New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘A worthy goal’
SCSU professor changed by 9/11 donates millions to help music students
NEW HAVEN — Southern Connecticut State University music professor Walter Stutzman is making all kinds of beautiful music at the school to the tune of $3 million — and counting — for students through his family foundation.
But it’s not just a mere money toss — it’s a gift from deep in the heart of a man who loves music and came out changed after surviving the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
“I remember thinking that if 9/11 had been my last day on earth, what had I done to leave the world a better place? I believe that helping people to enjoy and understand music is a worthy goal,” said Stutzman, a Madison resident.
It would take Stutzman, who had high-end technology career, a few more years to make that change after prompting from his dying mom.
In one of his last conversations with her, his mother said, “If you’re going to make this change, do it now.”
He listened.
In 2005, in his late 50s, married with two children ahead of him with college, Stutzman, a lifelong pianist, enrolled in Southern’s music program as a student.
But he and his family were trustees of the Stutzman Family Foundation set up by his parents.
He wanted students at Southern to have a meaningful experience and the foundation funded music lessons for them — still the core of the gift — and then added other valuable endeavors, including sending the SCSU choir to international performances each year, helping to fund the Electronic Music Studio, tuition scholarships and support of the Blue Steel Drumline.
As of February, the Stutzman Family Foundation had donated $2.8 million to Southern’s music program and also committed to $225,000 for the
“The best thank you I see for this program is when I walk through and see people playing, practicing and that is a great thank you.” Walter Stutzman,
SCSU music professor
next two years, so they’ll be over $3 million in January 2022.
“The best thank you I see for this program is when I walk through and see people playing, practicing and that is a great thank-you,” Stutzman said.
“The goal of all of this is to enable Southern students to become the musicians that they want to be,” he said. “Whatever that may be — jazz, classical voice, electronic music for visual media — if they’re serious, the Southern Music Department will help them achieve their goals.”
Stutzman, who also went to college in the 1960s, and already held a master’s degree in linguistics from Yale University, planned to get a teaching job at a high or junior high school after graduating from SCSU, but the timing was perfect because an SCSU professor was retiring.
Previously he worked on the Yale Artificial Intelligence Project and later for the Digital Equipment Corp. for 16 years. In 1996, he joined a small consulting firm,
Today Stutzman is an adjunct professor at SCSU who teaches music history of the western world and a freshman seminar on the power of music. He joined the University Symphonic Band and is still there on timpani and other percussion.
“This is both the most challenging and most rewarding,” work that I’ve done,” he said.
SCSU music grad Johna
than Moore had cello lessons weekly through the foundation and said that “allowed me to learn more about my gifts and talents.” Moore said he wouldn’t have been able to afford the lessons out of pocket, so he’s grateful.
“I wanted to explore more of the sounds and techniques of the cello and the cello lessons gave me that opportunity to learn them,” Moore said. “Professionally, the lessons played an important part in opening doors for my music career. … I am truly grateful for that,” including shows for the New Haven Symphony.
Joshua Groffman, associate professor and chairman of Southern’s Music department, said, “It’s fair to say that the foundation has had a transformative effect at Southern and reflects an ongoing support that is humbling to contemplate and that is never taken for granted.”
Stutzman said music has been a part of his life since he was 8 and he started piano lessons. He played oboe in high school and college and piano for enjoyment. Since 1985, Stutzman has also been the accompanist for the cantor and choir at Temple Beth Tikvah in Madison.
He remembers first strongly coming to appreciate the beauty of music in 1962 at Northridge Junior High School in California.
“My teacher played a movement from a Mozart piano concerto and explained its form to us,” he said. “This was a lightbulb moment where I first understood something about beauty and form in music.”
But “the impetus” to change careers from the lucrative tech world to music came after his 9/11 experience.
Stutzman was working as a software consultant and talking to his boss at the World Trade Center when the planes hit the towers, shaking his building.
He made it down a staircase, later had nightmares, and like so many touched closely by the tragedy of that day, analyzed his own direction.
“This did make me think about what did I do with my life?” he said.
Stutzman said they were told not to get near any windows and not to leave. At 9:07 when second plane hit, “I knew something was up” and he left, as did others in the office, despite being told not to. Everyone he worked with made it to safety.
He fled the area as quickly as he could and from a good distance witnessed the towers crumble — making it extra eerie that he was so far away, there was no sound.
Stutzman said the number of lessons through the family foundation has gone up as enrollment’s increased and “were trying to get the message out there are advantages here and this is the place to be.”
In the freshman seminar he plays “A hymn for the lost and living,” written by Eric Ewazen, which portrays the sad, painful days following the Sept. 11 attacks. He tells students of his 9/11 experience and the healing power that music has for him.
He says of the SCSU music department,
“They’re small but mighty and if you’re serious about music, we’ll help you become the musician you want to be.”
The endowment was set up with the blessing of his father, Jacob, a physician who worked in pharmaceutical research and lived to see two years of the delight SCSU brought his son. Jacob Stutzman died in summer 2007.
Walter Stutzman told the Register while enrolled at SCSU as a student that a gift to the school was fitting because he felt gratitude to fellow students, as well as the school, that he said was rich with talented and dedicated instructors.