Gilroy couple wanted to help lack of music education in GHS
schools they saw as detriment to student’s development
Gilroy – When kindergarten through fifth-grade students in Gilroy raise their voices in song, they may just be singing the praises of Dale and Ruth Connell.
The long-time Gilroy couple dug into their investments to set up a $1 million endowment through the Gilroy Foundation for music to be taught in the schools. The couple, both of whom are 92 years old, saw the lack of music education in Gilroy schools as a detriment to students’ development. The couple believes that music can help a child learn to work well with others and can contribute to a child’s understanding of other subjects.
This is their third donation through the Gilroy Foundation for music education in Gilroy Unified School District. This latest endowment is to be used for vocal music only.
“We’re strong on singing because it’s a non-competitive thing,” Dale Connell said. “Nobody has a better horn than anyone else.”
The Connells formed the Connell Family Music Fund in 1997 with a $50,000 donation, also through the Gilroy Foundation. The Packard Foundation matched that money, which provided a $100,000 endowment that has been used for a summer music program for below-grade-level students. In 2004, the Connells added $50,000 to that fund to help the summer program prosper.
“I was so impressed with those kids,” Dale Connell said. “When it came to singing, they came together as a unit.”
School district officials are still working out exactly how to use the proceeds from the $1 million donation to fund music in the schools.
Olivia Schaad, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, said the district plans to send a team of educators up to the Santa Clara County Office of Education for arts program training.
“We want to do a strategic plan for the arts,” Schaad said. “We want to have a good program that’s going to last, not something spotty.”
The donation should provide quite a bit of funding for music education. In an endowment, the principle is invested and the profits from the investments provide the money used for the endowment’s purpose. Theoretically, the principle should never be touched.
Dale Connell expects it to generate about $58,000 per year. He’s hoping this donation will jump start other donations in the community.
“If we had three more like this, we’d have a complete, self-sustaining program,” he said.
His own boss
The Connells have lived in Gilroy for 59 years and came by their money through years of hard work and careful money management. The family arrived in Gilroy after Dale served four years in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Before coming to Gilroy, they had lived in various parts of the West Coast, and Dale had taken a job as a manager of a Firestone store in Taft. But when the company told him he couldn’t get promoted past store manager because he didn’t have a college degree, Dale decided it was time to strike out on his own.
He and Ruth and their son Larry moved to Gilroy and started Gilroy Auto Parts. He still remembers how much they paid for the three-bedroom, one-bath brand new house on Dowdy Street: $10,500. They owned the shop for a number of years until Dale decided to switch careers and enter the world of real estate. That’s where he found his passion.
Through clever marketing (he bought pieces of land on every road leading into or out of Gilroy so no one could enter or leave town without seeing his name on a sign) and, of course, hard work, Dale Connell got a handle on real estate in Gilroy, and he kept at it for 30 years, until he passed on the business to his son and retired in 1982.
How to be a millionaire
Retirement didn’t stop Dale Connell. He got his teaching credential at age 52, and he also volunteered as a teacher for students in the Junior Achievement program.
That’s where he passed on his wisdom.
“I taught them how to be a millionaire by the time you’re 65: The first 10 percent of each paycheck – give it away. That blew them away. The second 10 percent – invest it. Don’t touch it. The 80 percent left – live it up,” he said. “Giving away that first 10 percent makes you very conscious of what you’re doing with the rest of it.”
Giving away money also makes you feel good, the Connells acknowledged.
“The money you get from your salary, investments and inheritance gives you a living,” Dale Connell said. “The money you give away gives you a life.”
Donna Pray, executive director of the Gilroy Foundation, hopes that others take the Connells’ lead and donate to the community.
After having achieved financial success, Dale Connell shared how he achieved his: In addition to divvying up the paycheck, a long-term plan was key.
“I had a 30-year plan. People don’t do that anymore,” he said. “The first 10 years, I could see I would have to start accumulating property of my own. I never paid more than just enough to get the property, and I wouldn’t get property that didn’t pay for itself. The next 10 years, pay it off.
Now you’ve got 10 more years – what are you going to do? Sell them.”
This practice garnered the Connells more than they could use, so they’ve given much away.
Once the music program gets under way, the Connells expect it to snowball.
“They’re going to get the idea, and they’ll be enthused,” said Dale Connell, “and it’ll slowly change the system until we’ll be the singingest city in the state.”
