Sarah Pye
Associate Editor
“Charming.” “Warm and giving.” “A wonderful role model.”
These are the words used to describe celebrated Broadway performer John Raitt by those on the Pepperdine campus who were privileged to count him as a close friend. The long-time friend and benefactor of the university died Sunday in his Pacific Palisades home of complications from pneumonia. He was 88.
A star of the musical stage and screen, Raitt performed leading roles in many Broadway hits. Cast as Curly in the national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!,” his rendition of the title song gained him widespread notoriety. Raitt later appeared on Broadway as Sleep Tite Pajama Factory superintendent Sid Sorokin in “The Pajama Game” and carnival operator Billy Bigelow in “Carousel.”
Raitt’s connection to Pepperdine began about 20 years ago when, after many years apart, he and high school sweetheart Rosemary wed in a ceremony officiated by Pepperdine Chancellor Charles Runnels.
Runnels remembers that Rosemary, a Malibu resident and one of the first women to become a member of Pepperdine’s Board of Regents, told her future husband she would only marry him if Runnels performed the ceremony. Luckily, Runnels was willing, and now says John and Rosemary have always been “wonderful friends” to him.
Looking back on his friendship with Raitt, Runnels said there is a certain song that has, in a way, played the role of soundtrack to their visits.
“John knew my favorite song was ‘Dream the Impossible Dream’ (from the musical ‘Man of La Mancha’),” Runnels said. “So anytime John was with me on campus, he would sing it for me.
“Now, when I think about John Raitt I think about the ‘Impossible Dream’ because he really was a dreamer,” Runnels said.
In 1991, John and Rosemary Raitt served as the founding chairpersons of Pepperdine’s Center for the Arts Guild, which helps raise money for the CFA’s community outreach programs. Because of his life-long commitment to musical theatre, Raitt also donated the Raitt Recital Hall to Pepperdine, as well as providing scholarships for performing arts students and teaching master classes on campus.
“He was a kind of mentor to a lot of the kids who were in the musical plays,” Runnels said. “He was always encouraging to the students, and they all loved him.”
Center for the Arts Managing Director Marnie Mitze also recalls Raitt’s long history with Pepperdine fondly.
“John was always so charming,” Mitze said. “No one could ever say no to John.”
Mitze said that among Raitt’s most outstanding qualities were his class and character.
“I always tell students to look to John as a model,” Mitze said. “Never once, not even in private, did I ever hear John Raitt say anything negative about anyone else in the industry. That is a class act.”
In honor of Raitt’s long relationship with Pepperdine, in December the Center for the Arts held “A Tribute to Broadway Legend John Raitt,” with proceeds benefiting scholarships for theatre students.
The tribute featured a performance by his daughter, Grammy Award-winning singer Bonnie Raitt, who told the Malibu Surfside News that her father was “the greatest performer I have ever known.”
Mitze said she wanted to do the tribute to showcase how Raitt’s outreach to Pepperdine students had influenced a future generation of musical theater performers.
“I couldn’t have been more thrilled with the tribute,” Mitze said. “I felt so fortunate to have been able to do it when John was there to see how much we all loved and admired him.”
02-24-2005
