Jack I. & Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Piano
Jack Hamlin has always loved music and while in high school he took lessons on the cornet and the piano. When it came time for college, Jack intended to complete a music degree at Northwestern with the music scholarship he had been offered. That changed when his teacher that summer suggested that Jack "forget music and go to business school."
What a great piece of advice that was. Jack did, indeed, attend the IU School of Business, but he also played first chair cornet in the Marching Hundred and was ROTC band captain while completing his business degree. Jack, and his wife Dora, whom he met while at IU, think that was the best of both worlds.
When Hack graduated in 1943, his entire class at the School of Business left together to serve in World War II. Since they had training in business, the whole group was assigned to the Quartetmaster Corps. Jack stayed in the military, eventually serving in both Korea and Vietnam, retiring as a Colonel in 1969. He completed an MBA at Ohio State University while in the service. Following military retirement, Jack spent several years as the vice president for personnel for Peoples Drug Stores. All the while, Jack enjoyed the piano and his music.
Throughout their married life Dora has been heavily involved with the art of handmade quilts. She is a well-known quilt appraiser and has arranged for the purchase of quilts by the While House and the State Department as well as by well known individual collectors. She is presently the quilt buyer for Liberty of London and has presented quilts at decorator show houses for both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony.
In 1993 the Hamlin's created a charitable remainder unitrust ("CRUT") to support the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Chair in Piano at the IU School of Music. To further support the Chair, they recently completed a charitable gift annuity ("CGA"). Payments from both the CRUT and the CGA will go to Jack and Dora for their lives. The CRUT also has a beneficiary provision that allows their daughter, Christie, to receive income for her life as well. The remainder of both these gift instruments will then provide generous support for the School of Music.
Acclaimed pianist André Watts now sits in the Hamlin Chair. It is through the support of people like the Hamlins that the Jacobs School of Music can bring the finest teachers in the world to Bloomington. We are blessed by their support.