The stage of the Marion Hedrick Smith Memorial Amphitheater on the Texas Southmost College campus has been closed due to a yearly maintenance assessment.
Located next to the UTRGV Campus Bookstore on the Brownsville campus, the theater was inaugurated on July 15, 1986, under the administration of former TSC President and current UTRGV Communication Professor Juliet V. García.
Melinda Rodriguez, vice president of Institutional Advancement for TSC, said the college conducts maintenance assessments to identify facilities that need upkeep.
“What they’re doing right now is, they are performing an assessment of what the needs are of the space,” Rodriguez said. “And, so, they are looking at the floor and electrical, they are testing whether we need new parts and pieces and, or, do we need to just perform repairs. This is typical throughout our campus of all of our facilities and spaces. And projects are assessed and then plans, budgets are put in to place to make those plans come to fruition, and this just happens to be the amphitheater’s term.”
The facility was donated by Herald Smith, a hydrology engineer, according to García.
Different events such as special pinning ceremonies for the nursing programs, concerts and Mr. Amigo celebrations were held at the facility.
Asked what her most notable memory she had about the amphitheater was, García replied, “I guess the one that most people remember was a funeral for one of our faculty members, [social science professor at legacy institution University of Texas at Brownsville/TSC] [Walter] Pierce, real popular history professor, and he died of a heart attack unexpectedly, helping another faculty member chop down a tree or something, and went inside to get a glass of water and died. And people just adored Wally Pierce. … So, it was filled with students and members of the community and professors and eulogists. He had 12 eulogists at his funeral.”
Rodriguez said the cost of the maintenance of the amphitheater has yet to be determined.
“I’m not in the position to say what that is right now because they are actually still performing that assessment as we speak,” she said.
Rodriguez also said the goal is to, “have whatever repairs or maintenance is needed completed by the beginning of the fall semester.”
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