Inaugural gala celebrates former La Sierra president, wife with Broadway-style tribute

11/03/2023 Darla Martin Tucker

Business school’s Lifetime Achievement Award event raises $200k for endowment

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – It was a sold-out show at the Riverside Convention Center on Oct. 26, a theatrical, Broadway-style recognition that honored the servant-leadership and lifelong contributions of a former La Sierra University president and his wife, while raising funds for a new endowment benefitting students.

The idea took root more than a year ago as a desire to officially recognize La Sierra University’s second president and Middle East archaeologist Larry Geraty and his wife, Gillian for their extensive and continuing contributions to the university, to Seventh-day Adventist education, the Riverside community and to societies around the world in which they have lived and worked for decades. John Thomas, dean of La Sierra’s Zapara School of Business initiated and co-produced the event along with Kristine Barker, Advancement Communications Director who wrote the script for the evening’s show. Hollywood screenwriter, producer and director Ryan Dixon served as director and creative consultant with stage management by La Sierra alumnus Shane Wood.

The debut of the Zapara School of Business Lifetime Achievement Award Gala attracted upwards of 700 attendees with around $200,000 in proceeds from sponsorships and ticket sales seeding a new endowment that will fund student scholarships and activities at the business school. The evening’s theatrical tribute titled “A Life Worth Living” spotlighted key moments of the Geratys’ lives starting with Larry Geraty’s beginnings as a missionary child in China and extending into both of the Geratys’ youthful days in Lebanon and England followed by their lives in the United States, Larry Geraty’s noted archaeological career, and the couples’ professional and community contributions including Larry Geraty’s leadership of the former Atlantic Union College and of La Sierra University.

Through the lens of Barker’s play led by professional actors Tayler Mettra, Davitt Felder and voice-over actress Merritt Hicks and accented by cultural and artistic dance and vocal performances, the audience was transported along an imaginative journey set in a futuristic archaeological excavation of La Sierra’s campus 2,000 years in the future. The production opened with a performance by the Riverside Community College Dance ensemble dressed in khaki attire depicting an archaeological dig against a backdrop that transported viewers inside of an excavation site.

Mettra and Felder who respectively played the roles of Nova Quinn, a 22-year-old La Sierra business major and La Sierra archaeology professor Dr. Cassian Var are intermittently transported through time by IRIS 4000, a teleportation machine and high-tech artifacts scanner voiced by Hicks. They are zapped into various locales inhabited by the Geratys during pivotal life scenarios such as their elementary school days in Beirut, Lebanon where they first met. The time transports occur as Quinn asks questions about the Geratys after unearthing their Lifetime Achievement Award at the futuristic dig site. Along the way, IRIS’s analysis of artifacts results in data and photos from the Geratys’ lives displayed on a large backdrop screen on stage.

Throughout the dialogue, peppered with comically robotic quips from IRIS, the audiences learns interesting facts about the Geratys’ lives, for instance, at age four while his family was missionaries in China, Larry Geraty was appointed to participate in the wedding of the Chinese prime minister’s daughter by holding the train of her long veil; that Gillian Geraty’s father founded Middle East College in 1939 after her family arrived in Beirut as missionaries from England, and Larry’s father later served as the college’s president.

The play spotlighted the couple’s storied courtship and its heart-tugging beginnings from the moment the two first met in Beirut as elementary classmates to the unfolding drama of a college dating relationship in England sparked through Larry Geraty’s determination and faith in the face of myriad hurdles.

Artistic representations of the varied cultures the Geratys encountered during their lives were performed by an ensemble from the Loma Linda Chinese SDA Church who performed a Lion Dance in the tradition of Guangdong, China, and by the Sa’id Music and Dance Company who performed a Lebanese Debkah dance in celebration of the Geratys’ early friendship in Beirut. RCC Dance also performed routines depicting the Geraty’s early lives as a married couple and young parents in the United States and later during their years leading La Sierra and participating in Riverside’s community life along with the city’s three other higher education institutions.

Vocal tributes were presented at different moments by La Sierra University alumni Andrew Leon and Kaitlyn Mamora who performed a duet, and by La Sierra University pre-med and vocal music performance major Tashyanna Samyah who gave the concluding performance.

“Through their examples, their insights and their relationships, the Geratys have truly made a difference." -- John Thomas, Dean, Zapara School of Business

Following the performance’s finale, Thomas gave a brief presentation and with several prominent university, city and regional leaders on stage, called Larry and Gillian Geraty to receive the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Zapara School of Business.

“The Geratys are global citizens who have touched not only our city and region but also the world. Theirs has been a lifetime of generous service to church, community and the world, of commitment to a mission of spiritual, intellectual and social engagement,” Thomas said. “Through their examples, their insights and their relationships, the Geratys have truly made a difference. Tonight we celebrate these exceptional people. At this event, we are inaugurating a lifetime achievement award that will be named in honor of Larry and Gillian whenever it is presented to others who like them, are outstanding campus and community leaders.”

As the audience erupted in applause and a standing ovation, the Geratys walked on stage to receive the award. Leading into an acceptance speech, Larry Geraty, in a candid moment unplanned in his original remarks, called the audience’s attention to ongoing violence suffered by civilians in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. He noted that he and his wife and along with in-laws Richard Osborn and Norma Osborn, Gillian Geraty’s sister, all initially met in Lebanon, and that he and Gillian, in connection with their professional work, had lived for extended periods in Israel, Palestine and Jordan.

“What has happened and what is happening to innocents in that part of the world is inhuman and cannot be ignored,” Geraty said, as the audience applauded. He asked the audience to hold a moment of silence “for the innocent lives involved in this current conflict. Consider the difference between what they are suffering and the ease and freedom we're experiencing here this evening. What can you and I do?” he said.

He continued with remarks on the evening’s production and recognition. “We've been blown away and even moved by your presence and the creativity of those who have taken part tonight,” Geraty said. “I'm reminded of what Michael J. Fox said on a similar occasion – ‘effort brings reward, but the rewards are better when they're not for you.’ Thanks for being here and sharing them with us.”

“We've been blown away and moved by your presence." -- Dr. Larry Geraty, La Sierra University President Emeritus

He noted his and Gillian’s arrival to Riverside 30 years ago “just as it entered what we consider its renaissance,” he said. Geraty named numerous civic and higher education leaders with whom he became acquainted, many of who provided guidance and mentorship as he navigated a new town and region. He cited the many Riverside civic groups with which he became involved and his work with business leaders and other members of the La Sierra University Foundation Board which he initiated as president.

He specifically noted the late Art Pick, former chief executive of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce and an early mentor who became the first non-Seventh-day Adventist to serve as a university trustee; and the support and mentorship of Jim Erickson, vice chancellor emeritus at the University of California, Riverside and retired director of the Center for Philanthropy at the Zapara School of Business. “I've learned so much from all of you,” Geraty said.

Geraty also cited the numerous individuals who assisted his presidency at La Sierra University between 1993 and 2007, as well as La Sierra’s archaeologists with whom he has worked for many years in the Middle East; business school dean Thomas, Barker, and the team that produced the gala. “But especially to Gillian, as you've heard, has been my best counselor and loyal critic now for more than 72 years, including 61 years of marriage,” Geraty said, turning to his wife.

Following the gala, attendees commented on the evening’s production and the significance of its award.

“I've been to a lot of La Sierra nights over the last almost 30 years,” said Dan Smith, former senior pastor of the La Sierra University Church who led the congregation during Larry Geraty’s university presidency. “Just an amazing, amazing night. Creative, in great taste, gorgeous pictures that were exactly right that epitomized those areas of Larry's life, for one of the great human beings I've ever been around.”

He recalled the close working relationship he experienced with Geraty and also Sam Leonor, former La Sierra campus chaplain. “I had his private number I could call at midnight, I'd see his light on,” Smith said of Geraty. “We were always of the same vision. His wonderful open-minded, take-on-any-issue, embracing university, still a committed Christian, committed Adventist, and Larry and I and Sam were absolutely together on that.”

Richard Osborn, La Sierra University’s interim president and brother-in-law to the Geratys compared the evening’s unique tribute to professional theatrical productions he has attended.

"My wife Norma and I have attended many Broadway plays in New York City and when we lived in San Francisco enjoyed performances by the American Conservatory Theater,” he said. “Last Thursday's gala exceeded what we have experienced in these professional venues in the combination of drama, music, cultural dance, and acting plus a large screen.

“Why did it exceed these other venues? I know I'm biased because my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Larry and Gillian Geraty, were being honored and no one is more deserving,” Osborn continued. His wife Norma and Gillian Geraty are sisters. “The gala also brought the community together which was always one of Larry’s emphases as a president. Just as importantly, the event raised significant funds for an endowment which will reap benefits for students in upcoming years. Congratulations to Dean John Thomas and to Kristine Barker and others for conceiving and implementing this special honor from the Zapara School of Business."

“The thing that sets him apart is his commitment to community." -- Cindy Roth, President, CGR Strategies LLC

“The thing that sets him apart is his commitment to community,” said Cindy Roth, president of CGR Strategies LLC. She previously served as president and chief executive officer of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce between 1999 and 2022 and worked with Geraty during his years of involvement as a chamber board director which began during Pick’s tenure. Geraty served as board chair in 2006 and in 2007 the chamber named Geraty its Citizen of the Year.

“He made it a point to reach out and get involved,” Roth said. “He set the tone for any CEO or higher education president and really built the identity of the campus within the community. He set the bar high and continues to be fully engaged.”

Roth’s husband, California State Senator Richard Roth together with State Assembly Member Sabrina Cervantes provided a state resolution commending the Geratys for their lives of community and educational leadership. An additional congressional recognition from Congressman Mark Takano was also provided and displayed at the gala along with the state resolution.

“Larry is one of the most amazing people that I’ve ever run into,” said La Sierra University 1974 alumnus Eric Neilson following the gala. “He’s just a wonderful person and very, very deserving of this kind of award.” Of the artistic production he commented, “I thought it was very fun, very interesting, and very well done.”

A table of attendees hailed from the Atlantic Union Conference and the former Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Mass. over which Larry Geraty presided from 1985 – 1993. Cynthia Huskins, director of development and stewardship for the Atlantic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists attended the Oct. 26 gala on behalf of the conference and its former college that is situated next door to her office.

“Knowing that the Geratys have served the Atlantic Union prior to coming to La Sierra, and I know that we have a large alumni base here in Southern California, I wanted to come out and try to make some connections and let people know about what's happening there, but also to celebrate the life of the Geratys,” Huskins said. Her son who is a senior at La Sierra University attended the gala with her. “He was just incredibly inspired by, as was I, the Geraty story and their commitment to education, and how they impact the lives around them,” she said.

Huskins noted that Atlantic Union College, which closed twice in 2011 and 2018, is entering into partnerships with sister colleges within the denomination “to offer classes again at Atlantic Union and have a hub of education in the Northeast. We’re looking forward to bringing life back to the campus, if not fall of ‘24 then spring of ‘25.”

Comments about the Lifetime Achievement Award Gala also appeared on albums of photos on the university’s Facebook page, testifying to the gala’s uniqueness. Wrote alumnus Judi Walcker Gillespie, “This was the most impressive La Sierra University event I have ever attended in 60 years.”