CARILLON STORIES

Charlene and I went on a cruise in Europe last summer (2003). We started in London, England and sailed out of Southhampton. Went to ports in: Falmouth, England / Cork, Ireland / Dublin, Ireland / Rosyth, Edinboro Scottland / Hamburg, Germany / Amsterdam, Holland / Zeebrugge, Belgium / Le Havre, France (visited Normandy Beaches). While touring the beautiful city of Brugges, Belgium, on August 13, 2003 I got separated from the tour group as I did many times during this trip while taking photo, and as I was walking through a cathedral courtyard I stumbled onto this... Who could ever believe!

Bobby Freeman, 88, Arizona Diamondbacks organist, official Carillon Campaign Honorary Chair

One of my greatest pleasures in working at ASU is being able to take my lunch hour in the Secret Garden and listen to the carillon. When I was working on the west side of campus every day that I could, I would rush out at twelve to sit in the garden, eat my lunch, soak up some sun, and listen to the carillon's noon and quarter hour responses. It is the perfect break from the morning's work exertions: a time to relax and an opportunity to re-charge my batteries before heading back to my office for the afternoon. Now that I have taken a job on the far east side of campus, I really miss my noon retreat and mini concert and am already planning future trips across campus to hear the bells again.

Stefanie Bobar, Administrative Assistant, Summer Sessions Study Abroad Office
(Note: When the carillon is restored, the music and clock strikes will be heard all across campus.)

Secret Garden is my venue for enjoying this glorious music. I was mesmerized by the sound and it reminded me of universities back East and in Europe. It is a lovely way to enjoy a break.

Sasha Ramayya, Office for Research and Sponsored Projects Administration

I was very interested to hear about the project to restore ASU's carillon. When I was an undergrad at the University of California at Riverside, a carillon tower was built, and it housed a wonderful set of bells that chimed regularly and added immensely to the collegiate atmosphere of the campus. Regular concerts were performed which were very popular as well. Every campus needs such an uplifting element. I hope that you will soon have the necessary funds to complete the project and I applaud your efforts.

Cindi Millikin, Arts Administrator, Scottsdale

“When I was in graduate school at California State University, Long Beach, I took night classes, arriving on the campus about 6 p.m. Every evening at that time, the university carillon played a concert, and the music uplifted me as I walked to class, tired from working all day. I would always make sure I was on campus in time for the carillon music.”

Judith Smith, ASU Public Relations


“In Anchorage, I often walked around a lake next to Alaska Pacific University, which had a carillon. Twelve years ago I stood in deep snow and deeper grief for a friend whose funeral was being held at that exact time in Juneau, and suddenly, the ‘Moonlight Sonata’ rang out. It was unearthly beautiful, and comforting, better than anything they could have been saying in Juneau. Thus, the carillon is special to me.”

Elizabeth Annis, Sitka, Alaska

"I attended graduate school at Duke University, which has as its central focus on campus a magnificent gothic chapel (more like a cathedral) along with a carillon. Each day at 5 p.m. and at noon on Saturday and after services on Sunday the chapel carillon would ring out with 18th century music appropriate to gothic cathedrals. On school days, I would take that as my break, climb out a window to sit on a wide stone railing that looked over to the chapel and listen. The music and scenery would transport me to a different time and place that was very relaxing and rejuvenating. I miss it still and cannot hear a carillon without thinking back to my time at Duke".

Dr. George Watson, Parents Association Professor of Political Science
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication

 

Note: Robert McConnell was not able to attend the Carillon Society reception March 18, but he sent these remarks:

As an old alum I find it wonderful that ASU is rededicating the carillon. I believe, as a number of us did in the 1960s, that the carillon again will add positively and uniquely to the university campus environment.

When I think about ASU's carillon bells I remember very fondly ASU President G. Homer Durham. In the tumultuous campus times of the 1960s, again and again we students were surprised to learn that the basis for campus unrest at various universities across the nation had been unilaterally addressed by President Durham.

For example, students at Cal-Berkley nearly rioted to have a greater say in the administration of the university. We looked around ASU and found that virtually every committee involved in the administration of our university was made up of 1/3 administrators, 1/3 faculty and 1/3 students - - and the students were selected by the elected student body or ASASU president. Then the question was, what earlier students fought for this recognition and when? The answer was that no one had.

Quietly and motivated by his own enlightened view of a university, President Durham had set this structure in place years earlier with no pressure from students or anyone else.

The more those of us privileged to work with him got to know this quiet, thoughtful intellectual, the more he drew us into his vision for ASU the institution - - a great educational enterprise serving students and the state.

And, somewhere in those conversations - - at formal meetings or in more casual gatherings with student officers - - President Durham mentioned his dream that one day ASU would have fine carillon bells like those he described at many fine and long-established universities in the Midwest and East.

He talked about the contribution the bells would make to the daily lives of students who would be able to count on the music to announce the hours of the day. He envisioned concerts that could be shared by students and faculty all across campus. He described how they would enrich special campus events. The word pictures and sounds he presented drew us all into one small but important musical dimension of the great university he was so carefully building upon the remarkable foundation left us by his ASU predecessors - - students, faculty and presidents.

Then a time came when we were able to present the university - - and President Durham - - the great carillon you rededicate today.

During the 1965-66 academic year, the State Legislature learned that the ASASU student government, had, though careful fiscal management of its student activity fees over the years, built a very sizeable so-called "unappropriated balance" in the ASASU account. This was a balance that carried forward year after year. Legislation was introduced at the State Capitol to require that all unappropriated balances revert to the State general fund at the end of each fiscal year. The Legislature seemed to see the student funds as ready cash for its needs, not the student success story the funds so plainly were.

The Student Senate and the ASASU officers saw the fund as both a fund for student emergency contingencies and as a fiscal success in self-governance lessons learned by a generation of student leaders at the hands of Dean of Students Weldon Shofstall, ASASU Executive Manager Dick Finley and Dean George Hamm. The students were not about to have the student monies so carefully invested be used for anything other than their university.

After much consideration, suggestions from all across campus, State Press stories and editorials, debate and numerous votes within student government, the decision was made. The bulk of the unappropriated balance was spent for books for Hayden Library and for the purchase of this carillon. Both contributions to the university were for the school and its future generations of students.

Then during the following school year (1966-67), the carillon was dedicated. I spoke on behalf of the student body and, in the words my predecessor Fred Reish used in signing the student legislation purchasing the carillons, I dedicated the bells to "the students, faculty and alumni of ASU who have given their lives for our nation, whether on the sands of Iwo Jima, the fields of France, or the jungles of Vietnam." We had wanted to have the carillon stand in the center of campus and to be heard forever, honoring those who gave their all for our nation so institutions like ASU could continue provide for the intellectual growth of future generations of free Americans.

This was and is a noble theme for this great instrument. But, I must add, that as I first heard these bells, and as I hear them in my imagination even now, I think first of G. Homer Durham, a man of extraordinary vision, a man it was my privilege to have gotten to know as part of my wonderful ASU experience.

Robert McConnell
Vice President, Hawthorne & York International, Ltd.
ASASU President, 1966-67

If you would like to add a story, send an email to jps@asu.edu.