Page 24 - Priorities #55 2013-March/April

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Seen here in his home recording studio, Ray has pulled together a band called Up to the Right, which includes son Nathaniel (class of ‘08).
and he sees the dearth in means for artists as an impediment toward progress. “[Art is] what leads our society,” he says. “[We need] people thinking out of the box.”
Rothrock started combining his love for the arts with his entrepreneurial prowess at a young age. When he attended Texas A&M University in the 1970s, it had just opened its doors to civilian students like himself, and only Core of Cadets had the opportunity to play music. So Rothrock, along with a
group of other civilian students, formed the Texas A&M Symphonic Band, which still exists today. “We had to get permits. We had to find a director. It was very entrepreneurial,” he says.
He then returned in the late 90s to
implement an even bigger idea. “As a
venture capitalist, I found myself with a
little bit of wealth and an opportunity to go
back to Texas A&M and change it again,”
he says. The university did not have an
undergrad music degree program for
civilian students. Rothrock offered to fund a chair for the department, on the condition that the school would create a degree program in music, and the administration rose to the challenge. Rothrock also helped raise money for a new College of Liberal Arts Building that will open this spring, to offer practice and performance space for music students.
Another reason that Rothrock is such a strong supporter of arts for youth is because his son, Nathaniel, is also an artist; the Woodside Priory alumni recently graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont with degrees in music and theater. The father
and son have even formed their own 4-person band called Up and to the Right, which will be performing at the Great American Music Hall in May. “I play base and he plays lead guitar and sings,” says Rothrock. “He’s got a hell of a voice. It’s a blast.”
Rothrock finds it easy to support an institution like Priory because his values as a venture capitalist have a lot of crossover with Benedictine values. Like the Benedictines, Rothrock believes
in the power, enthusiasm and endless imagination of youth, the importance of education, and the development of fresh ideas. Benedictines, he says, are committed to innovation. “Every Benedictine has a craft and they take what they learn [from their teachers] and improve upon it. They are always asking the question, ‘Can this be done better? Can this fit into the world better? Is it easier on the environment to do things this way?”
Also, like the Benedictines, Rothrock believes we are only borrowing this time and place, and that it is our duty to leave it better than when we arrived. In line with this idea, he recalls a fundraising speech he gave one night at the Priory, in the middle of the campaign for the new Performing Arts Center. “In my business, you always want your companies to grow,” he says. “If you think of a chart, where time is on the X axis and revenue is on the Y axis, that curve should always be ‘up and to the right’. That expression has since become something of a moniker at Priory, and it’s even what I named our band. That’s what all of this philanthropy is about—so that, for the kids, things
will be ‘up and to the right’.”
“
[We need] people thinking out of
the box.
”