Center Names New Fund-Raising Director : Performing arts: George E. Engdahl held a similar post at the Chicago Symphony.

George E. Engdahl has been appointed to a newly created post of vice president for development at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Center officials announced Thursday. Engdahl, 47, has held a similar post with the Chicago Symphony.

Engdahl, who will begin his new job in mid-February, will be responsible for managing all aspects of fund raising at the Center, which this week launched a campaign to increase the cash assets of its endowment fund from $3 million to $12 million by 1993.

Richard L. Thomas, chairman of the Chicago Symphony’s Orchestral Assn., said Thursday that Engdahl, during a five-year tenure that ended in January, 1988, led efforts to retire a substantial deficit, to expand annual giving and to double the symphony’s endowment. The endowment now totals $40 million and the symphony’s operating budget for this year is $29 million, Thomas said.

Still, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune, Engdahl was “requested by symphony executive director Henry Fogel” to “turn in his resignation” from the orchestra. A reliable source in Chicago said there had been “a personality conflict.” The sources would not elaborate on the conflict.

Thomas would not comment except to say that “Engdahl did leave. It was a mutual decision between him and the symphony’s board. . . . There were differences of opinion in policy and how we and he saw his role as vice president for development.

“He was an excellent fund-raiser,” Thomas added. “I think he’ll be very good.”

Center President Thomas R. Kendrick also refused comment on Engdahl’s departure from the Chicago Symphony and would only say that “Mr. Engdahl had superb references and an outstanding record of achievement.” Engdahl was not available for comment.

Currently, Engdahl is president of the Columbus Cabrini Medical Foundation, the fund-raising arm of Chicago’s Columbus Cabrini Medical Center, which has an annual operating budget of $120 million, according to Orange County Performing Arts Center officials.

Before joining the Chicago Symphony, Engdahl led fund-raising efforts at Augustana College in Illinois and at the University of Colorado’s Health Sciences Center. He began his professional career with California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.