Posted Dec. 10, 2002

Amid the sounds of cool music and the scent of hot food, the Marc C. Abrahms Great Hall was officially dedicated at a Dec. 6 ceremony as the University celebrated this new gathering place at the Marvin Center.

“For years to come, people will come through this space and they will remark about the Marc C. Abrahms Great Hall and it’s appropriateness to the University as a place that embraces the community,” University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg said to the estimated crowd of 150.

President Trachtenberg and Marc Abrahms

Abrahms Hall, a 19,000-square-foot addition, offers a large gathering place on the first floor of the Marvin Center, complete with concierge service. The addition of Abrahms Hall also permitted an expansion of the GW Bookstore on the ground level.

“This is a happy time for me,” said Abrahms, a friend of the University and an insurance executive from West Hartford, Conn., whose gift made the hall possible. “I wish that there are many joyous and magnificent events that take place in this space and in the lives of each and every one of you.”

In addition to this contribution to GW, Abrahms also has established the Abrahms Family Fund, which provides support for The George Washington University Medical Center. Abrahms’ mother, Phyllis Blumenthal, earned her B.A. in education and human development from GW in 1941, and his late brother, Eliot, graduated from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences in 1974.

“Abrahms Hall is a gathering point, a meeting place, a central location for activity at the heart of the University,” said Zack Beyer, student chair of the Marvin Center Governing Board. “Abrahms Hall is the crossroads of the campus.”

Abrahms also is a fine arts and nature photographer whose photographs are flooded with intense color, earning him a reputation as an internationally renowned photojournalist.

©2002 The George Washington University Office of University Relations, Washington, D.C.
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