DURANGO, Colo. – The end of an era is coming to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. After nearly 12 years at the helm of Durango’s premier performing arts venue – from construction through its 10^th Anniversary season – Managing Director Gary

Gary Penington

Penington will retire, effective April 2008.

“It’s going to be hard, no doubt,” said Penington, who joined the Fort Lewis College staff in 1984 as part of the Audiovisual Department, and became the Concert Hall’s first employee in 1995. “But for some years now I’ve had a mantra coined by Johnny Carson tacked to my bulletin board, ‘Life is more important than show business.’ And it’s true. It’s time for me to spend time with my parents as well as my teenage daughter Amanda, and move on to new professional adventures.”

Penington is credited with bringing “the music” to Durango since 1980. Teaming up with Jim Turner to form Southwest Productions, the two produced shows with Doug Kirshaw, Spyro Gyra, Michael Martin Murphey, Elvin Bishop, Asleep at the Wheel, The Outlaws and more before additional performing arts organizations had formed and before the Community Concert Hall was even a flicker in anyone’s imagination.

Once at the Community Concert Hall, Penington was tasked with being “entrepreneurial” as he opened the hall, and, indeed, took the venue that was without a season subscription effort, established operating budget, an endowment fund, or the “cushion” of a foundation to underwrite programming to the fiscally solvent facility it is today. 

Gary Penington thanks those attending the first Spotlight to Stardom in 2004

According to Steve Schwartz, FLC vice president, Finance and Administration, “Gary has been instrumental in creating the vision for the Community Concert Hall and bringing the venue to its current level of excellence. While we all certainly wish Gary the best in retirement, his leadership and passion will be sorely missed.”

Born and raised in Monte Vista, Colo., Penington’s first break in radio was at a home town station, KSLV, doing sports play-by-play after school. Dave Watts, currently San Juan County, N.M., Assessor managed the station at the time.

“I remember Gary as a very talented DJ even then and a hard worker,” said Watts. “He had a great work ethic and that passionate look in his eye that said, ‘watch out world… here I come.’ I’m happy to see he is successful.”

Penington went on to attend Adams State but moved on to the Brown Institute in Minneapolis to study both radio and television broadcasting. He credits his time in Minneapolis – during the US Bicentennial when “all the big artists” were touring – for awakening his love for live, contemporary music.

“There was a menu of concerts to go to,” he recalled. “I’d saved some money, and I went to the ticket counter and bought hundreds of dollars of tickets – Queen, The Who, Paul McCartney ‘Wings Over America Tour,’ Kansas – it was a laundry list. It was great.”

Upon his arrival in Durango in 1977, he worked for radio stations KIUP/KRSJ, and from ’80 to ’84 served as the morning man at KDGO when the station was located downtown in the now Durango Coffee Company space.

A typical Durangoan, he also held down a second job managing a local motel where a chance meeting with Jim Turner resulted in the beginning of the friendship and professional partnership that endures to this day.

“He’d come in and asked me to record some Three Dog Night commercials,” said Penington. “An hour later I was his partner and started producing shows in the early ‘80s. The first shows were at the Iron Horse, then we moved up to the college, first in the hall that eventually collapsed (in 1993), then the gym.”

According to Turner, the friendship has been rare in its solidarity. During the more than 20 year association, the pair has had only one slight disagreement, and that was over winding up an electrical cord.

“No one can match the adventures we shared, the fun we had and the incredible music that has been brought to this community by Gary’s efforts at the Concert Hall,” said Turner. “Fifty years from now, they should erect a statue of Gary in front of that beautiful place. Gary rocks!”

As to future plans, Penington is assuming a part-time position through the President’s Office at Fort Lewis College to produce “larger” shows on campus – a natural progression given his background.

In a press release, Fort Lewis College President Brad Bartel noted, “I really didn’t know what the term ‘impresario’ meant until I saw Gary in action. We are gratified that Gary will continue in a focused capacity with Fort Lewis College after his retirement. The community will continue to reap the cultural benefits of Gary’s ability to book internationally known talent to the Durango area.”          

The shows will not be Concert Hall productions, and will be staged in venues such as the Whalen Gymnasium on campus, as were recent “big” concerts featuring Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson, or open-air on the football field.

“I also will be expanding my video production business,” said Penington of Southwest Video Productions, which he launched in 1980. “I’m going to focus on promotional videos and legal video work.”

In 2006 Penington earned his credentials as a Certified Court Video Specialist, though he had been doing legal work for decades.

“I like it. It interests me,” he said. “And it’s a niche that other video people don’t do.”

As he departs the Concert Hall, Penington leaves the venue in a good spot. The Concert Hall stage has held 1,134 shows since its opening, with 383,325 patrons attending as of the end of 2007.

The Concert Hall, which is a non-profit venture, has remained fiscally solvent throughout its 10 years. Not every show has been profitable, but many have, allowing the bottom line to balance out and provide enough income to make repairs and enhancements to the facility and equipment. With the launch of the Russ and Bette Serzen Memorial Endowment Fund, a foundation has been laid for operational expenses going forward.

“The next person will inherit a strong financial atmosphere, as well as a solid staff – a team – which certainly has been as responsible for the Concert Hall’s success over the years as I have,” said Penington, specifically lauding his administrative assistant Mary Floroplus. “She’s been the backbone of the Concert Hall while I’m out doing my big picture thing. She’s the 8 to 5, Monday through Friday gal who we have to have in a crazy 24-7 business. She’s done an exceptional job, but she has no interest in assuming the manager’s position.”

Penington addresses a class from Fort Lewis College in the balcony of the Community Concert Hall.

When asked about “the best” show staged, Penington can’t point to just one, though has a few he recalls:

"Keb’Mo’, Arturo Sandoval, Mark O’Conner, Kris Kristofferson, Dickie Betts, Willie Nelson and Meryl Haggard” said Penington, noting that dealing with the “rock stars” is far from the most rewarding aspect of his job. “The job may appear to be glamorous, but there’s definitely a non-glamorous side. Even with all that, the thing that is important to the soul is enhancing people’s lives.”

Penington specifically cites tours of the hall he has provided every spring for Mrs. Kerns’ 3^rd grade class.

“That has always been a highlight,” he said. “The kids ask great questions, and you can see their eyes light up. You hope you’ve planted a seed so they’ll pursue the arts during their lives.” 

The employment opportunity as the Community Concert Hall Managing Director will be posted by FLC sometime this month (www.fortlewis.edu), and, according to Schwartz, it will be a national search. A selection committee is currently being assembled, and a full job description prepared.

“Timing in life just takes care of itself,” said Penington. “It’s time to move on. It’s time to do something new.”

The Community Concert Hall is located in the growing arts complex of Fort Lewis College.  It operates as a unit of the college, a state-supported, independent institution of higher education, with support from the city of Durango, and with financial and in-kind contributions from generous members of the community.

 indiana@durangodowntown.com

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