SMU Looks Gift Horse in the Mouth

[MrMustang1965]

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, December 29, 2005

One man's treasure is adding an abundance of music to Southwestern University.

A donor with no previous ties to the university in Georgetown is giving his entire collection of 13,000 CDs of classical, rock 'n' roll, jazz and film music to Southwestern's library, more than quadrupling the school's music collection.

Former radio host Stephen Aechternacht initially offered his gift to his alma mater, Southern Methodist University in Dallas. But after officials there seemed underwhelmed at the prospect of receiving so many CDs, he chose Southwestern instead, he said.

"When I offered to give them the collection, they practically jumped out of their skins," Aechternacht recalled. "And I said, 'Wait, don't back up the truck yet.' "

He won't give the whole collection to the library right away. The majority of his CDs will go to the library after his death, a bequest he has added to his will.

In the meantime, Aechternacht said, he is picking through his CDs to find duplicates to deliver to the library.

He gave Southwestern a first installment of about 60 CDs in November and will give more in batches of several hundred during the next few years.

"We're absolutely thrilled that Stephen has made this choice," said Paul Gaffney, dean of the School of Fine Arts at Southwestern University. "His collection is about as comprehensive as you can get, with a full range of classical and concert music."

Gaffney said most of the CDs will go into normal circulation at the library. The duplicate CDs will be stored in faculty offices to be used in classes.

Although the university is no stranger to donor gifts, Gaffney said, this is one of the largest such donations that Southwestern has received.

Aechternacht, 57, lives with his wife, Claudia, on a hilly 20 acres in Spicewood, in far western Travis County.

His home, which he designed himself, includes a 22-by-10-foot wall filled with nothing but CDs.

A separate nook features even more CDs, records, books and a card catalog such as one a person might find in an older, nondigital library. Each card corresponds to a song, and all the information is carefully handwritten in black ink: the guide to Aechternacht's collection.

Aechternacht, who works as a regional director for a healthcare company, has been collecting the CDs for 18 years. But two recent near-death experiences — a bout with skin cancer and a severe allergic reaction to an anesthetic — caused him to search for a future home for his collection, which he values at $150,000.

Aechternacht says it is not hard to give up at least some of his CDs, which he used while he was a radio host at KMFA, a classical station in Austin, and other Texas stations.

He's concentrating on giving up duplicate recordings, such as some of his 56 versions of a orchestral work called "The Planets" by Gustav Holst.

"There are some CDs in my collection that you're going to have to pry out of my cold, dead hands," he said, a category that includes Tori Amos' first album, "Little Earthquakes", and a compilation of film music by Bernard Herrmann.

And his gift doesn't mean the end of his collecting days. Aechternacht said that he'll keep buying CDs and that he adds about 600 a year to his home library.

"My want list is longer than ever," he said.

[Eddie P]

I offered my Volvo to SMU when I purchased a new car in October but they seemed underwhelmed with the gift. So, I sold it to one of my interns from North Texas.

[Billy Joe]

Wait, Eddie P has interns? When did this happen? HHHHMMMMM.

[Eddie P]

I have three interns, actually. But one should move into a producers role by 1Q 06.

I know...I don't have 50 secretaries like some rich attorney I know. I just try to make it through the day and then go home to eat my raman noodles and PB&J sandwich. I should have gone to law school.

[DiamondM]

Yeah, I tried to donate all of my grandpa's old Conway Twitty and Captain & Tenille 8 track tapes, but for some reason, the SMU library wasn't really thrilled. So I took them to the Goodwill trailor at Mockingbird and Abrams.

Seriously, are you complaining that SMU chose not to agree to catalog and store 30,000 white elephant gifts?

[smupony94]

KMFA is not a good classical music station so that is most likely why SMU did not want the cds.

[Eddie P]

I said get a back-up for O'Neil;
Not Captain and Tennille.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

I guess this means I shouldn't offer SMU my 145 copies of Engleberg Humperdink's greatest hits.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

I said get a back-up for O'Neil;
Not Captain and Tennille.

Haha...I loved that commercial.

[MrMustang1965]

The story in the Austin American - Statesman uses the word 'underwhelmed'. However, an Associated Press wire story of the same topic uses the word 'overwhelmed'.

[that's great raplh]

you are a ding dong

someguy does not want to have a garage sale and you'd think we care

reject

[ponyplayer]

man, i used to love ding dongs but now have to settle for jenny craig,

[smupony94]

ding dongs are good but I am hooked on the nutter butter

[aus10fromhous10]

Thats some [deleted] right there....KPNI, the SMU Radio station would have loved to take those CDs.....typical SMU to forget theres a radio station on campus...

[MrMustang1965]

Thats some [deleted] right there....KPNI, the SMU Radio station would have loved to take those CDs.....typical SMU to forget theres a radio station on campus...

Well...that's what I was thinking, too.