Dedicated exemplars of service, community leaders and champions of UC Irvine, Ann Quilter, M.S. ’79 and Charles Quilter, M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ’10 are this year’s recipients of the Extraordinarius Award, the highest honor bestowed by the UC Irvine Alumni Association.

For Ann and Charlie, service began long before their relationship with the university. Both grew up in Marine Corps families and learned early that community came with responsibility.

Charlie carried that tradition into his own life as a Marine aviator and colonel before building a civilian career as an airline captain. In 1968, he helped his brother Patrick found Quilter Sound Company (QSC). Over the decades that followed, QSC would become a worldwide leader in the field of professional audio and related software. Ann brought the same instinct to civic life, becoming known in Laguna Beach for a simple habit: When something needed doing, she stepped in.

Ann earned her master’s degree in public administration in 1979 from what is now the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business while raising a young family. She went on to lead the League of Women Voters, served as a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) president, helped establish an organization supporting children and adults with attention deficit disorder, raised funds for Laguna Beach’s senior center and organized disaster-relief efforts following devastating local floods.

Charlie’s UC Irvine journey followed a different timetable. After retiring from his airline career, he returned to the classroom, earning a master’s degree and doctorate in history from the UC Irvine School of Humanities.

What began as a return to learning grew into a deep relationship with the School of Humanities through philanthropy and service. In 2021, Charlie received the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Together, Ann and Charlie have expanded their commitment to UC Irvine across disciplines.

For Ann, the work of the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) became deeply personal. Her mother had Alzheimer’s disease, and her father had Lewy body dementia. Ann joined a longitudinal research study, became an advocate for the institute’s research and community outreach and has served on the UCI MIND Leadership Council. She speaks passionately about what is at stake, often sharing how our memories are fundamental to the connections that make us human.

In fall 2024, Ann and Charlie made a $5 million unrestricted gift to UCI MIND, supporting its research and broader mission. Ann’s belief in the cause helped draw in the wider Quilter family. Charlie’s brothers Chris, Matt and Patrick, along with Matt’s wife Patty, joined the effort, with Patrick contributing $40 million of the family’s more than $50 million donation. Their support helped inspire additional philanthropic commitments toward a new home for UCI MIND.

Ann Hutchinson Quilter Hall is named in recognition of Ann’s more than a decade of advocacy for UCI MIND. Her family surprised her with the news on her birthday. The future facility will bring UCI MIND researchers, clinical studies, education and community engagement together under one roof — creating the kind of collaboration Ann believes can accelerate discovery, attract exceptional talent and bring advances in dementia research closer to the people who need them.

Ann and Charlie have made an impact well beyond neuroscience. Together, they established the Quilter Endowed Chair in the History of Technology, supporting scholarship that explores the ways innovation shapes society and human experience. The Quilter family also supports a partnership between the Samueli School of Engineering and the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum at the Great Park, reflecting a broader belief that universities create public good by investing in people, ideas and discovery.

Across decades, their extraordinary UC Irvine story has taken many forms: They have been students, scholars, volunteers, advocates, donors and philanthropic partners.
What connects them is a shared commitment to turn opportunity into responsibility – and to ensure that the institutions and communities they value are stronger for the generations that follow.