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Alumni have created two funds in honor of legendary staff member Georgia Dentel, the woman who made so many concerts possible: one focuses on her life, impact, and legacy; the second is an endowment that will honor Dentel’s name for perpetuity.

Dentel came to the College in 1960 as activities counselor to give students something to do on the weekends. Turns out, the students wanted concerts, and Dentel delivered, and then some, until her retirement in 2001.  

Dentel worked to bring more than 1,000 concerts to campus, including the Jackson Five, Nina Simone, Bill Evans, Pete Seeger, Louis Armstrong, Joan Armatrading, Jefferson Airplane, Charles Mingus, and Duke Ellington, to name just a few. Ellington’s band, which performed on campus in the late ’50s, invited then-Grinnell student Herbie Hancock ’60 to jam with them after the show.

All Because of Georgia

At Reunion 2022, members of the class of 1977 gathered to listen to music and reminisce about the concerts they remembered.  

Co-organizers Kit Wall, Pat Irwin DHL ’12, and Bob Render (all ’77) called it “One of a Kind, Ahead of Her Time: Appreciating the Unique Entertainment Georgia Dentel Brought to ������Ƶ.”  

The event was a big success, and it led to something bigger. Wall and several other Grinnellians created a designated fund supported by alumni gifts to help support a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) in the Department of History.  

Another alumni group created the Class of ’79 Georgia Dentel Endowed Memorial Fellowship Fund to support future student-faculty research. Projects will focus on women or others from marginalized communities who contributed to the arts, culture, student life, and history of Grinnell. Faculty members in history; gender, women’s, and sexuality studies; and the libraries will direct the research.  

John Malkinson ’79 says that this is the first permanent, endowed fund at the College honoring Dentel. His introduction to campus concerts was a memorable one — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

“I was here when Springsteen came, and George Thorogood, Steve Goodman, and The Police with Ultravox — and jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus — which was all just fantastic,” Malkinson says. “The year after I graduated, it was the Ramones. We were just here in a great era, and we had the incomparable Georgia Dentel who put this tiny College in Iowa on the map in terms of getting entertainment and movies and music to the campus.”  

At a recent reunion, Malkinson created and distributed a concert T-shirt to his classmates, featuring several artists they saw as students on campus.  

It all happened “because of Georgia Dentel,” Malkinson says.

A Near-Miracle  

One of the concerts that would likely not have happened without Dentel was the legendary Springsteen concert in 1975.  

Dentel had booked Springsteen more than a year in advance. By September, his star was on the rise, and the Boss’ promoter was trying to finagle his way out of the date.  

Springsteen’s people made demand after demand — more electricity, a bigger stage — it went on and on. Dentel worked through everything they threw at her.  

She was not about to let Springsteen out of that contract. Through her persistence and skill as a negotiator, Dentel created a lasting memory for those lucky enough to be in Darby Gym that night.  

“The concert was wonderful,” Dentel told The Grinnell Magazine in 2005. “As I stood at the back of the gym, the thing that impressed me was that people were sitting on the gym floor all looking at the stage, and the room was so full. The floor was a perfect mosaic of heads.”  

Putting Georgia on the Map  

Maya Albanese ’26, Hayden Davis ’25, Jackie Harris ’26, and Bowen Wei ’25 are the students who got to spend the summer and fall of 2024 working with L.F. Parker Professor of History Sarah Purcell ’92 on a Mentored Advance Project (MAP) investigating not only concerts, but also Dentel, through research and oral history interviews with alumni, family members, and others.

The students learned to use historical methodology and procedures to collect and preserve these stories.  

The MAP, titled “Grinnell Concerts: George Dentel and Student Life in History and Memory,” came to life thanks to alumni interest and support. Many Grinnellians, particularly from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, worked closely with Dentel and remember her fondly.  

Concerts occupy privileged space in the collective memory of Grinnell, Purcell says, but until now, they were almost absent from the official history of the College.  

“We’re trying to bridge a gap between memory, interpretation, and history,” Purcell says. Although Dentel died in 2018, she remains “a presence in the past of the College.”  

The students were amazed by what they discovered. 

“Many of these events and concerts ultimately came down to the work of Georgia Dentel,” Harris says. “She really made a difference in the caliber of acts that came to Grinnell.”

Creating Something New

Albanese, a history major and American studies concentrator from the Boston area, researched Dentel and interviewed people who remember her. It was a good fit for Albanese’s interest in women’s history.

Harris, a history and Spanish major from Iowa City, focused on how the consistency and quality of concerts related to student life. To that end, Harris says, they sought to understand and create a narrative about the history of student life at Grinnell.

Davis, a history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan, credits Dentel for the campus culture that still exists today. In terms of cultural significance, he says, Dentel is one of the most important people ever to work at the College.

Davis built a timeline of Grinnell concerts of the Dentel era. It was challenging, he says, because records are sparse. He wanted to make sure Dentel and the events she made possible at Grinnell are not forgotten.  

“A lot of the things about this place would not be the same without her,” Davis says.  

Wei is a history and philosophy double major from China. He’s been focusing on some of the big issues of the day — the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement.  

Wei, who is continuing the work as a research assistant, loves being part of this project. “It intrigues me,” he says. “Creating something new when you’re still an undergrad is a pretty decent achievement.”

The Brightest Moments  

The memories of Grinnell alumni proved to be a treasure trove for the student researchers.  

Irwin is a prime example. He is a professional musician, film and TV composer, and instructor at New York University. But Irwin might be best known as a member of the dance-rock band the B-52s.  

When Irwin remembers his time at Grinnell, he doesn’t just think about the professors or what went on in the classroom, or even the concerts that infused joy into the student experience.  

“It was the people all around us in the community, of which Georgia was essential. It was the staff. It was the maintenance people. It was the people in the post office, in the bookstore.”  

Irwin adds, “Georgia was responsible for some of the brightest moments at the school. And I just could not bear to think that those moments would be lost.”

Working the Phone

As concerts co-chair in 1976–77, Irwin interacted with Dentel a lot. “She could really work that phone,” he says. Irwin didn’t realize how much he was learning from Dentel until later. He was an American studies major with no plans to become a musician. But at some level, he was already moving in that direction.  

“Deep down, that’s all I wanted to do,” Irwin says. Being in contact with musicians was life-changing, Irwin says. Even collecting the sheet music after Charles Mingus played in the South Lounge was powerful.  

“It meant everything to me to hold that music in my hands and look at it,” he says. “I’m meeting my heroes, and they’re just regular people. I wouldn’t have met any of them if it wasn’t for Georgia.”  

One of a Kind  

Dentel created a “cultural explosion” on campus at Grinnell that exposed students to new artistic genres and forms.

 You could even say it was part of a Grinnell education.

“She gave us so much, and all of us loved it for our quality of lives during that time,” Wall says.  

Thanks to student-faculty research — and the alumni donors who made it possible — we’re discovering and preserving more about Dentel and the cultural explosion she brought to a small college in the middle of Iowa.  

Oh, and that Persuasions concert — the one that was almost stopped by a zipper?  

Irwin remembers it, too. After the concert, he says, the band members came over to his house to hang out.

“We just stayed up all night and sang and drank beer,” Irwin says. “It was pretty amazing.”

Editor’s note: Do you have memories or memorabilia to add to the growing history of concerts at Grinnell? Visit the where you can view a concerts timeline and add your story at the “Share Your Memories” tab. To share photos or other memorabilia, contact Sarah Purcell. In addition, all alumni are welcome to contribute to either of the two funds; contact annualgiving@grinnell.edu to learn more.

Originally published in the Spring 2025 issue of The Grinnell Magazine.