Mansfield University Home PageAlumni Couple Donate Steinway Piano to Music Department
October 22, 2009
MANSFIELD, PA— “This piano will go on for many, many years and I hope you will enjoy it and it will last and 
be a part of you.” With those words Marcella Hyde-Smith dedicated the news Steinway piano she and her husband Al Smith donated to the Mansfield University Music Department in the memory of her late first husband, John Hyde.
MU music students, faculty and administrators gathered in the Butler Music Center for the ceremony on Thursday, October 22.
A longtime benefactor of Mansfield, Hyde-Smith is a 1956 graduate who serves on the Mansfield University Foundation Board of Directors. She is also a former member of the Council of Trustees and the Alumni Association Board of Directors. John Hyde was a 1947 graduate. After his passing, she married Al Smith, a member of the Class of 1949. They reside in Canton, PA.
Pointing out that Marcella and Al have also endowed a scholarship fund, MU President Maravene Loeschke told the students gathered that, “Both of these individuals do nothing but give and give and give because they love you, they respect you and they are more than proud of who you are.”
After hearing Tyler Wetherbee, a music major from Wellsboro, PA perform the last movement of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonato (Op. 57) on the new Steinway, Hyde-Smith applauded and said, “I hope I get to hear it many more times.”
Hanako Henty, a music major from Towanda, PA, read her essay on what the piano means to her as part of the ceremony.
The donation is part of Mansfield’s initiative to become an “All-Steinway School.” The program calls for Mansfield be equipped with more than 70 Steinway or Steinway-made pianos maintained by a full-time technician, certified by Steinway and Sons.
For more information on the initiative, contact Rebecca Bair, director of Development at (570) 662-4294 or rbair@mansfield.edu
