DePauw Alumni Couple Endow Cassel Grubb University Professorship

May 7, 1999

May 7, 1999, Greencastle, Ind. - A DePauw University alumni couple who continued a friendship with a music professor throughout their lives have made a commitment to endow the first University Professorship, part of a new program to support faculty and teaching at DePauw. Gary P. and Sandra Aldrich Drew, 1961 and 1962 graduates of DePauw who live in Suttons Bay, Mich., established The Cassel Grubb University Professorship. Grubb, emeritus professor of music and former director of the School of Music, was a member of the faculty from 1949 to 1989.

The University Professorship will provide an annual stipend to the faculty member selected and cover expenses for a project of the faculty member's choosing that will enhance teaching and scholarship. The Grubb Professorship is the first named professorship to be endowed in this new initiative. Each faculty recipient will hold the professorship for a four-year term.

"We wanted to honor Cassel Grubb for all he has done in helping young people both at DePauw and Interlochen," Sandra Drew said. "He also was my favorite teacher. It's a privilege to honor him."

A piano major and voice minor, Sandra Drew was a regular accompanist in Professor Grubb's cello classes, and she took classes from him as well. She went on to teach music at the elementary and junior high levels and was a private piano teacher. She also is active in singing, accompanying and directing in her community and church.

Gary Drew, a communication major, had a successful career at General Motors Corp., from which he retired as director of strategic planning and analysis. A past alumni board member and class agent, he joined the Board of Trustees in January 1999. At that point, he became familiar with the University's initiatives to support faculty and teaching, and he suggested to Sandra the idea of endowing a University Professorship for Professor Grubb.

"It is an honor that this professorship has been established in the School of Music," Grubb said. It gives me great pleasure to have the professorship named for me after being friends with the Drews for so many years."

During his 40-year career in the School of Music, Grubb taught cello and music theory, served 11 years as director of the school and was named the John C. and Lillian W. Siegesmund Professor of Music. Music students selected Grubb to receive the Best Teacher Award during the 1982-83 academic year. He also played for more than 30 years with the highly acclaimed Aeolian Trio.

For 37 summers, he has served as director of the string ensembles program and cello instructor at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. That made it possible for the Drews, who live near Interlochen, to see quite a lot of Cassel and his spouse, Bernice, who also taught at DePauw and Interlochen.

DePauw President Robert G. Bottoms said, "It is very gratifying to know that DePauw University has loyal alumni such as the Drews who would recognize one of their professors in this way. It is a significant advantage of the DePauw experience that the student-faculty relationship does not end at graduation. Alumni and faculty often maintain their relationships throughout their lives."

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