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PITTSBURG —
Behind every great man is a great woman. One of them received some recognition Saturday afternoon but the very modest Sharon Kay Dean would have preferred the honor to go to someone else.
Her husband, Dr. Harvey Dean, Pitsco founder and CEO, provided a generous donation to renovate the McCray Recital Hall auditorium. On Saturday, the performance area was dedicated as the Sharon Kay Dean Auditorium.
“I’m still in shock,” she said. “The auditorium should have been named for some of the outstanding professors in the music department.”
Mrs. Dean added that she only learned what her husband had done Thursday morning, when he brought her a cup of coffee while she was still in bed.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get it in my face,” Dean admitted.
“I’m still in shock,” Mrs. Dean said.
Her husband also was able to secretly invite the couple’s three children and families, as well as other relatives and close friends, to the Saturday dedication ceremony.
“There are so many friends and family here from all over,” Mrs. Dean said, and very happy to see all of them.
Also happy was Dr. Steve Scott, PSU president.
“Welcome to the Sharon Kay Dean Auditorium,” he said. “Isn’t it a beautiful facility? Some of you who came to events here before may have left with a sore back. You will not leave here with a sore back again.”
The remodeling included updating the seats as well as the flooring in the auditorium.
“All Americans with Disabilities requirements have been met,” Scott added.
The PSU president said that McCray Recital Hall is very special to him because his mother, a 1941 PSU graduate, had been a student in McCray Hall and had Walter McCray as one of her teachers.
“My mother probably performed in this room,” Scott said.
He also praised Dean as a friend and advocate who has helped PSU not only with his monetary gifts but also with his ideas and vision.
Randy Roberts, PSU archivist, gave a brief history of McCray Recital Hall, which was dedicated on April 13, 1929 as Music Hall. In 1961 it was re-dedicated in McCray’s honor.
“This building has been a real workhorse for the arts and culture,” Roberts said. “The school and the community have loved this building since it opened in 1929, and they will love it even more now.”
The Deans have two sons, Barry and Jered Dean, and one daughter, Krista Murry. All of them were touched in their lives by their mother’s deep love of music, though only the oldest, Barry, has made it his career.
Behind every great man is a great woman. One of them received some recognition Saturday afternoon but the very modest Sharon Kay Dean would have preferred the honor to go to someone else.
Her husband, Dr. Harvey Dean, Pitsco founder and CEO, provided a generous donation to renovate the McCray Recital Hall auditorium. On Saturday, the performance area was dedicated as the Sharon Kay Dean Auditorium.
“I’m still in shock,” she said. “The auditorium should have been named for some of the outstanding professors in the music department.”
Mrs. Dean added that she only learned what her husband had done Thursday morning, when he brought her a cup of coffee while she was still in bed.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get it in my face,” Dean admitted.
“I’m still in shock,” Mrs. Dean said.
Her husband also was able to secretly invite the couple’s three children and families, as well as other relatives and close friends, to the Saturday dedication ceremony.
“There are so many friends and family here from all over,” Mrs. Dean said, and very happy to see all of them.
Also happy was Dr. Steve Scott, PSU president.
“Welcome to the Sharon Kay Dean Auditorium,” he said. “Isn’t it a beautiful facility? Some of you who came to events here before may have left with a sore back. You will not leave here with a sore back again.”
The remodeling included updating the seats as well as the flooring in the auditorium.
“All Americans with Disabilities requirements have been met,” Scott added.
The PSU president said that McCray Recital Hall is very special to him because his mother, a 1941 PSU graduate, had been a student in McCray Hall and had Walter McCray as one of her teachers.
“My mother probably performed in this room,” Scott said.
He also praised Dean as a friend and advocate who has helped PSU not only with his monetary gifts but also with his ideas and vision.
Randy Roberts, PSU archivist, gave a brief history of McCray Recital Hall, which was dedicated on April 13, 1929 as Music Hall. In 1961 it was re-dedicated in McCray’s honor.
“This building has been a real workhorse for the arts and culture,” Roberts said. “The school and the community have loved this building since it opened in 1929, and they will love it even more now.”
The Deans have two sons, Barry and Jered Dean, and one daughter, Krista Murry. All of them were touched in their lives by their mother’s deep love of music, though only the oldest, Barry, has made it his career.
“I’m an engineer,” Jered Dean said. “I do like to think my mom’s influence kept me from turning into Dilbert.”
All the Dean children were required to take piano lessons for a time, and Jered Dean said that he also studied trumpet during middle school.
“The fact that my mother was supportive of me learning trumpet says a lot about her love of music, all kinds of music,” he said. “My mother is the Ellis Island of music appreciation. I see my mother’s love of music in my children.”
His sister said that she could not remember a day when music was not part of their lives. She also took piano lessons, and played clarinet in the junior high marching band.
“After the eighth grade I was allowed to quit all music and it was awesome,” said Murry, who pursued a career in architecture. “The music gene skipped me, but found its way to my daughters. My sons played guitar, which led them into other arts.”
Barry Dean is a Nashville songwriter whose work has been recorded by artists such as Martina McBride and Reba McEntire.
“I work in the music business, but I haven’t met anybody who loves music more than Mom,” he said. “There hasn’t been a show in this place in the last 40 years that she hasn’t wished she was at, whether she was or not. She unconditionally loves music and supports people in every step it takes to produce it.”
He noted that his mother had hoped to finish a music degree, a desire that was shelved for the needs of others.
His father is very aware of that.
“Sharon has been a great mom and I was not always around as much as fathers should be,” Dean said. “She has been a tremendous wife to a guy whose great ideas haven’t always worked out. She sacrificed her career for mine, and worked hard to make our business a success.”
He asked his wife if she wanted to say anything before the ceremony concluded. There was only one thing, and she wanted him to say it.
“Sharon says thank you,” Dean said.
