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Michael Stup has had his final curtain call, but I bet the angels in heaven are creating a theater of the arts and a string band under his leadership.

The former longtime executive director of the Weinberg Center once said, "I don't ever want to think I won't be flexible enough to search out new challenges if they're presented to me."

And that is why I believe the vast halls of heaven are about to resound with Michael's enthusiasm for the performing arts, just as Frederick did for more than 20 years of his unstinting dedication as manager of the Weinberg Center.

The Tivoli Theater, Frederick's grande dame of culture, drowned in the flood of 1976. Though mud covered its stage, floor and folding seats, there remained a grandeur worth saving.

Its owner, the Dan Weinberg family, donated the building to the city only with use restrictions for the performing arts.

After it opened in 1978, the interior cleaned and renovated by volunteers under the leadership of former Mayor Ron Young, there were a series of managers until Michael Stup was named in 1983. He was selected because he knew Frederick, he had been in the entertainment business on a local and national level, and because of his "positive attitude and his high energy level," according to the selection committee.

Michael formed the band Damion and the Classics, and for 20 years the band performed locally and nationally, offering the music so popular in the '50s and '60s.

My wife and I heard the band's sound more often than most, because our apartment was just a few doors away from where the band practiced. Michael's arrangements filled the air.

Thus when Michael became manager of the Weinberg Center, we applauded along with many in town who knew him. If anyone could make the theater on West Patrick Street meet the vision the Weinberg family had for it, Stup could, and did.

But there were two challenges that made the task difficult: the cost of having performing arts in an aged cavernous relic where vestiges of the 1976 flood remained and most performing arts centers operated at a deficit, requiring government support to cover the possible losses.

Some of Frederick's mayors understood the problems and praised Michael's management. Others expected miracles that never occurred and blamed Michael for the shortfalls.

Yet through 13 years, despite the pressures exerted by the politicians, Michael was always positive. He knew better than they did how to mix the performing arts at the Weinberg so that there was something for everyone, even though some performances attracted larger audiences than others.

The Weinberg Center in his mind was a theater for all, not art elitists only. That is the pledge he made in 1983 when hired, and it was a pledge he kept.

When he resigned in 1996, it was because those in office wanted a profit center regardless of the impact on the performances offered. Michael was not about to desert the pledge he made to the Weinberg family and the Frederick community.

Michael and I had many discussions over the years about where the performing arts center was headed. The thing most notable was that he was never negative, always enthusiastic about the potential of the Weinberg Center. He was not about to cave into political pressures. I bet in a few days, if you listen closely, you'll hear him telling the angels, "I'm searching for new challenges. Let's start a string band called Damion and the Angels and a performing arts theater called Heaven's Center."

No doubt Michael will be taking curtain calls again.

Paul Gordon is a local historian, and was mayor of Frederick city from January 1990 to January 1994. His column appears weekly. You can reach him at prg202@comcast.net. To submit a letter to the editor in response to this column, log onto www.gazette.net, and click on the Speak Out tab.