Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Board of Trustees Names New Chairman, Public Trustees

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Board of Trustees Names New Chairman, Public
Trustees
Reflects progress in revamping governance, enhancing public mission

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Fred Stratton, chairman
emeritus of Milwaukee-based Briggs & Stratton Corporation, has been named
chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's Board of Trustees, replacing
architect Gerald Lee Morosco, AIA, who held the post for two and a half years
and will remain on the board.
The board also elected two new public trustees for four-year terms: Ronne
Hartfield, noted Chicago author, poet and internationally recognized expert in
arts and multicultural education; and Donald Fairweather, of Laguna Beach,
Calif., retired president of WATG North America. In addition, Minerva
Montooth of Spring Green, Wis., a member of the Taliesin Fellowship
residential community of artists and scholars, retired from the board, having
served since 2000.
The changes are part of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's ongoing
process to strengthen and diversify its governance. A key initiative that Mr.
Morosco, founder and president of Gerald Lee Morosco Architects, P.C. in
Pittsburgh, initiated during his tenure as chair was to build the board to
better mirror the geographic, ethnic and generational breadth of interest and
enthusiasm for Frank Lloyd Wright's work.
"The Foundation has made significant progress in governance and in
structuring itself to accomplish its public mission," Mr. Stratton said. "My
goal as board chair is to continue this transformation by attracting new
public trustees and developing the financial resources the Foundation needs to
fulfill its great responsibilities. On behalf of the board, I extend my deep
appreciation to Jerry Morosco for his leadership in generating this positive
momentum."
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the non-profit organization founded in
1940 by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to ensure his legacy, maintains
its headquarters at Taliesin West, Wright's winter home in Scottsdale.
Besides Taliesin West, the Foundation also owns, operates and protects
Taliesin, Wright's estate in Spring Green, the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives,
and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
Mr. Stratton retired in 2001 as chairman and CEO of Briggs & Stratton
following a 28-year association with the world's largest producer of air-
cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. A member of the
Foundation board since 2005, he also simultaneously serves as chair of
Taliesin Preservation, Inc., a Wisconsin non-profit organization that acts as
the financial steward of Taliesin.
Ms. Hartfield was the former endowed executive director for museum
education at The Art Institute of Chicago. A Rockefeller Fellow and Senior
Research Fellow at Harvard University, she also was the executive director of
Urban Gateways: The Center for Arts in Education, then the largest private
arts and education organization in the United States and winner of the
Presidential Medal for the Arts. She wrote the biographical memoir, Another
Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family.
Fairweather was a student at Taliesin, now known as the Frank Lloyd Wright
School of Architecture, from 1948-1952, when Mr. Wright was alive. He worked
with several architectural firms in the San Francisco area before joining
WATG, where he designed hotels and resort hotels worldwide. He was one of the
founders and a board member of Taliesin Fellows, the school's alumni
organization.
Ms. Hartfield, who recently rotated off the boards of Rhode Island School
of Design and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, expressed
enthusiasm for her new role.
"I have a life-long love of architecture," Ms. Hartfield said. "The fact
that the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is focusing on partnerships and
collaborations, seeking a wider public role, increasing the presence and power
of its holdings and enhancing diversity in all areas of its work are all in
line with my interests, commitments and experience as a change agent."
Mr. Fairweather noted his interest in preserving Taliesin and Taliesin
West.
"Having designed projects in 25 countries, I bring experience in working
successfully with diverse cultures and business people," Mr. Fairweather said.
"I want to help ensure that we bring the irreplaceable buildings at Taliesin
and Taliesin West to their deserved glory."
About the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation serves as a global forum for multi-
disciplinary discourse about the future of the built and natural environments,
promoting education, scholarship, design and research. The Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., and established in 1940 by world-
renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is the only organization that Wright
himself established to protect and perpetuate his life's work, and is the
original organization to bear his name. The Foundation owns Taliesin in
Spring Green, Wis., and Taliesin West in Scottsdale (homes and studios that
Wright constructed for his personal use), the Frank Lloyd Wright School of
Architecture and the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. Both Taliesin and Taliesin
West are National Historic Properties and are on the United States World
Heritage Tentative List. More information about the Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation is at www.franklloydwright.org
Contact: Mary Gilbert, A.L. Brourman Associates, Inc.
412.963.0574 ms.gilbert@verizon.net

SOURCE The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

Mary Gilbert of A.L. Brourman Associates, Inc., for The Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation, +1-412-963-0574, ms.gilbert@verizon.net