Top Fund-Raising Official Resigns From Arts Center

The Orange County Performing Arts Center’s top fund-raising official has resigned less than one year after he took the job, in the midst of what Center officials are calling their worst financial year.

George E. Engdahl was named last January to the new post of vice president for development. No explanation was given for his resignation. Center president Thomas R. Kendrick, in a prepared statement, said the Center’s executive committee accepted Engdahl’s resignation on Nov. 15 and it became effective Friday.

On Thursday, The Times had reported Kendrick saying that 1990 has been the Center’s “most difficult year” since the $73-million facility opened in 1986 and that it is facing a $1-million budget shortfall. Kendrick attributed slower than predicted ticket sales at several Center productions this year to a general downturn in the economy and to the crisis in the Persian Gulf.

Engdahl was not available for comment and Center officials refused to discuss the resignation beyond limited details included in Kendrick’s statement. “Linda L. Frace, director of development, will continue managing day-to-day development operations,” Kendrick’s statement said. “A search for Mr. Engdahl’s successor is under way.”

Components of the troubled financial picture include difficulties with fund raising and losses on 1990 programs, Kendrick said. Among the losses he cited was $400,000 from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” which the Center co-produced with the La Jolla Playhouse this summer, and a $276,000 loss in underwriting and ticket sales on the Australian Ballet’s engagement in August, which took place opposite Los Angeles performances by the better-known Bolshoi Ballet. Center expenses in 1989 totaled $22.8 million.