Happy Trails

We attended Frank Underwood’s retirement party last night. If you don’t know of him, Frank has been the President of Grantmaker Consultants, Inc. for something like twenty-five years and is a leading force in Tacoma’s philanthropy and arts circles. The invite list for the event created a cast of characters with the potential for drama in grand Shakespearean style. There were about one hundred and fifty people at the party. Let’s back up. What happened at the Broadway Center last week? The News Tribune’s story story gives a decent play-by-play:

City Manager Eric Anderson announced he was naming city employee Josie Turner the Acting Executive Director of the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, the not-for-profit organization that historically has managed the theaters.

In response, longtime Broadway Center Executive Director Eli Ashley, who had announced in late July he planned to stay on until the end of the year, resigned effective immediately.

Anderson had given Ashley the option of remaining as an advisor until Dec. 31, but Ashley declined.

A few days later a letter is published by the News Tribune saying that, “Anderson acted with arrogance and disregard”. That letter was signed by a Mr. Frank Underwood. So we step forward a week and…

Eric Anderson, the Tacoma City Manager attended at the party last night. Josie Turner, the new Acting Executive Director for the Broadway Center was expected to attend. And Eli Ashley was the Master of Ceremony. The whole party was for Frank Underwood. The ingredients for some serious tension were there and a few people had made comments beforehand expressing concern.

In the end the event was a very civilized and very well done affair. I never saw Josie Turner and, from what I hear, Eric Anderson made a very brief appearance. The rest of the party seemed to go over well and the twelve minute tribute film presented for Frank was quite amazing. There were more than a few tears in the room as Frank bid adieu and the crowd sang Happy Trails to close the dinner.