Broadcasting Their Support
Vanguard, Fall 2007
Dixie Arnold, a longtime educator in Orange County, and Ed Arnold, former sportscaster for channels 5 and 7 in Los Angeles and now host of The Hour of Power, have become generous supporters of Vanguard. In the past four years they have created an endowed scholarship, given significant gifts to the theatre and music departments, and are lending their years of experience to the University’s academic mission.
“We like to find a need and fill it,” says Dixie. “I’m a real ‘yes’ person. When people ask for something, I ask, why not? I always try to help, and usually I find I can do it.” Dixie retired from 38 years in public education as a teacher and an administrator in 2003, but still “had a fire in my heart for teaching students and people.” When VU president Murray Dempster invited her to consider teaching at Vanguard, she immediately felt it was the right place to continue her career.
"It was like God said, ‘Vanguard is where you belong,’” she says. She started as an adjunct professor and now chairs the liberal studies department. She teaches future and present teachers and has helped shape the core curriculum. “I have a passion in my heart to give as much as I can,” she says. “I’m able to pass on all the experience I’ve had to my students, and I love it.” The Arnolds started an endowed scholarship, the Dixie Arnold Scholarship, to help a liberal studies student every year. Then they decided to give $100,000 to help fund a new theatre lobby for Vanguard’s nationally recognized theatre department and its Lyceum Theatre.
“What talent and skill these theatre students show!” says Dixie. “We tell anyone in the community what a great thing the theatre program is. We want the theatre to be constantly filled.”
Their gift to the Lyceum Theatre is part of an overall fundraising program for a new lobby and improvements to the theatre itself, including the construction of a green room and offices. The Arnolds also gave $50,000 to the music department, for the new music and concert hall facility, and they traveled on a Vanguard tour to New York City in 2006 to see the choirs perform at Carnegie Hall.
“The trip was absolutely fantastic,” said Ed after the trip. “What excited me most was to see the students of Vanguard in New York and performing not only at Carnegie, where I had goose bumps, but at St. Paul’s Chapel. It was so special. They are wonderful repre-sentatives of Vanguard. I’ve never been as touched as I have been by the students at Vanguard. The whole experience is one we’ll always remember.”
In January, Ed will celebrate his fifty-fourth year in broadcasting, a career that began at a radio station in Texarkana when he was 14. He came to California as a Marine, met and married Dixie and became a sportscaster at channel 5, then channel 7. Today he co-hosts the news magazine Real Orange nightly at 6:30 on KOCE (PBS). The Radio and Television News Association of Southern California honored Ed with the Lifetime Achievement Award in January 2007 for his work on the air and his community involvement.
The Arnolds attend as many VU events as they can, from Christmas Fantasia to sports events. “We try to be involved as much as possible,” Dixie says. They also belong to the President’s Medallion Club, helping to support student scholarships.
“Getting to know the people here at Vanguard, you see the words of the University’s mission come alive,” says Dixie.
“This is a valuable place. The money we give is put to good use. The faculty and staff in every department are so committed to students and learning, and all of what Vanguard stands for. I wish we could fill the needs in all of the departments. It’s a wonderful institution to give your resources to, to help make it successful.”