Nunc Dimittis
Paul Rogers Jenkins, Jr., who served as professor of organ at Stetson University’s School of Music in DeLand, Florida, from 1956–93, died on August 12 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Born on June 1, 1929, in Rock Hill, South Carolina, he studied with Robert Noehren both at Davidson College and the University of Michigan.
Earlier in his career, Jenkins held positions at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. During his early years at Stetson University, Jenkins served as the organist and choir director at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. He performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In 1976 he was awarded the university’s newly endowed Price Chair in Organ.
Paul Jenkins spent sabbaticals (and other breaks) studying with Gustav Leonhardt, Cor Kee, and Charles Letistu in Europe. His interest in the first mechanical-action instruments that came to America, made by Rudolf von Beckerath of Hamburg, Germany, inspired him to acquire for Stetson a substantial Beckerath organ in 1961. This instrument, now named the Paul R. Jenkins, Jr. Organ, served as the model of organ-reform design for generations of students, and was followed by five more Beckerath organs on the Stetson campus. The last of these acquired was the Jenkins’ house organ, given to the university at the time Paul and his beloved wife Janice moved to Oklahoma City to be closer to their daughter Catherine and their extended family.
Paul Jenkins is survived by his wife of 63 years, Janice, their children, Catherine and John, several grandchildren, and many dozens of former students. He was a true pioneer in organ teaching and in the informed instruction on mechanical-action organs and harpsichords. Paul and Janice Jenkins have remained great supporters of organ and harpsichord study at Stetson, and ask that memorial contributions be made to the Paul and Janice Jenkins Organ/Harpsichord Endowment Fund in memory of Paul Jenkins. To make an online gift, visit www.stetson.edu/give or send a check to Stetson University, School of Music, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., Unit 8286, DeLand, Florida 32723.
—Boyd Jones
John E. and Aleise Price Professor of Organ
Stetson University
Myles Kenneth Tronic, 64, of Worcester, Massachusetts, died August 29 of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Tronic was born August 14, 1951, in Worcester and attended St. Mark’s School in Southborough, where he began organ studies. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree in French from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He was a music critic for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, and served as organist and choir director at several Massachusetts churches: First Congregational Church, Milford; St. Columba Catholic Church, Paxton; First Congregational Church, Spencer; and Grafton-Upton Unitarian-Universalist Church, Grafton. At the time of his death, he was director of music for St. Leo’s Catholic Church of Leominster. Myles Kenneth Tronic is survived by two brothers, Michael Tronic and Dr. Bruce Tronic; his sister-in-law, Joan; two nephews, Robert and his wife, Vasanti, and Brian; a niece, Kimberly; and a grandnephew, Kiran.
Choral conductor, composer, and organist David Willcocks died peacefully at home on September 17. He was 95. Willcocks was famous for his choral arrangements of Christmas carols, many of which were written for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College Cambridge.
Born in Newquay in 1919, Willcocks became a chorister at Westminster Abbey at the age of eight, where he was conducted by Edward Elgar. His connection with King’s College began in 1939 when he became an organ scholar. Elected to a fellowship in 1947, he subsequently held the post of director of music from 1957 to 1974, helping the college choir achieve huge success. He then became the director of the Royal College of Music and, in 1981, was one of musical directors for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
For some 38 years from 1960, he also trained the Bach Choir—the most popular amateur choir in Britain—giving frequent premieres of works by contemporary British composers, including the first performance of Britten’s War Requiem at La Scala in Italy, then in Japan, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Sir David was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1971 and was knighted
in 1977.
