Lo Que Pasa, May 20, 1995
IN MEMORY OF ...



   Roy A. Johnson



   Performer. Teacher. Mentor. Friend.

   Those are but a few of the words one hears again and again as people
   in the School of Music reflect on the life of Roy A. Johnson. They are
   expressed not simply as titles, but as loving references to a man
   whose talent, commitment and spirit touched many.

   In the wake of Johnson's murder earlier this month and the publicity
   surrounding the brutal event, there has been a large outpouring of
   reaction and remembrances from family, friends, students and
   colleagues. Much has been said and written about his extraordinary
   talent as a concert organist and his far-reaching compassion as a
   human being. Here, at the UA, Lo Que Pasa asked those who worked with
   him to share their memories of Johnson as a professor in the School of
   Music.

   "I think he was very dedicated to this school particularly to the
   students," said Gary Cook, interim director of the school. "He cared
   for the students first and the development of the school overall."
   Cook said he also looked upon Johnson as a personal mentor. He was
   someone who had served in many capacities at the School of Music and
   who offered a lot of insights about the workings of the school and its
   committees to the now interim director when Cook was new to the UA.

   Johnson joined the UA faculty in 1966, the second longest continuous
   service on the current School of Music faculty. His principal
   responsibility was as a professor of organ, but he also taught piano
   and harpsichord. He was coordinator of keyboard studies and chairman
   of the school's executive committee which reviews tenure and
   promotion. From 1984 to 1993 he was also the school's director of
   graduate studies, overseeing the degree objectives of hundreds of
   graduate music students and overseeing the overall direction of
   music's graduate program.

   "I really don't know how he did it," said music professor Billie Raye
   Erlings as she reflected on Johnson's work load.

   Erlings considered Johnson a very close friend and had served with him
   on several juries evaluating the performances of organ students.

   "That's always a tense time for students," she said of the juried
   performances. "But Roy had such a wonderful way of making his students
   feel relaxed so they could do their finest."

   Erlings said Johnson always greeted students at these "final exam"
   performances with a smile and evenness of temper that would help put
   them at ease. She added, he would allow nothing else that may have
   been going on his life to supersede his conviction to aid and
   encourage the student.

   "I never saw him give a cross look or say anything disparaging of a
   student," she said.

   Colleagues repeatedly refer to the nurturing fashion and zeal with
   which he taught.

   "He recently did a keyboard seminar," recalled music professor Paula
   Fan. "You could tell he loved music and loved the organ and enjoyed
   sharing his subject. To find such a lively enthusiasm is really
   something to rejoice in."

   "Students who did have him in class talk not only about what they
   learned from him but also about the climate he had in class, which
   enabled them to learn in a positive way," said John Fitch, associate
   professor of music.

   Students who, having heard the news, felt the need to talk to someone
   about their sense of loss.

   "He's had quite an amazing effect on people," Fitch said. "I'm sure he
   couldn't have dreamed it would be that deep or far reaching."

   One of Johnson's biggest and longest-awaited accomplishments was
   helping to bring a concert organ to the UA. Until the arrival of the
   Harris Organ in Holsclaw Recital Hall last year, organ recitals by
   Johnson and his students had to take place at local churches that had
   the instruments. It was an inconvenience he endured for virtually his
   entire career at the UA.

    Over the course of a decade, Johnson served as a consultant and
   project director for the effort to get a concert pipe organ here.
   Delays and budget constraints were an ongoing source of frustration as
   he attempted to find the means to make the UA organ a reality.
   Finally, a major donation by a local benefactor, Isabelle B. Harris,
   put the project on the fast track, and Johnson inaugurated the
   $300,000 instrument with its premiere performance last fall.

   "The irony of the whole thing," said Cook, "is that, after 29 years,
   we finally got our organ, and now he's taken from us."

   Taken but never to be forgotten that is the feeling one gets as people
   talk about their memories of Johnson.

   Martha Gilliland, vice provost for academic affairs and former dean of
   the graduate college, recently spoke at a School of Music convocation
   and talked of her interaction with Johnson during the time he was
   music's director of graduate studies. Relaying one staff member's
   words and saying it also expressed her own thoughts, she said: "He was
   a beautiful person one in a million. His presence, his way of living,
   will always be with us. He was a personal friend who will remain in my
   heart forever."