O C E L E B R AT I O N O N L I N E C O N C E R T
CVPA 2019-2020 ANNUAL REPORT 4
