Sarah and Ernest Butler Gift Announcement
Main Building 212
The University of Texas at Austin
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Good morning, everyone. I am Bill Powers, president of the University. We are here today to announce an extraordinary gift to our School of Music, a gift from two extraordinary people.
The gift is from Sarah and Ernest Butler. And it is for 55 million dollars. In gratitude for their truly exceptional generosity, and for everything else they have done, we are naming the school “the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music.”
This is the largest single gift to a school of music at a public university in America. It is, of course, the largest gift in the history of our College of Fine Arts, and it is the second largest gift ever given to UT.
Sarah and Ernest, we are enormously grateful for your support, and for the trust you have placed in our university. “Thank you” seems hardly enough. But “thank you” is what we feel. So Sarah and Ernest, on behalf of the entire UT family, “thank you.”
Naming our School of Music in honor of the Butlers recognizes more than just this extraordinary gift. It recognizes more than 25 years of philanthropy. Since 1983, they have created nine endowments in the School of Music. And in 2004, the opera theater program was named in their honor in appreciation of a two million dollar gift. Kim and I have enjoyed watching opera in that program with Sarah and Ernest. Put simply, Sarah and Ernest Butler are dear friends. Because of them, we are a stronger, better university.
And they are proud UT parents. All of this from Baylor alumni!
The Butlers’ new gift will support faculty, students, and programs in the School of Music. More than half of the endowment will target student needs. This unprecedented gift will help to propel an already excellent school into one of the top music schools in the nation. As a major public university, we are deeply committed to the fine arts – their practice, their theory, their teaching. The Butlers’ gift, and its transformative effect on the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, will raise the quality and value of what we offer at UT. It will attract the very best teachers and students, and create a center for creativity and talent that can be found at few other universities.
Sarah and Ernest Butler have also been remarkably generous to several other areas of UT – including the Blanton Museum of Art, which has a gallery named after them. And they are exemplary citizens of our city, showing great leadership in supporting the Long Center for the Performing Arts, the Austin Symphony, the Austin Lyric Opera, Ballet Austin, and the Austin Museum of Art.
This university, and this city, have benefited magnificently because Sarah and Ernest Butler have shared their love of the arts with all of us. And they continue to ensure that the character of our university, and the spirit of Austin, remain dynamic and unique.
We are fond of saying “what starts here changes the world.” And we have no doubt that this magnanimous gift will produce world-transforming musicians, composers, scholars, and teachers in the generations to come.
Again, Sarah and Ernest, “thank you.”
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