The Lenna Fund for the Performing Arts underwrites tonight’s Music School Festival Orchestra performance with Timothy Muffitt.
Prior to his retirement, Reginald Lenna served as president, CEO and treasurer of Blackstone Corporation of Jamestown, New York. He also was a director of Blackstone, Sweden, A.B., and president of Blackstone Industrial Products, Stratford, Ontario, and of Blackstone Ultrasonics, Sheffield, Pennsylvania. He served as a director of the Business Council of New York State, Unigard Insurance of Seattle, Washington, and KeyBank of Western New York, Jamestown.
In 1976, he was knighted by the king of Sweden, Royal Order of the North Star and received an honorary doctorate in 1981 from St. Bonaventure University. He received a 1975 Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He was active in several local organizations, including the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County, the United Jewish Appeal and the Jamestown YMCA. He was a former trustee of St. Bonaventure University and a director of the
Lenna Foundation.
Elizabeth “Betty” Lenna was a member of the Chautauqua Institution Board of Trustees. As a trustee, she was chairperson of the nominating and finance committees and a member of the planning and executive committees and the extended programming task force. After her service on the board ended, Betty Lenna continued to serve Chautauqua as a community member of the Development Council. She was a director of the Lenna Foundation and of the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and trustee of the T. James and Hazel C. Clarke Trust. She was a director of Blackstone Corporation and a member of the advisory board for Marine Midland Bank.
Betty Lenna was a president of The Creche of Jamestown and a member of the WCA Hospital Board of Directors in Jamestown. She was on the board and a major benefactor of the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown. Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Chautauqua’s renowned recital and rehearsal hall, was a gift from the Lennas, who provided sole funding for the facility and its ongoing maintenance needs. Lenna Hall was completed in 1993 and dedicated in July of that year. The Lennas also provided a generous donation in 1988 to create the Main Gate Welcome Center.
If you would be interested in discussing the possibility of establishing an endowment to support the MSFO or another aspect of Chautauqua’s program, please contact Dustin Nelson, director of gift planning, at 716-357-6409 or email him at dnelson@chq.org.
