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10 | October 10, 2019 | The highland park landmark NEWS
hplandmarkdaily.com
In Memoriam
HP resident remembered for contributions to the arts
4
Alan P. Henry
Freelance Reporter
Investment banker and
philanthropist Stanley
Freehling, who died Sept.
20, 2019 at age 95, played
major roles in burnishing
the reputations and energizing
the fundraising
efforts of the Goodman
Theatre, the Art Institute
of Chicago, the Arts Club
of Chicago and many other
of the city’s iconic cultural
landmarks. And yet, he
once proudly proclaimed:
“Ravinia is my first love in
the world of arts.”
“Stan Freehling was
tremendously important
to culture institutions all
over Chicago, but he was
known as `Mr. Ravinia’ for
good reason,” said Nick
Pullia, Director of Communications
for Ravinia.
“An early booster of the
festival, Stan courted his
wife, Joan, at Ravinia, and
they made their lifelong
home in Highland Park
just to be near the venue
they loved. So much of
what Ravinia is today was
made possible by Stan. He
was admired and respected
by everyone in the Ravinia
Family, but more than that,
he was loved.”
Much of that love will be
on display at a public memorial
service for Freehling
to be held 11 a.m. Oct.
11 at Bennett Gordon Hall
at Ravinia Festival, with
parking in the South Priority
Parking Lot.
Freehling joined the
Ravinia Festival Board of
Trustees in 1959 and in
1968, at age 44, became
the youngest person ever
to be named chairman of
Ravinia. A resident of
Highland Park since 1951,
he hired the highly regarded
Edward Gordon as arts
administrator with orders
to help “turn this organization
around,” with an eye
toward creating a facility
that could more comfortably
attract classical and
popular acts.
In 1969, having taken
notes of improvements he
wanted to make, he started
a capital campaign to rebuild
Ravinia and set a
goal $2.2 million for improvements
and a reserve
fund for operations. When
the doors opened in 1970,
Ravinia had a wider stage,
an enlarged orchestra pit,
a new sound system, and
a new dressing room and
locker rooms.
Before leaving the board
in 1971, Freehling recruited
Marion Lloyd to
become the first woman
to become the chair of a
major cultural institution
in Chicago. He also established
an endowment fund
for the organization and,
along with fellow Life
Trustee Richard Hunt, introduced
sculpture to the
Ravinia landscape.
“When anyone thinks of
Ravinia’s start, they think
of Stan,” Zarin Mehta,
former longtime head of
Ravinia Festival, famously
said.
Freehling attended the
University of Chicago and
received his BA from the
University of Stockholm.
For decades he was a Senior
Partner with Freehling
and Company, a NYSE
firm on LaSalle Street. He
served as a Life Trustee of
the University of Chicago,
a trustee of Northwestern
Memorial Hospital, the
John G. Shedd Aquarium,
Lake Forest College and
the Chicago Public Library.
His greatest passion,
however, was for the arts,
and his decades of networking
among individuals,
civic organizations
and corporations raised
tens of millions for that
cause. In addition to serving
as Chairman of Ravinia,
he was President of
the Arts Club of Chicago
for 25 years, board member
of the Art Institute
for over 50 years, a Life
Trustee of the Art Institute
of Chicago and Chairman
of the Sustaining Fellows
of the Art Institute, and as
a trustee of the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra and
Hubbard Street Dance
Company. He also served
as the chairman of the Illinois
Arts Council, as a
member of the Chicago
Theatre Group, the National
Corporate Theatre Fund,
and Sadler’s Wells Theatre
Association in London. In
1985, Ronald Reagan appointed
Freehling to the
President’s Committee on
the Arts and Humanities.
Sometimes referred to as
“Chicago’s Patron Saint
of the Arts,” Freehling was
recipient of many honors
and awards within the cultural
community.
His association with the
Art Institute of Chicago
began in 1950 when he
was in an executive training
program with First
National Bank of Chicago
and volunteered to serve as
treasurer. Over the years,
he and his wife Joan donated
hundreds of pieces
of art across multiple categories
to the permanent
collection. In 2008, the Art
Institute honored his devotion
to works on paper
with a special exhibition.
He also served on many
boards and committees,
and routinely aided the
museum in many fundraising
efforts as it broadened
its scope and holdings, including
the opening of the
contemporary galleries in
1997.
Since 1916, The Arts
Club of Chicago has been
a preeminent exhibitor
of international art and a
forum for established and
emerging artists. In 1989,
during his tenure as club
president, Freehling coordinated
the sale of its Constantin
Brancusi “Golden
Bird’ to the Art Institute
for $12.5 million. The sale
allowed the financially
troubled club to move to
its current home on Ontario
Street and secure its
solvency.
Upon this death, and the
death in August of former
president Marilyn Alsdorf,
the club praised them for
guiding the club’s institutional
and artistic vision
and serving many cultural
institutions throughout the
city of Chicago “with generous
and fearless patronage
to keep the city on the
cutting edge.”
Starting in 1962, Freehling
began serving on the
committee that governed
the Goodman Theater,
which had a financially
ailing drama school. In the
1970s, he helped orchestrate
the sale of the school
and launched a fundraising
campaign to make the
Goodman a self-governed
institution.
Following Freehling’s
death, Goodman Theatre
executive director Roche
Schulfer wrote this to his
board of directors: “I think,
and I hope Stan would
agree, that his greatest
achievement was saving
Goodman Theatre from
extinction and setting it on
Stanley Freehling was a Highland Park resident and a
patron of the arts, including Ravinia Festival, where he
was named the chairman in 1968. Photo submitted
the road to local, national
and international recognition
as a leading American
theater and major Chicago
cultural institution. There
is no question that Goodman
Theatre would not exist
today if it were not for
Stan Freehling.”
Among Freehling’s
other marks on the city’s
cultural landscape, he was
instrumental in pushing
for and securing funding
for public art in the city,
including the Miro and
Dubuffet sculptures. During
his tenure as chair of
the lllinois Arts Council,
he also successfully lobbied
for increased state
funding of arts programming
and art purchases.
Freehling is survived by
children Maggie Freehling
Phillips, Elizabeth
(Debbie) Weidner, Robert
Freehling, and Dominique
Parducci, and sons-in-law,
Joseph Weidner and Scott
Phillips. He also leaves
behind five grandchildren,
Benjamin Weidner,
Sam Phillips, Max Phillips,
Rosalind Parducci,
Daniel Freehling and a
great grandchild, Noah
Freehling; sister-in-law
Caryl Freehling, nephews
Jim and Tom Freehling,
and niece Julie Frodl. He
is predeceased by his two
brothers, Julius and Herbert,
and wife Joan, who
died in 2011 after 64 years
of marriage.