Fairfield industrial conglomerate General Electric Co. awarded a $15 million grant for the 100th birthday celebration of Ronald Reagan — America’s 40th president and an ex-GE employee — to open a gallery and a theater at Reagan’s presidential library in California.
The new Foundations of a Great Communicator Gallery and the General Electric Theater opened Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., opening a day after the president’s 100th birthday.
On Sunday, the library launched  a year-long celebration of Reagan’s birthday, and the GE gallery is one of 17 new galleries that opened on Monday.
From 1954 to 1962, Reagan hosted the weekly TV series, General Electric Theater, traveling to 139 GE plants and meeting 250,000 employees. The series highlighted the era’s emerging technologies.
As part of its contribution to his birthday celebration, GE donated all 208 episodes to the Ronald Reagan Foundation.
