Tom Key, 81; Berlin Airlift Pilot, Pacific Symphony Pioneer

Tom Key, who was the first president of the Pacific Symphony and served on its board for 19 years while watching it grow into California’s third-largest orchestra, has died. He was 81.

Key, who was also a successful real estate broker and a Navy pilot who flew 200 missions in the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, died Tuesday at his home in Fullerton from corticobasal degeneration, a rare brain disorder.

“He was an enthusiastic guy who would say, ‘No obstacle is going to get in our way--we’re just going to go forward,’ ” said Jerry Samuelson, dean of Cal State Fullerton’s College of the Arts.

Samuelson remembered joining with the late Marcelina “Marcy” Mulville, the symphony’s prime mover, to recruit Key in 1978 to help launch Orange County’s first orchestra. Key, who had settled in the county in 1958, already was a supporter of Cal State Fullerton’s arts programs.

When recession hit in the early 1980s, there was talk of canceling concerts. Key took out personal loans to make sure the shows would go on, said Lorraine Lippold, another early board member.

She remembered Key as a man of small, thoughtful gestures--”little things that most people wouldn’t think about”--such as sending his personal gardener to make sure the lawn and flowers in front of the symphony’s headquarters in Santa Ana were well-tended.

When the Pacific Symphony reached perhaps its biggest crossroads--the turbulent, closely contested board decision in 1989 to oust founding Music Director Keith Clark, who was respected more for his drive than his musicianship--Key was a steadying influence. “He was a major player in steering the orchestra through that troubled time,” said symphony Vice President Jim Medvitz.

The symphony now operates on an annual budget of $11.5 million; its venues during the early days included a theater at Knott’s Berry Farm and the auditorium at Santa Ana High School. It moved into its current home, the 3,000-seat Orange County Performing Arts Center, in 1986.

Other pioneering board members of the Pacific Symphony recalled the 6-foot, 4-inch Key as a strikingly handsome and gregarious man who was well-suited to the task of building support for a fledgling arts organization.

Key and his wife, Anne, were known for hosting post-concert parties at their large, ranch-style home. There, prospective donors and board members could be wined, dined and wooed.

Often, musicians from the symphony would play at those parties, and Key did not need much encouragement to pick up his trumpet--which rested atop the family’s grand piano--and blow along on a pop melody or a big band jazz tune.

Key, a graduate of the University of Washington, grew up in Huntingdon, Tenn. He joined the Navy near the end of World War II.

During the Berlin Airlift, he flew 560-mile round trips in Douglas C-54 transports, dropping 10-ton loads of supplies over West Berlin to help foil the Soviet blockade. Eighteen planes from that air armada would crash during the 15-month operation, killing 79 people. In 1998, the 50th anniversary of the airlift, Key told The Times that his transport’s hydraulic system failed once and he had to land it with some of its controls inoperable.

“The weather was the worst problem--freezing rain, wind, lightning, poor visibility,” Key recalled. “On top of that, the Russians sent up planes to buzz us and tried to blind us with arc lights. They were mean bastards, but we never deviated from our course, not one degree.”

Key remained a small-plane aviator well into his 70s.

Anne Key recalled Wednesday that her husband grew to love classical music while listening to it to pass the time during his military days. “On our second date he asked me to go to the Seattle Symphony, and I was very impressed,” she said.

Eve Steinberg, who served on the Pacific Symphony’s board during its formative days recalled Key as “tireless.”

“What motivated him was just the desire to see this become great,” Steinberg said. “I hope he knew this wouldn’t have been without him. I hope he knew how important he was.”

In addition to his wife, Key is survived by three daughters, Alexandra Key, Stephanie Key and Lizabeth Key Crosson; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the Episcopal Church of St. Andrew in Fullerton, with a reception to follow at Coyote Hills Country Club.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Neurological Degenerative Diseases Department at UC Irvine’s College of Medicine, 252 Irvine Hall, Irvine, CA 92697-3950.