Smith: They'll swoon to the music and think of Mr. Schroeder

Our stories on Sonoma State’s splendid Schroeder Hall note correctly that it is not named for a real person.

The naming of the Green Music Center honors benefactors Don and Maureen Green, and its centerpiece, Weill Hall, drew its name from mega-supporters Joan and Sandy Weill. But visitors who ask who “Schroeder” is or was are delighted to learn the name of the center’s new $9.5 million recital hall is a tribute to donor Jeannie Schulz and her late husband, Charles, creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip and a kid pianist obsessed with Beethoven.

Still, there are music lovers hereabout, people who cherish the piano above all the instruments, who will close their eyes during performances in the recital hall and think of Mr. Schroeder.

Just short of 80 when he died in Santa Rosa in late July, Don Schroeder had been away from the piano for half a century when he resumed taking lessons, from Michelle McNally, at the age of 65.

The former San Francisco bartender at Perry’s and Cafe Riggio, tennis-school owner and world-class hiker rediscovered the joy that flows from a piano keyboard. In retirement, his music became the focus and purpose of his life.

McNally remembers him playing a beautiful Chopin Prelude for her and her other students and their parents, and not long afterward a 17-page Beethoven Sonata movement - entirely from memory.

Soon, Schroeder began to teach children to play. The after-school program was called “Move Over Mozart.”

McNally said, “Don loved teaching piano and said it was the happiest career of his life. He wished he had discovered his new career earlier.

“I know that even though he was very ill, he was teaching a few lessons right up until a few weeks before his death.”

So, no. This piano man was not the Schroeder of Schroeder Hall. But it won’t do any harm for his former students to smile when they read that name on the wall and feel themselves transported within a gorgeous new space dedicated first and foremost to the magic of music.

GOT GRAPES? If you’re an amateur or professional winemaker who could use a half ton of prized Russian River pinot noir fruit, Bob Dempel has a deal for you.

A huge advocate of youth ag programs, the Sonoma-Mendocino winegrower offers a half ton of his grapes for $1,000. The buyer will write the check to Anderson Valley Agriculture Institute.

Every dollar goes to the effort to send Anderson Valley High teacher and FFA advisor Beth Swehla and four of the Boonville school’s FFA students to this fall’s national FFA convention in Louisville.

There’s little time for fundraising because Swehla learned only the other day that the FFA has chosen her to be an honorary recipient of its esteemed American FFA Degree. She says there is much to be learned and experienced at the National Convention and Expo, which draws 60,000 people from around the country, and she is keen to go and take students Aaron Alvarez, Chris Espinoza, Ethan Reed and Morgan Kobler with her.

If you’re interested in helping by buying the grapes from Dempel, you can phone him at 953-5428. He said he’s been aware of Beth Swehla for years and is most impressed by what she does to train and inspire students interested in agriculture, something dear to Mendocino County.

Dempel said county residents demonstrated their regard for perpetuating agriculture through their bidding in the juvenile livestock auction at the Redwood Empire Fair in Ukiah. What do suppose was the total bid in one day for the young exhibitors’ animals?

Who guessed $623,000?

A RELIEF FUND has been opened at Exchange Bank for the family of the Windsor High senior who took her life earlier this month.

The account is called the Karla Guzman Memorial Fund. Anyone so inclined can make a contribution at any branch of Exchange Bank.

I need to make right the earlier item, in which I misidentified Karla’s mother. Her name is Veronica.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.