Music, Physical Therapy Get Boosts with Gifts from Lapides Family
Sherry Lapides at The Soraya 10th anniversary. Photo: Luis Luque-Luque Photography.
The legacy of Sherry and Albert Lapides M.S. ’68 can be measured in part through generations of San Fernando Valley residents falling in love with music and the arts, and through the lives touched through physical therapy.
Sherry and Albert Lapides.
Sherry Lapides, a longtime supporter and volunteer at California State University, Northridge, continues creating opportunities for academic and creative achievement at the university. Making gifts that help honor her late husband, a CSUN alumnus and advocate for his alma mater, she recently provided generous support for scholarships in the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication, children’s programming for the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, and financial aid for clients of the Center of Achievement in the College of Health and Human Development.
The impact of the gifts is doubled through a dollar-for-dollar match from the CSUN Foundation’s Matador Match Challenge for 2022.
Sherry Lapides’ connection to CSUN stems from Albert’s roots at the university. He earned an MBA in 1968 and a teaching credential in 1971. Albert and Sherry built a successful family-run company, Replacement Parts Industries Inc. (RPI), and over the years, the couple capitalized on opportunities to give back to CSUN and create opportunities for future generations.
The Lapideses were instrumental in bringing The Soraya – CSUN’s exquisite performing arts center – to fruition through their financial backing and volunteer efforts. And the new gifts continue to amplify the arts.
The recent gift to The Soraya provides support for children’s programming in the performing arts center, particularly matinees for local schoolchildren. Sherry Lapides appreciates music and the arts, and she wants children to have the joy of experiencing musical performance in a beautiful venue like she did when she was a child. Matinees scheduled in 2023 include “Hip-Hop Nutcracker,” dance company Diavolo, and New Orleans jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis.
Meanwhile, the funding to the Mike Curb College provides scholarships for students in the Department of Theatre and for students in the Department of Music who play either wind or percussion instruments, ensuring students dedicated to artistic creativity have the support they need to develop their skills and nurture their talents.
The Lapideses’ support for the Center of Achievement enhances a program that made a difference in their family’s lives. A few years before he passed away in 2015, Albert was injured in a serious accident and started attending sessions at the Center for Achievement, an aquatic and land-based therapy center. He credited the center’s dedicated staff and students with teaching him to walk again.
The recent contribution to the center aims to assist those with financial hardships to enroll and participate in the adapted physical activity programs of the center.
To contribute to the Lapides Family funds for music scholarships, theatre scholarships, the Center of Achievement, or children’s programming at The Soraya, or to create one of your own, please contact the CSUN Office of Development at (818) 677-2786 or development@csun.edu.
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