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Reunion '98 features a special 90th birthday
tribute to the music school's professor emeritus and former dean
Craig McHenry '30, M.S. '46
Top Drawer
A personal tribute by Mary I. Arlin '61
This year’s Reunion concert, "A
Little Night Music," was especially festive as alumni, faculty,
and friends gathered to celebrate the 90th birthday of Craig
McHenry ’30, M.S.’46, retired longtime professor and
dean of the School of Music.
 Craig came as a
student to the Ithaca Conservatory of Music in 1926; he is one
of the last links to the College’s founder, W. Grant Egbert
(1867–1928). A fine cornet player, he performed with the
famed Patrick Conway band while still an undergraduate; he was
an equally talented cellist. Following his 1930 graduation, he
joined the faculty, mastering the challenging arts of teaching
conducting, brass instruments, theory, and sightsinging. For
20 years he conducted the College orchestra. He instituted the
annual concerto program, and from 1931 to 1957 was the musical
director of numerous musicals and Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
[He is pictured here circa 1942 in a photo courtesy of Laura
Hammond Burchard '43.]
After Craig was appointed dean of the School
of Music in 1957, he was instrumental in revitalizing the curriculum;
his philosophy of education recognized the need for thorough
musicianship within a well-balanced curriculum. He received an
honorary doctorate from the College in 1979 and was the 1995
recipient of the alumni association’s Lifetime Achievement
Award.
Dean Arthur E. Ostrander gave opening remarks
at the Reunion concert. Marti George Rideout ’70, minister
of music and liturgy at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke,
Virginia, opened the recital with a chorale by Joseph Jongen,
five chorale preludes from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein,
and Toccata by Theodore Dubois. Glenn Guiles ’75, associate
professor of music and chair of the performance department at
the Crane School of Music of the State University of New York
College at Potsdam, performed Three Dances by Michael
Head and Camille Saint-Säens’s Sonata for Oboe and
Piano, accompanied on piano by assistant professor of music Diane
Birr. James Wallenberg ’74, a violinist in
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, performed Mozart’s Duo in
G Major with Debra Moree, associate professor of viola. The recital
concluded with a selection of Broadway tunes sung by soprano
Patrice Pickering ’73, who has spent the last nine years
performing in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
 As
the audience joined Pickering and Birr in singing "Poem
for Dr. McHenry" by Deborah Erftenbeck ’71 to the tune
of High above Cayuga’s Waters, Craig and his wife,
Fran, came to the stage and were presented with a bouquet that
had been wired to them by Marianne T. Ling ’67 in Guildford,
England. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" as Craig blew
out his 90 candles.
 As
a special birthday gift, we presented Craig with a book of more
than 200 letters, reminiscences, mementos, and photographs from
alumni and former faculty. To give the audience a sense of the
admiration we alumni have for Craig, I read random excerpts from
a few of the letters. "Your musicianship, dedication, vitality,
and enthusiasm are still a constant inspiration" (Dorothea
Haniman Tonnesen ’34). "You did a great job of building
the music department into the highly respected School of Music.
It reflects your own excellent musicianship, top-drawer standards,
scholarship, and executive ability" (Dorothy Voorhees Taylor
’43). "To this day, I still try to imitate your conducting
style and technique" (Anthony Cappadonia ’48). "Your
kindness and caring to all the music students . . . made a difference.
That was the attitude I took into my teaching career" (Robert
Parada ’59). "The name Craig McHenry is synonymous
with the Ithaca College School of Music that I first knew and
loved" (Roland Bentley, M.S. ’61). "I was always
impressed with your genuine concern for all of the students
in the School of Music and with the obvious love you had for
your job. (Your attendance at all those hundreds of student recitals
was certainly proof of that!)" (Henry Slechta ’64).
"Thank you for your high standards, which we as students
aspired to meet" (David ’75 and Diane Schorge ’75
Mathie).
As a College and as a music school, we are
indebted to Craig. The special 90th birthday recital was a very
small token of our sincere appreciation for all that he has done
for the School of Music and for each of its students.  |
