Curt Sather (Music,’88) aims to ensure the strength and longevity of the program that led to his successful career as organist and choirmaster at Scottsdale’s 2,500-member St. Barnabas of the Desert Episcopal Church. Every year since his graduation from the Herberger College, Sather has contributed to the college to benefit the organ program. The Curt Sather Organ Teaching Assistantship provides a stipend to one student each year, helping the program to recruit some of the finest students in the country.

Nils, Emily and Klindt, the three adult children of Jack Breckenridge, professor emeritus of art history, have been contributing to a fund established by their father’s colleagues upon his retirement from the Herberger College in 1996. In 2003-2004, their gifts reached the $10,000 level, enabling them to endow the prize to honor their father’s career and reward high-achieving undergraduates in the School of Art.

Veteran newsman and Valley resident Hugh Downs, for whom ASU’s School of Human Communication is named, donated a rare Spanish guitar to the School of Music in spring 2004. The guitar, valued at $20,000, was selected for Downs by Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), the legendary patriarch of the modern classical guitar. As part of a tribute to Segovia, the instrument was shown on the ABC news magazine program "20/20,” which Downs co-hosted for 17 years. The guitar, a 1986 Ramirez, model "Elite,” will be used in the School of Music for special performances by the guitar studio faculty and students.

Laurie Herman (Dance, ‘82), co-president of the Herberger College Alumni Chapter, created her second endowed scholarship for fine arts students in as many years. In 2003-2004, Herman established an endowed scholarship in her mother’s family name. The Rychlick Family Fellowship will benefit students in the Departments of Dance and Theatre.

Kathy Lindholm Lane earned her master’s degree from ASU and became a faculty member in the Department of Dance. When she died in January 2004, family, friends and colleagues sought to memorialize her in a way that would keep her spirit alive at ASU. Within months of establishing the Kathy Lindholm Lane Fund, it reached the $10,000 endowment level. Today, the fund, which is administered at the discretion of the chair of the Department of Dance, benefits students and projects that reflect Lane’s vision of dance as a medium for community outreach and education.