The Story of Grady and Dixie

Grady Gammage was the long time President of NAU prior to becoming the President of Arizona State College up until 1958 when he led a campaign to change the name to Arizona State University.  His wife, Dixie, was a former pupil of Grady's (the old dog) and very active in the development of Arizona State College prior to her death in 1948.

Dixie Gammage Hall on the campus of ASU was named in her honor.

Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium was named his honor for his work in getting ASU to full University status.  Gammage Auditorium is famous for being the last public commission of Frank Lloyd Wright.  It had a reputation of having some of the best acoustics of any performance hall of its time.

Back in April of 1994, my wife and I were at her parents house, for what reason, I don't recall.  Our friends, Caryn and Joel, stopped by after work and brought with them two kittens.  They worked for ASU Parking and were handing an event at Gammage Auditorium when the kittens wandered out into traffic.  Caryn picked them up and held them draped over her arm while she continued to direct traffic.

I had never had cats and really wasn't that interested, but my wife had cats and she wanted to keep them.  I said that maybe we will keep one of them.  Yeah, right.  Anyway, they were obviously inseparable and so we named them Grady and Dixie.  Grady was all black with three white socks and Dixie was patterned like a Holstein cow.

Grady and Dixie were our first children.  Then came Sparky, a Cairn Terrier/Pug mix, followed by a third cat, Hazel (who is now 14).  We then had real kids, Isaak and Emma, followed by another dog, Gaby.  Gaby was an adopted 10-year old Chocolate Lab.  Sparky and Gaby have since passed on.

Grady passed on about 5 years ago, and Dixie passed on last Friday.  She was 16 1/2 years sold.  This time, Dixie outlived Grady.  I can't find any e-pictures of Grady, but here are Hazel and Dixie.