Our way of giving back
In gratitude for experiences on which they built their careers, Denise Gallant and Kevin Monahan included Kresge and KZSC in their will.
One night in the mid-1970s, when Denise Gallant was Kresge Town Hall manager, two of Kresge’s video projectors were stolen from her car. “And I vowed at that point that someday I would pay Kresge back for losing those.”
As Town Hall manager, Gallant(Kresge ’76, individual major) hosted experimental performances, including projects from the Electronic Music Studio, where she was a student. Those experiences and the radio show she hosted on KZSC had profound effects on her life.
Solving problems on the fly
The host whose show followed hers on Friday nights was Kevin Monahan. Their mutual enthusiasm for experimental and electronic music eventually became romantic, and they’ve now been married for decades.
Hosting a radio show meant confronting challenges in the moment. It was sometimes a trial by fire.
“I dream still about dead air and have panic attacks in my sleep,” Gallant says.
She learned to plan and solve problems in real time—lessons she drew on over and over again in a career that included a great deal of live broadcasting.
Giving back
Gallant realized in 2017 that there is a way for her to fulfill her vow to Kresge and make a big difference for the radio station where she and her husband learned to create in real time. She and Monahan added Kresge and KZSC to their will.
“We’re so indebted to the school and the radio station,” she says. “This planned gift is our way of giving back.”