Brown and Sidehamer create
$50,000 endowment for the arts

By Jennifer Pencek

John L. Brown Jr. and Lynn Sidehamer grew up in different states, but their backgrounds are so similar they could have been raised in the same house. Since childhood each has had a passion for the arts and a love of performances. And, as youngsters, each had to hide a secret—a devotion to opera—from their families.

When they met in the late 1970s, each discovered the other had loved opera as a child, but their family members didn’t share their affection. That was just the start of the couple’s discovery together, a journey that has lasted thirty-one years.

Their partnership will endure long after they’re gone thanks to their establishment of a $50,000 endowment at the Center for the Performing Arts. The John L. Brown Jr. and Marlynn Steele Sidehamer Endowment provides the Center for the Performing Arts with a new funding source for the 2009–2010 season and beyond.

The State College couple, members of the Center for the Performing Arts at the Leadership Circle level, created the endowment to support programming by their performing arts “family” and to ensure the contribution would last for more than one year.

“We wanted to do an endowment now so we both could be a part of it,” Sidehamer says. “This has become a family for us, so why wouldn’t we want our money here?”

Brown, a Penn State professor emeritus of electrical engineering, retired in 1987 after more than thirty-six years of teaching. He lives at The Fairways at Brookline in State College. Sidehamer, also retired, was an elementary school principal for thirty-four years in the Norwin School District near Pittsburgh before supervising the student teaching program at Penn State for about twelve years.

Brown grew up in Ellenville, New York, not far from New York City, while Sidehamer was raised in McKeesport and often made the short trip to Pittsburgh for performances by Civic Light Opera and other music and theatre presenters.

“Pittsburgh had so many theatres, so we were always going to theatres in the city,” she recalls. “My father played guitar. Before the days of television, we would sing and he’d play guitar.”

While attending Grove City College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English and biological science, Sidehamer sang with the college choir. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1968 with a master of education degree. In 1984, she earned a doctorate in curriculum and supervision at Penn State, where she met Brown.

Sidehamer remains involved with the alumni groups of the schools she attended and contributes to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The Sidehamer family has a membership with the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and Sidehamer and Brown support WPSU and are Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State.

Even Sidehamer’s adult daughter, Kimberly Watkins of Mahwah, New Jersey, is an arts enthusiast, having minored in art and music at Chatham University. “We’re a musical family,” Sidehamer says.

Proof of Brown’s devotion to the arts can be found in treasures in the couple’s home, including a collection of performance programs dating back more than fifty years. He also owns more than 6,000 books and 300 classical music CDs.

“John never studied music, but he has always been a classical music fan,” Sidehamer says. “He’s the only guy I know who whistles it. When John and I met, it was like meeting the other half because we’re so compatible. I feel like I met my soul mate.”

From the beginning of their relationship, the couple attended presentations at Eisenhower Auditorium. “We both love music, and we both love theatre,” Sidehamer says.

Center for the Performing Arts administrators value the endowment as a gift that will keep on giving, says Director George Trudeau.

“I’m thrilled with John and Lynn’s generous gift,” Trudeau says. “Because of that gift, there will always be performances of world-class artists here at the Center for the Performing Arts associated with their names. Personally, I can’t think of a greater legacy.”

Yet, Sidehamer reminds people that it takes more than money to support the arts. “People need to be aware that arts will suffer if we don’t get involved,” she says.

For more information about the endowment or to contribute to it, contact Dave Shaffer, assistant director for special programs at the Center for the Performing Arts, at 814-863-1167 or DaveShaffer@psu.edu.