Couple Have Good Works Cut Out for Them : Volunteers: Although relative newcomers to the Southland, Maurice and Carolyn DeWald are actively involved in fund-raising for L.A. charities and civic causes.

Newcomers to Los Angeles four years ago, Maurice and Carolyn DeWald jumped into corporate, civic and social life. “We were welcomed with open arms--but, of course, you have to reach out. And it takes a long time to nourish friendships,” she said.

Last year Maury was invited to head the Music Center Unified Fund drive that raised $15.3 million. His reward: another year as chairman. This year the goal is $17.6 million. He’ll balance that with his job as managing partner of KPMG Peat Marwick Los Angeles, the accounting firm.

Carolyn will co-chair the Bunker Hill Steps inaugural benefit for Maguire Thomas Partners and the Music Center on Wednesday. The party dedicates the Mediterranean inspired steps, a part of the Library Towers project. She also chairs Women to the Rescue, which is soliciting funds to build an emergency shelter at Union Rescue Mission for women and children on city streets.

In free moments, he reads, golfs at Los Angeles Country Club, walks. She reads, knits, does aerobics and walks four times a week at the beach. They are parents of three daughters--Anne, seeking a master’s in social work at Columbia University; Colleen, a Los Angeles second-grade teacher, and Michelle, a sophomore at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.

They’re on the benefit circle at least two nights a week. Said Carolyn, whose favorite activity is the Philharmonic and a picnic at the Hollywood Bowl, “and we value our time together when we can sit at home and enjoy each other.”

DeWald considers Los Angeles a developing city with enormous avenues of opportunity. He’s dedicated to Music Center goals. One is to create an endowment for the center as a hedge against inflation.

Only about $4.2 million--of Unified Fund donations will come from corporations, he said. For him, the $4.2 million is not enough.

“Last year we increased corporate support by getting more than 300 new corporate donors. You look at what happened in the ‘80s: Corporations moved out, merged, went bankrupt. So, the quest is significant.

“We want to fan out to the mainstream of business enterprise, tell the corporate community of our long-term needs. We try to make it easy for businesses to come in--$5,000 a year for five years--or $25,000. The last thing we want is only 200 companies giving and a recession.”

Then he reflected, “The idea is to put something back into the community that provides us the opportunity to be in a position to be successful.”

The DeWalds have always been success-oriented. She graduated from St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in Ft. Wayne, Ind., he from the University of Notre Dame with an accounting degree. After marrying, they lived in Ft. Lewis, Wash. for two years while he was in the Army. Then he joined Peat Marwick (the only company’s he’s ever worked for) in Chicago in 1962, elected partner in 1973 and became managing partner in Orange County in 1976, and managing partner in Chicago in 1985 before coming here in 1986.

In Orange County he was chairman of the South Coast Repertory Theater; she was chairman-elect of the Guilds of the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Maurice DeWald is also a member of the United Way corporate board and a trustee of St. John’s Hospital Foundation and Loyola Marymount.