How blessed I am to have known Virginia G. Piper. She was a philanthropist in the truest sense. She gave because she felt she could make a better community and in our case advance the arts and help our organization present the best in the performing arts. She would tell me, "I believe in what you are doing." She gave from her heart, with no ego involved at all.

-Frank Jacobson, former President and CEO, Scottsdale Cultural Council

Virginia's initial involvement with us was a result of her relationship and friendship with Laura and Dayton Grafman and pianist Jeffrey Siegel. Her first foray funding the SCA was to underwrite Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations. (In Chicago, Dayton was one of the first arts presenters in the country who presented Jeffrey's Keyboard Conversations.) In the early years of the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia funded the cost of Jeffrey's fees each season. A couple of years later, I approached her to underwrite other performers. What I remember, with great fondness, is that each year I'd sit down with her to discuss our upcoming season of performing artists and the artists we were considering presenting at the annual fundraising gala. She'd ask if I had seen the artist perform, and if I hadn't, she would encourage me to see him or her first and come back to her with the report.

Virginia was our largest single benefactor at the Center for the Performing Arts. She loved classical music and particularly the piano. She underwrote the Piper Piano Concert Series, and supported youth arts education programs.

Virginia understood that one of our challenges was to attract a diverse audience: audiences of different generations and different ethnicities. She had a penchant for the education programs; she and I would talk about the responsibility for educating youth in the arts and classical music. Virginia understood that children required early exposure to the arts and that self-expression can be healing and life-changing.

After her death, the new trustees of The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust gave the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts one of their initial eight cornerstone grants and asked us to consider naming the theater for her. Virginia never asked to put her name on a program, let alone the theater, but we knew that putting her name on the theater offered more than the financial gift. Her name was synonymous with philanthropy, caring, community and quality. Who wouldn't want to associate their organization with the name Virginia G. Piper?

Virginia Piper never asked for anything in return for her gifts. She contributed thousands of dollars to underwrite an artist's fee and would then buy her own tickets on top of it. She well understood the costs and the economics of the performing arts, that ticket revenues only raised half of an organization's operating costs. She was a very special lady, a lady I was proud to have known and to have had as a friend. What I miss the most are the beautiful notes and cards she sent me. She was an inspiration and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to know her.

Virginia was a wonderfully gracious lady, kind and generous, a lady of the very highest caliber. She was also a major financial architect of the Valley.

-Howard McCrady, former President, the Phoenix Symphony

In the fall of 1989, when I became president of the Phoenix Symphony, I had known the symphony was in bad shape financially, but it was in even worse shape than I thought. We created a million-dollar challenge grant, with Virginia agreeing to give a dollar for every dollar donated. Without the success of that challenge grant, without Virginia, I don't think we'd have made it. Virginia's generosity kept the symphony going for the entire 1990 season. Other symphonies, like San Diego, have gone bankrupt and then come back. If we'd once gone out, I don't think we would have ever come back, so we were very fortunate to have had Virginia's help. She was instrumental in helping us get grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Art Stabilization Fund. She helped the symphony survive and continued her support until her death in 1999.

Virginia loved the symphony and was at just about every concert. She always sat in a box on the left-hand side, often with her sister, Carol, and other guests. She also went to chamber concerts at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. She was very perceptive, would always ask questions, and I know the orchestra members all felt kindly toward her.

She was vibrant, a very gracious lady who had a special place in her heart for children's causes.

-Bob Mayfield, Developer

Since 1981, Mary and I were good neighbors of Virginia's, and it was an honor to have her live across the street from us. Mary was involved in Crisis Nursery, and I was involved in the Phoenix Boys Choir (PBC). When we solicited help for the Boys Choir Building project, Virginia jumped right in. She had a huge impact on the choir, and it is now one of the top two boys choirs in the United States.

When our son, Robert, now twenty-four, was a member of the choir some seventeen years ago, the boys had to earn their tuition by selling sweepstakes tickets. Every time Robert would go to Virginia's, she would always buy extra tickets. When the PBC wanted to buy land to house their own facility, Virginia became very instrumental in helping them succeed. The Virginia Piper Performing Center now stands at 12th Street and Missouri, a small performance venue with the right acoustics for boys' voices. Because of her major support, the PBC went from being a local group to a Grammy Award-winning, world-renowned choral group. The longevity of her gifts, the elevation of organizations because of her gifts, and the ongoing impact of her gifts is just phenomenal.

My philosophy is there are certain people you meet during life who influence you and make a great impact on what you are doing in life. Virginia Piper was one of my main influences.

-Dayton Grafman, Steinway Artist- in-Residence

My wife Laura and I both worked in Evanston, Illinois, for twenty-three years at National College of Education. Through Laura, I met Virginia. I was vice president and ran a small beginning concert series there in the theater, a sort of gymnasium/auditorium that would eventually be redone into a beautiful performing arts center with red plush seats and a Steinway grand piano. Virginia underwrote the talent after saying to me one day, "What kind of a program are you trying to do here?" I said I would like to bring in people like Itzhak Perlman, Mischa Dichter, Jeffrey Siegel, et cetera, and open up the North Shore. Virginia was always interested in the arts, so after hearing my answer, she sent me a check for $20,000 to start the series, accompanied by a note that said, "Go, get 'em!"

Laura and I moved to Arizona in 1976 after many trips to visit Virginia in her home. I took a job as vice president for development for the Phoenix Symphony and served on and off the symphony board from 1976 until the present time. I worked six years at Arizona State University in development; during that period, Virginia gave one million dollars for the Galvin Playhouse. She also helped me establish the Steinway Series at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. Since then, we've named the series for her and are going into our nineteenth year. She never missed one of the concerts and personally met each artist.

Virginia had something of the artist in her that was never fully developed; she definitely made her own life a work of art, and her ability to positively affect hundreds if not thousands of people is just stunning.