Mindful Gifts

Local arts community remembers anonymous benefactor Nancy Patterson Troike

Nancy Patterson Troike (Submitted photo)
Nancy Patterson Troike (Submitted photo)

Some people give and want their name in the program, the recognition in the newspaper, the brick to commemorate the gift.

All non-profits, arts and culture organizations included, thrive on the benevolent generosity of such benefactors. Recognizing such contributions highlights the need for support and underscores community engagement. Plus, it's simply considerate to acknowledge the hand offered in help along the way.

But for Nancy Patterson Troike, a Texarkana native and 1948 Texas High School graduate who grew up to become an anthropological expert on the Mixtec people of Mexico and the Mayan writing system, her giving was different.

Chances are if you heard about an "anonymous" donor in recent years in the Texarkana arts and culture community, the gift came from Troike. She became an active, engaged supporter for so many local causes, and the gifts were mindful and personal.

Troike, who died in mid-December at 87 of complications from ovarian cancer, lived and worked for many years in Austin. The Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas tapped her as a research specialist in 1974, and she earned a doctorate at the University of London that same year. Troike traveled the world: studying in Mexico as an anthropologist, vacationing with her then-husband in destinations like the Middle East and Europe. She climbed along the Matterhorn-even lived in Taiwan for a year.

After Troike passed, arts and culture non-profits like the Texarkana Museums System were quick to praise the contributions after so many years of anonymous, steady, behind-the-scenes support from this woman who moved back to Texarkana in early 2017, making a home in the 1958 house built by her mother and father.

"Each investment she made in our community was well thought out and planned and approved by her personally. A strong woman with a love of art, history and music. The conversations she would engage you in so often left you with a more well rounded perspective on the topic she had hand picked," said the Texarkana Museums System on its Facebook page.

Steve Mitchell, general manager for KTXK, Texarkana's public radio station at Texarkana College, praised Troike as a special woman who'll be missed.

"I met her 25 years ago and we've had needs during that period of time: computers, equipment, things that we needed to operate the station on," he said. Via her foundation, she supported. "Eventually, she wanted to meet me."

They did so and forged a friendship. Mitchell described her as a huge fan of classical music. They joked about the news side of KTXK, and Mitchell said she simply preferred the music.

Troike believed in supporting public radio, both here and in Austin, because public radio does what commercial stations don't do, Mitchell said. "She also knew, and realized, the funding issues that public broadcasting stations go through," he said, calling her a "Dr. Who" fan from the beginning.

Mitchell said when Troike learned KTXK needed to build new studios, she met with him and former TC president James Henry Russell. She wanted to make sure they were built and funded. "And she did," the station manager said.

When the new media center was built, they were named for Troike's mother and father. Hence, the W.N. "Pat" Patterson and Jessica B. Patterson Media Center. Now that she's gone, the studio inside is now named for Troike herself: the Patterson Troike Studios. At last, she can be recognized for what she gave.

"She's very much never wanted any recognition for her contributions," Mitchell said.

Anyone who's had the good fortune to see American Shakespeare Center's annual touring productions visit Historic Washington State Park in Southwest Arkansas, or either Texas High School or Clarksville High School in Northeast Texas, can attest to the company's unique approach to The Bard's plays. They do Shakespeare right up close to the audience with universal lighting, as it was in Shakespeare's day.

Josh Williams, curator at Historic Washington, marveled at their approach when he saw them perform in ASC's home state of Virginia. He sought to bring them here, and found in Troike an avid supporter to fund grant requests.

"From the first performance in 2011 at the WPA Gym in the park to today, she played a strong role in supporting the Shakespeare in the Park program. She looked forward to it every year and planned her calendar around the event," Williams said.

Troike would read up on the plays and talk with Williams and others about their meaning. She was engaged in it beyond giving the money.

"She was an amazing woman that helped start an amazing program that has made a significant impact on many youth and adults throughout the Ark-La-Tex Region by providing the opportunity to see live performances of Shakespeare plays," Williams said. "Due to her support, youth from local high schools went on to attend the summer camps provided by the American Shakespeare Center and continued on to become drama majors in college with the goal of performing Shakespeare plays."

Of her, Williams said, "She will truly be missed, but her impact and legacy continues on and will not be forgotten."

Velvet Hall Cool, who serves as board president for the TMS, says when she first joined the board she heard elusive talk about an "anonymous donor." Not many knew who she was, but Cool eventually became aware of the donor's identity. Troike funded photographic exhibits through the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit program, and Cool met her at one exhibit opening.

Sitting with Cool's grandmother, Troike appeared to her as a non-assuming, humble, older woman, Cool said. "To find out the layers behind Nancy was fascinating," she said. More financial backing followed for exhibits, which helped TMS tremendously after they'd dropped participation in the Arkansas Discovery Network, thus allowing high quality installations to continue.

"She funded a new phone system for us," Cool said. With four downtown TMS locations, that helped. Membership drive matching, operational funds, and more followed. If the TMS had an idea, they could approach her and most of the time she said yes. But she also had her opinions; she might decline.

"It was truly a very personal choice with Nancy," Cool said, noting it's her understanding, too, that Troike paid off a substantial debt the TMS had. This was before Cool joined the TMS.

"I cannot imagine with the struggles that the Museums System has had since I came on board, when I came on board, and that loan was already paid off, if they'd also had that loan I don't see how they could've maintained," Cool said. She believes Troike was instrumental in saving the TMS.

For the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, Troike provided funding for several celebrated touring shows: the New York Philharmonic (first time at the Perot Theatre), Sir James and Lady Galway, and Muses shows at the Regional Arts Center.

"The one thing that really made an incredible difference for us that really needs to be noted is she was the first one to give us money for art supplies for Arts on Main and scholarship money for scholarships at Arts on Main so that we were able to not only offer it to individual student classes but also for entire families," Brian Goesl, TRAHC's executive director, said.

Additionally, Troike's donations were key to helping with bus funds related to Theatre for Young Audiences shows. That included Clarksville students, where she had connections. The transportation cost was prohibitive for them to attend.

"This was a way of getting them to be able to afford to do that," Goesl said. It's not easy for schools to travel with its students.

Now, TRAHC can reach out to schools more than 100 miles away with this bus subsidy program, Goesl said. Troike made it possible. As a regional arts agency, this is what they need to do, he explained. For her, it was about enrichment.

"She believed in the arts and she believed in the cultural arts and getting kids and giving them the most opportunities that she possibly could," Goesl said, describing her as a sharp mind and quick wit.

"She wasn't pretentious," Goesl said. "She loved scholarship. She loved education."

The New York Philharmonic wasn't the only live classical music Troike backed. At the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, co-founder Remica Gray and executive director Andrew Clark recognize her many gifts. She was an early supporter of the TSO's foundation.

Troike talked with Gray to learn more about the TSO. "She was very well educated, knew probably more about symphony orchestras than I did at that particular point," Gray remembered. They visited, and Troike made it a personal interest, expressing a love for music, both symphonic and opera.

"She very generously decided to support us with a nice amount of money," Gray said. A relationship grew from there. Once they got to know her, the friendship grew by sharing tea and jokes about the car trip between Austin and Texarkana.

"She had an interesting sense of humor, and we enjoyed that," Gray remembered.

Clark said she showed curiosity about the repertoire and didn't hold back with her opinion. She was forthright.

"Her main love was the masterworks. She had a take on that that was rather interesting," Clark said. "Being a learned person, and I think this is true of all of her endeavors with the cultural arts here in Texarkana, she realized that you could not get people to recognize things overnight and to love them overnight but that they still needed to be here so that people were at least exposed to them on a continual basis."

She wasn't a fan of pops concerts, but Clark said she later confided that she understood it was, for some, an entryway into classical music. "She attended most of them. She was pretty frank when she wasn't going to come," he said, calling her support for masterworks "profound" and one of the strongest financially.

"She was very interested in us succeeding," Clark said, noting she was a fan of Romantic music, the Russian works, Mahler.

"She was the quintessential American philanthropist. You would not have ever realized had you seen her on the street that she had the kind of wealth and philanthropic spirit that you might expect," Clark said. She treasured anonymity.

Carol Patterson, Troike's cousin-in-law via marriage to Troike's cousin Kirk Patterson, said her public participation, that generosity, was something even her family knew little about.

"She didn't brag about it or talk about it," Patterson said. "She did once tell me that one of the good tests of somebody worthy of support was how much passion they had for their art or their program that they were working on."

She knew Troike as a friend and got to know her at family gatherings. "She was a forthright academic with a lot of enthusiasm for life, so I was drawn to her," Patterson said. "Somebody who was so much fun to talk to."

Such deep knowledge was shown in Troike's scholarship, her doctoral thesis about "The Codex Colombino-Becker." She lived in Mexico City for a few years and studied there, Patterson said, noting of her work, "The title makes clear that she was giving a new interpretation of the Mixtec writing."

Troike organized workshops about the Mayan writing system and Mixtec Gateway events in Las Vegas that explored the Mixtec history and culture.

In her thesis introduction, Troike describes the Mixtec Indians' pictorial system, what Patterson calls a "graphic expression of meaning." That's what interested Troike, who was well known in her field.

"This system reached a high degree of interrelated artistic, linguistic, and representational complexity, and enabled them to paint lengthy documents on folded strips of animal hide," Troike wrote in her dissertation.

As someone who simply enjoyed Troike's personality, Patterson, who lives in San Antonio, had a feeling she needed to call her one day. This was mid-2017. She had a gut feeling she should talk with her, then learned when she did call that Troike was diagnosed with cancer.

"My thought after that was well, she doesn't have siblings and both her parents are gone so I'm going to call her now and then just so family is calling to care," Patterson said. "We had some of the most wonderful phone conversations over the next year-and-a-half."

She was a witness to how Troike managed over that time, which was to turn outward and show concern for others, studying the genetics of her cancer.

"Her passion at the end of her life is that she brought the same academic integrity and intensity to understanding her medical condition," Patterson said. "She learned everything about it she could. She wasn't ever sad about it. She wasn't focused on herself and 'poor me.'"

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