First Brenau University Steinway Piano Named for Rome, Ga., Native Wayne Dempsey

The university's resident 'Dr. No' on unnecessary spending was an early 'yes' for embracing $1.5 million piano acquisition initiative

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Wayne Dempsey and wife, Marsha, in front of Steinway piano like the one that was named for him at Brenau University.

GAINESVILLE, GA (01/31/2013)(readMedia)-- When Brenau University acquired the first piano in its $1.5 million initiative to become an "All-Steinway School," it already had a name: The Dempsey Steinway.

That first piano, Number 481, a handmade Steinway & Sons Model D Concert Grand, arrived on campus Dec. 4 and now resides in Pearce Auditorium. However, Brenau President Ed Schrader announced previously that it would be named for former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Wayne Dempsey, the Rome, Ga., native who retired at the end of 2012 for health reasons.

Dempsey and his wife, Marsha Peugh Dempsey, plan to relocate to Rome when renovations to their long-time home there are completed. As Dempsey expresses it, the two were "fellow students" there hen they were infants on the "Cradle Roll" at Rome's First Baptist Church,

The new Brenau piano will make its public "debut" at a concert in Pearce Auditorium on Feb. 5.

After presenting Dempsey with a certificate and a plaque commemorating "The Dempsey Steinway" at a November dinner for the university Board of Trustees, Brenau President Ed Schrader said he could think of no more fitting honor for Dempsey's service to Brenau. In his career Dempsey taught sciences and managed finances and business operations. But with his strong, clear polished singing voice and talent with orchestral instruments, he's always been a front-and-center fixture around any kind of music at Brenau and his church, including playing horns in church orchestra. When the idea for the expensive All-Steinway program emerged, the money-conscious Dempsey was one of the first to embrace it.

"The All-Steinway project is an important statement about the quality of the music programs at Brenau," Schrader said. "Wayne knows that better than anyone."

Brenau announced more than a year ago that it had embarked on a plan to raise $1.5 million to replace worn-out, unserviceable pianos on campus. With fundraising still in progress, the university leased the concert grand, which when paid for will represent close to 10 percent of the total cost of the 30-piano acquisition.

Dempsey, known affectionately as "Dr. No" among some of his Brenau colleagues, was a tight-fisted budget manager credited with enforcing financial disciplines that helped the university avoid debt and move through the recent global economic downturn without layoffs, salary cuts or major operations retrenchment.

"Saying 'no' when things are tough financially makes sure you are still around to say 'yes' later," Dempsey once observed of his role in overseeing the university's $45 million operating budget.

Born in Rome, Ga., on May 31, 1948, Wayne Wright Dempsey is the son of Fred and Eva Dempsey of Rome. Dempsey's mother was a homemaker and his father owned the local Ford automobile dealership. He graduated from West Rome High School in 1966.

After earning a bachelor's degree in biology from Shorter College in his home town, he taught biology at Coosa High School from 1970-74. He earned a Master of Education degree from the University of West Georgia in 1976, and then returned to Coosa for another three years on faculty before answering the call to become director of financial aid at his undergraduate alma mater. In 1984 he became Shorter's first vice president for administration. For his success in that role, the college conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2005.

When Schrader left Shorter for Brenau that year, he took Dempsey to the Gainesville school with him. But Dempsey said that he and Marsha always planned to return to Rome for retirement.

More information on the All-Steinway intiative is on the brenau Music Department web page. Music Professor Ben Leaptrott, who will perform on the Dempsey Steinway Feb. 5, is featured playing similar instruments on the video embedded in the page or on a YouTube Brenau All-Steinway video brochure. 

To contribute to the Dempsey Steinway and the All-Steinway project, go to www.brenau.edu/giving/donate/ and make your donation to the All-Steinway project. Or for more information, e-mail mthomas@brenau.edu or call 770-718-5309.

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ABOUT BRENAU – Founded in 1878, Brenau University currently enrolls about 2,800 students in graduate and undergraduate programs on campuses and online. With a curriculum that blends professional preparation informed by the liberal arts, Brenau degree tracks range from Associate of Arts, which includes a special "early college" program for exceptional high school-age students to terminal degrees, a Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design and a Doctor of Nursing Practice. The main campus of the Georgia-based liberal arts institution, which includes the Brenau Women's College, is in Gainesville with other campuses in Augusta, Kings Bay and in two metro Atlanta locations, Norcross and Fairburn. Brenau's 2013 ranking as one of the top 15-best higher education values in the Southeast by U.S. News & World Report marks the university's eighth consecutive year in that position for the magazine's America's Best Colleges guidebook. In 2012 Brenau online programs scored high in national rankings by U.S. News & World Report, including a No. 9 in the nation "Honor Roll" listing for graduate degree tracks in Brenau's College of Education. Brenau University also has been cited as one of the best universities in the Southeast by The Princeton Review. The Chronicle of Higher Education accorded Brenau "honor roll" status as one of the top 10 best colleges and universities to work in its 2011-12 survey rankings.