DPAC stage to be named for Teers

The stage of the new Durham Performing Arts Center will be named the Mildred & Dillard Teer Stage following a $1.2 million contribution by the Teer family, city officials announced today.

City council members are expected to approve the name at their March 3 meeting. The donation by the Teer family is a first for the center.

"This is milestone for Durham, as we have our first naming rights at the Durham Performing Arts Center associated with one of our best known Durham families," Mayor Bill Bell said.

The Durham Performing Arts Center, also known as DPAC, is a $44 million, state-of-the-art venue being built at the corner of Mangum and Vivian streets in downtown Durham. It is expected to open later this year.

Dillard Teer was vice president and secretary-treasurer for the Nello Teer Company. The home-grown Durham company started by his father in Durham in 1909 became one of the largest contractors in North Carolina before it was sold to the Koppers Company in the 1980s.

R. Dillard Teer and Mildred Roycroft Teer have been involved in many civic activities. The family's $1.2 million contribution for the stage naming rights will take place during a 10-year period.

"We wanted to do something as a family to honor our parents, what they have meant to us and to the greater Durham area," said Robb Teer, one of the couple's five children. "We could think of no better way to reflect their constant giving to the community than to make a gift in their honor to the beautiful new performing arts center in the heart of Durham."