Doree Hickman and her late husband Jerry started attending classical music concerts in Boulder because of a love of music and for the social connections.
Before they knew it, they had gained a whole new family.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been the relationships. They鈥檝e been amazing.鈥�
Hickman, a longtime member of the College of Music advisory board, says it was that sense of community that led her to join the call for capital gifts to the music+ campaign in 2018. In her husband鈥檚 memory, she named the Hickman Piano Faculty Studio.
鈥淚鈥檇 been on the advisory board for a while, and for the past 10 years, facilities have always come up as needing improvement. So this seemed like the perfect way to help a good cause.鈥�
CU Boulder graduate Hickman has nurtured a love of music all her life, but though she grew up playing piano and saxophone, it wasn鈥檛 music that brought her to the university after she graduated from high school in Mount Morris, Illinois.
鈥淚 majored in zoology and chemistry,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 met Jerry when he and I were both students here. He was in the marching band while he majored in zoology.鈥�
When Doree and Jerry got married, they moved to the East Coast for a few years, first to Philadelphia, where she worked in a hospital lab and he had a hospital internship, and later to Rhode Island while Jerry served in the Navy. Their son, Grant, was born in 1967 in Newport; a couple of years later, the family returned to Colorado, where Jerry eventually settled in as a practitioner at Table Mesa Family Medicine for 43 years.听
Starting in the 1980s, the Hickmans began frequenting the Colorado Music Festival and other local music gatherings, eventually meeting the friends who would encourage them to attend Tak谩cs Quartet concerts and participate in the College of Music鈥檚 Adopt-a-Student Program. They also kicked off a passion project that led Hickman to a whole new career.
鈥淲e built our house from the ground up in Boulder, working on it every day,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e laid 11,000 pavers and did everything right down to the painting. We got the house we wanted, and I ended up going into kitchen design, which I did for more than 30 years.鈥�
Hickman says Boulder has changed a lot since the family bought their land and built their home for a combined $150,000, but one thing has remained a constant for her.听
鈥淚t goes back to the relationships. After we started going to CMF, Jerry served on the board for a few years, and then I joined in the 鈥�90s. We loved the social aspect of attending concerts and pre-concert picnics with those folks.鈥�
Hickman鈥檚 son Grant still lives in the Boulder area with his family. But thanks to her musical connections, she says she鈥檚 gained two more children, so to speak.
鈥淸笔颈补苍颈蝉迟闭 came and stayed with us when he was a guest artist at the Conference on World Affairs years ago. He鈥檚 come back a couple of times and we developed a close relationship. Now he calls me his Colorado mom,鈥� she laughs.
鈥淭he other was [singer-songwriter] ,鈥� Hickman continues. 鈥淲e housed him as a guest artist and got close with him, too. In fact, I just got an email from him this morning.鈥�
And nearly 30 years after joining the College of Music鈥檚 extended family, Hickman says her friends here were a lifeline for her when Jerry passed away in 2018.
鈥淓veryone was so amazing and supportive,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淭hey knew it was hard for me to come back and go to concerts, but they were right there, sitting with me. So I stayed involved because of them.
鈥淭he College of Music did a memorial celebration concert in Grusin. It was all music and stories about Jerry. I couldn鈥檛 have asked for better.鈥澨�
So it鈥檚 only fitting, she says, to return that kindness while she can.
鈥淎fter Jerry passed away, I didn鈥檛 want to put any money in the stock market or real estate, and we had already left money to the college and CU in our estate planning. So when this opportunity came around to raise the money for a new building, I thought there was no better place for that money to go.
鈥淢usic is good for the soul. It lifts you and makes you feel good. It鈥檚 an important part of life. The same goes for the arts in general. We鈥檝e always enjoyed it. And it was an enjoyment we shared with each other and with so many other people in our lives.鈥�
To read more about the gifts given as part of the College of Music鈥檚 2018 capital campaign, visit the music+ impact story archive.
