Ellie Stoddard as she appeared in the 1950 Uni yearbook. (click to enlarge)

MORE THAN 60 years ago, a girl named Eleanor "Ellie" Stoddard walked through the doors of Uni High.

She graduated with the Class of 1950 and went on to live an exciting life, owning and managing the Gallery of Graphic Arts in New York City.

Through it all she never forgot the tiny school that had given her a start.

Now, thanks to her generosity, the school will host "Uni Celebrates the Arts," an art auction that will benefit the Ellie Stoddard Faculty Enhancement Endowment, which she established in 2001.

The event will celebrate not only the arts but the memory of Ellie herself, who died in 2002.

The auction will be held Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center, 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana. The story behind it goes back many years, starting with a young girl who felt out of place in her Illinois surroundings but quickly found acceptance among her new teachers and classmates.

Ellie's story

"U Passage" by by Paulo Boni, one of the pieces that will be up for auction Friday at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center. All artwork photos courtesy of Uni Web site and Office of Advancement (click to enlarge)

Ellie Stoddard was born in Iowa City in August 1933. Her family moved to Champaign-Urbana in 1946, when her father, George D. Stoddard, accepted a job as the president of the University of Illinois. At this time Ellie's parents sent her to Uni High.

"Ellie loved Uni High," recalled John Hedeman, who served as Uni's director from 1998 to 2003 and worked closely with her to establish the Stoddard Endowment.

"She often talked about how she parachuted into town when her father was named president of the University of Illinois. She had no friends and did not really want to be here.

"The students and the teachers of Uni High befriended her right away and made her transition much easier than anticipated that she started a lifetime love affair with the school."

She took part in student government, theater, and madrigals.

"I am sure that you understand that 'home' when I was in high school was Uni High," Ellie said in November 2001 upon donating $100,000 to the school to establish the Stoddard Endowment.

After graduating from Uni, Ellie went on to study at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a bachelor’s degree in physical education. Ellie taught for a year in Madison, then she moved east to join her family; by then her father had left the U of I and taken a position at New York University.

In 1957, Ellie married Fred Seibold, who will take part in Friday's auction. Together they had two children, Mark and Amy.

The Seibold family moved to New York in 1963. It was then that Ellie was able to pursue her passion for the arts. Ellie founded the Gallery of Graphic Arts in the autumn of that year, and it quickly became her life's work. She managed the gallery until 2000, when she sold it due to health complications.

"A character's character"

"Orange Cosmos — Half Circle Yellow" by Arthur Piza, one of the pieces up for auction Friday night. All artwork photos courtesy of Uni Web site and Office of Advancement (click to enlarge)

During her many decades in Manhattan, she stayed in contact with former classmates and her alma mater.

Marilyn Upah Bant, Uni's director of development and alumni relations from 1992 to 2007, often visited Ellie when school business took her to New York.

Ellie was a "true character's character," Upah Bant recalled.

"She had a terrific sense of humor, was extremely well traveled and was as bright and well-read as you would expect a former Uni student to be," she said in an e-mail interview with the Gargoyle. In her later years, she developed throat problems and eventually had a tracheotomy which she dealt with the way most people treat having a bandage on a skinned knee.

"She often was very ill when I visited her, but her spirits were buoyant and she was always up for dinner out (she adored calamari, a rather odd choice for an Iowa native, I always thought) and a Broadway play."

Fine arts executive teacher Rick Murphy, whose department will benefit from ticket sales to the auction, also has fond memories of Ellie.

"I got to stay with her one time in New York, and I got to visit and get to know her," he said. "She was a character. She was a small woman in stature but spoke her mind, and if you asked her what she thought about something she would answer honestly. She had an infectious laugh and a great personality.”

As an expression of her commitment to Uni High, Ellie established the endowment that bears her name. Faculty can apply for this money to take trips, attend conferences, or pursue any other activities that will allow them to enhance their teaching abilities.

"Having a fund that is available to faculty to fund an interest is important to retaining great teachers," said Hedeman, who is now an assistant dean at the U of I College of Business. "Ellie understood that great schools have great students and great teachers. She wanted to do her part to support the teachers."

The auction

"Papillon Erotique" by Marc-Antoine Louttre, one of the pieces up for auction Friday night. All artwork photos courtesy of Uni Web site and Office of Advancement (click to enlarge)

"Many White Feathers" by Eli Yakota, another of the pieces up for auction at Uni Celebrates the Arts. All artwork photos courtesy of Uni Web site and Office of Advancement (click to enlarge)

When Ellie passed away in May 2002, she left 23 pieces of her private art collection to Uni High to be auctioned off. The benefits will go to the faculty fund she established.

Many types of work by a variety of artists will be up for bid. Some of the pieces include:

• "Desequilibre" by Bertrand Dorny, etching, est. value $175 (15.7"h by 12.2"w)
• "Flock" by Jackson Beardly, stonecut, est. value $260 (22.8"h by 27.6"w)
• "Le Sang des Girondins" by Mark-Antoine Louttre, etching, est. value $150 (17.1"h by 20.5"w)
• "Mask" by Francisco Espinoza, lithograph, est. value $250 (30.0"h by 32.9"w)
• "Orange Cosmos — Half Circle Yellow" by Arthur Piza, etching, est. value $1,050
• "Plan A" by Kazumi Amano, Woodcut, est. value $1,175 (37.2"h x 25"w)
• "Two Flowers" by Brigitte Coudrain, etching, est. value $160 (21.1"h x 15.9"w)
• "U Passage" by Paulo Boni, etching, est. value $600, (38"h x 29.5"w)

You can view the art work and get more information about each piece being auctioned here.

This event will also serve to promote community awareness of Uni and its fine arts department.

"We will have a power point presentation of art that Uni students have created over the last five years," said art teacher Lisa Evans.

Uni has sent out invitations to alumni, faculty, and parents, but the school is also welcoming any interested community members to attend the auction. Tickets were priced at four levels: art connoisseur ($150), art consultant ($100), art specialist ($75), and art amateur ($50), with a significant percentage of each ticket's cost tax deductible.

“We are hoping to get people more interested in the fine arts here at Uni," said Karen Cooley, who succeeded Upah Bant as the school's director of advancement. "We just want people to know that there are some wonderful student artists here.”

The auction will also feature student musicians as well as vocalist Yvette Cataneo, who graduated from Uni in 1992. Cataneo will perform a selection of songs at the auction. She currently lives and performs in the New York area.

Murphy will serve as auctioneer, drawing on his experience in similar events.

"The whole point of the evening is to have fun and to celebrate the life and all the good work that Ellie Stoddard Seibold has done around Uni High," Murphy said.

"I’m really looking forward to the auction," added Upah Bant. "Ellie’s husband will be attending the event, and it will be a nice chance for the Uni community to thank him both for the art and the generous direct financial support (more than $130,000) he and Ellie have given to the school."