“Wilford Lee Stapp, who donated his own time and money to help establish a classical music station in San Antonio—and is credited with almost single-handedly saving the San Antonio Symphony in the late 1980s—died Nov. 28 at 97,” writes Mary Mills Heidbrink in Sunday’s (12/6) San Antonio Express-News (Texas). “Stapp, along with a small group of classical music enthusiasts, worked tirelessly for five years to put radio station KPAC-FM on the air, finally succeeding in November 1982…. His involvement with the San Antonio Symphony started when it canceled its 1987-88 season because of financial woes.… His daughter [Betty Phillips] said, ‘He got together three friends … and got it going’ by forming Orchestra San Antonio Inc. ‘He came up with $10,000, got (the symphony) back on its feet,’ a friend, Beryl Lamm, recalled…. Stapp also served as the nonprofit’s CEO…. Stapp’s interest in music started in childhood, as the youngest son of Baptist missionaries living in Brazil…. Although he had considered becoming a singer, Stapp ultimately decided to study geology.… He married in 1948 and lived in Abilene, where he and his wife adopted four orphaned siblings. The family eventually moved to San Antonio.”
Posted December 10, 2015
