Officer’s Sudden Resignation Stuns Orange County Center

The president of Orange County’s Performing Arts Center has resigned, officials announced Tuesday, stunning the arts community.

Tom Tomlinson, as chief operating officer, oversaw a banner financial year for the center in 1995 when revenues soared to a record $19.4 million, and had initiated plans to expand the center’s facilities to retain its competitive edge.

He also increased the number of pop concerts at the center, and last week, he brought in the popular percussion troupe Stomp, signaling just how far he had ventured from the previous administration’s emphasis on Broadway shows, classical music, opera and ballet.

The resignation comes as the center’s yearlong 10th-anniversary celebration is coming to a climax.

Tomlinson cleaned out his desk Monday night and is not expected back in the center, sources said. He declined to say why he had quit the post he took three years ago.

“All I’m saying is I’ve enjoyed my three years with the center and it was time for me to move on,” said Tomlinson, 46, interviewed on the doorstep of his home. He said his departure was not health-related.

Center officials released only a terse announcement of his departure, politely wishing him success, a sharp contrast to the pages of praise it showered on Tomlinson’s predecessor, Thomas R. Kendrick, when he retired in 1992. Judy O’Dea Morr, Kendrick’s wife, who has been serving since March in the newly created post of programming director, was named to replace Tomlinson on an interim basis. Morr has asked not to be considered as a permanent replacement.

Mark Chapin Johnson, the board chairman, would not discuss whether the board and Tomlinson had been in conflict. Johnson said he learned of Tomlinson’s “decision” only Monday afternoon.

“Tom came to me for a private meeting in my office and tendered his resignation,” Johnson said. “At Tom’s request, I agreed not to discuss anything about his decision.”

Johnson said he was surprised by the abruptness of events and disappointed by the timing.

“The timing is certainly not one anybody would have preferred,” Johnson said, “which is not to say that we expected it at any particular time.”

But a highly placed source on the board said “it had to be done now or we would have gone ahead and had the 10th anniversary and [Tomlinson] would have been locked in.” The source would not elaborate.

Under Tomlinson, the center also vastly expanded community outreach programs and increased its 1995 budget for educational programs by 30% to $631,600.

“He was really quite wonderful to work with,” said Julie Bussell, executive director of the Pacific Chorale, one of several groups that regularly perform or present works at the center. “He had a clear vision . . . that the center was there to serve the community, as were the groups who performed there.”

Tomlinson, who became president in 1995 after serving as executive director, has received credit for improving what had been fraying relations between the center and the local organizations that present events there.

He helped diminish turf wars between the center and other arts organizations by offering collaborative programming opportunities. He also made more space in the center’s heavily booked schedule for the smaller resident troupes.

In May 1994, Tomlinson put together a collaborative two-night engagement of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by James Levine. The orchestra’s only Southern California stop on a rare national tour, it added greatly to the center’s prestige but drew a disappointingly small audience.

Even before Tuesday’s announcement, recent changes in senior management at the center had prompted some speculation that Tomlinson’s job was in jeopardy.

When Morr was appointed four months ago as director of programming, she took over Tomlinson’s day-to-day programming operations so that he could focus on long-range strategy. Center officials maintained that Morr was hired at Tomlinson’s request, but one arts leader who asked not to be identified Tuesday said that is “highly doubtful.”

Tomlinson came to the center from the $70-million Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage, where he was founding executive director. He also had managed a performing arts center in Tacoma, Wash., and theaters in Yakima, Wash., and Joliet, Ill.

* Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Zan Dubin, Cathy Curtis and Ann Conway.