Garfield Facility Could Bear Name of Quincy Jones

The Seattle School Board is considering a proposal to name the new building housing Garfield High School's auditorium, music room, athletic facilities and locker rooms in honor of alumnus Quincy Jones, a graduate of Garfield's class of 1950.
In 1983, Seattle Public Schools honored the award-winning Jones by naming the Garfield auditorium the Quincy Jones Auditorium. Included in Garfield's renovation is a new state-of-the-art performance center equipped with excellent acoustics and technical facilities with a seating capacity of 592. Under the proposal, the facility would be called the "Quincy Jones Performance Center."
Naming the new facility in honor of Jones would continue the tradition of honoring an outstanding graduate and offer his legacy as an inspiration to future generations of Garfield students.
Jones has won more than 25 Grammy awards, been nominated for Academy Awards (he tied with Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American) and has engaged in social activism and philanthropic endeavors, including producing "We Are the World," which raised funds and awareness for victims of Ethiopia's famine.
Garfield High School is currently housed at an interim site at Lincoln High School in the Wallingford neighborhood. The school will reopen to students for the 2008-09 school year and grand opening celebrations will take place the week of Sept. 26, 2008.
Community members who wish to comment on the proposal may write to the school board at School Board, Seattle Public Schools, MS 11-010, P.O. Box 34165, Seattle, 98124-1165; send emails to schoolboard@seattleschools.org; or call 206-252-0040.