Bruce Vogt felt the best way to honour his late brother, Gordon Vogt, Arts’70, MA’73, was by combining two things he loved — film and music.

A special naming ceremony for the new Gordon Vogt Film Screening Room took place on Oct. 2 at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. Those in attendance heard many memories about Gordon, who died of cancer at the age of 38.

It was 1981, and after performing on a derelict piano at Merritt Secondary School, Bruce Vogt decided the Nicola Valley was in need of something a little more “grand.”

In donating the proceeds of his show that year to the Nicola Valley Arts Council, Vogt kickstarted a fund that would eventually blossom into the C7F Grand Piano which now occupies the Merritt Civic Centre.