In Memoriam: George N. Heller
Author(s): Jere T. Humphreys
Source: Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Oct., 2004), pp. 5-7
Published by: Ithaca College
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40215293 .
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in MusicEducation
Journalof HistoricalResearch

October2004 XXVI:1

In Memoriam
GeorgeN. Heller
JHRMEFoundingEditor
This journals founding editor, George N. Heller, was born in Ypsilanti,
Michigan,on December 19, 194 1, and passedawayon July3, 2004, in Lawrence,
Kansas.He attendedpublic schools in Dexter,Michigan, and earneda bachelors
degree in music education (1963) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
where he was a FordMotor Company Fund Scholarand a recipientof a Presser
Foundation Award. He taught public school music in the Michigan cities of
Petersburg(1963-64), Haslett (1964-66), and Farmington (1969-73). From
1967 to 1969, he servedas a tuba soloist, assistantconductor, and staff arranger
while attachedto U.S. Army Bands at Ft. Sheridan,Illinois, and in Heidelberg,
Germany.He completed masters and Ph.D. degreesin music education at the
University of Michigan in 1969 and 1973, respectively.While working on his
doctorate, George was a teaching fellow at Michigan and an instructor of
music at Eastern Michigan University. His doctoral dissertation focused on
sixteenth-centurySpanish music education in Mexico City.
George joined the faculty of the University of Kansasin 1973, rose to the
rankof professorin 1985, and retiredin May 2002. Along the way he directed
six doctoral dissertationsand twenty-two masters theses, and wrote more than
one hundred articles,book chapters,and books on instrumentaland secondary
general music methods, world music, and the history of music education and
music therapy.Among those publications are twenty-two articles on music
education in TheNew GroveDictionaryof AmericanMusic (1986) and a book
entitled CharlesLeonhard:AmericanMusic Educator(1995) .
George served as the first national chair of the History Special Research
Interest Group (SRIG) of the Music Educators National Conference, and in
1994 he received that groups first Distinguished Service and Scholarship
Award.As an outgrowth of his chairmanshipof the History SRIG, in 1980 he
founded The Bulletin of Historical Researchin Music Education. He edited
twenty volumes (forty-five issues) of that journal in as many years before
passing it on to me at Arizona State University in 1999 (where it became the
Journalof Historicalof Researchin Music Education).George also served on the
editorial committees of the Journal of Researchin Music Education,Bulletin of
the Councilfor Researchin Music Education, UPDATE:Applicationsof Research
in MusicEducation,and The QuarterlyJournalof MusicLearningand Teaching,
journalsin which he himself published prolifically.At the time of his death, he
was a member of the editorial committee of the Journal of Music Teacher
Educationand editor emeritus of the JHRME.
5

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6

Journal of HistoricalResearchin Music Education

George was a visiting professor at the University of Washington, the
Universityof Miami (twice),and the Universityof North Carolinaat Greensboro
(threetimes). He was a guest lecturerin music at ArizonaStateUniversity,Ithaca
College, StateUniversityof New Yorkat Potsdam,Towson StateUniversity,and
the universitiesof Cincinnati, Illinois, Maryland, and Rhode Island. He also
servedon the executivecommittees of the MENC Societyfor Researchin Music
Education and MENC Society for Music TeacherEducation, and was a longstanding member of the MENC Hall of Fame Committee. In February2003
the KansasMusic EducatorsAssociation inducted him into the KMEA Hall
of Fame.
With experience as a privatepiano instructor,dance band pianist, church
organist,choir director,arranger,tuba player/soloist,generalmusic teacher,band
director,professorof music education,and singerin variouschurchchoirs,George
was a highly versatilemusician and educator. He was perhaps best known for
his work on the history of music education. Over the years,numerous scholars
expressed to me their admiration for his work, and gratitude for his having
encouragedand inspired them to achieve in that field- surelyone of his most
enduringlegacies.His founding and editing of this journaland his indefatigable
support for his editorial successors is another important contribution to our
profession. His University of Michigan dissertation advisor and career-long
mentor,Allen P.Britton (1918-2003), wrote in 1988 that George,togetherwith
James Scholten and BruceWilson, "... kept the torch of historicalscholarship
alive. . ..'51Indeed, for more than three decades discussions on American music
education history have invariablyincluded the name George Heller.
As very close friends for over eighteen years, George and I typically
correspondedseveraltimes each week, startingwith "snailmail"and continuing
into the electronic age. We discussed and debated many topics over the years,
but one that stands out in my mind today concerned the relativeimportance
in life of courage and awareness,with George coming down on the side of the
former quality and me the latter. Not only did we never settle that issue,
neither of us ever formally conceded the validity of the other's position.
However, during the last two yearsof his life, when he was battling hard to stay
alive, George demonstrateda great deal of both courage and awareness.As his
wife Judy wrote on the afternoon of his death, "He taught us all how to live,
love, learn, and finally how to die."The next day she wrote that George "knew
1. Allen P. Britton, "Researchin Music Education, with ParticularReference to the Historic
and Scientific," in Music in American Schools:1838-1988. Proceedingsof a Symposiumat the
Universityof Maryland, CollegePark,August26-28, 1988, Celebratingthe Sesquicentennialof
Music in AmericanPublic Education,ed. Marie McCarthy and Bruce D. Wilson (College Park,
MD: University of Maryland, 1991), 126.

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Research
inMusicEducation
Journal
ofHistorical

Z

he was loved and will be missed, but he was also tiredof 'fightingthe good fight'
and [was] ready to let go when there were no more options to try."
George was a person of great integrity whose courage, awareness, and
moral principles required him to do the right things in life, no matter how
inconvenient or difficult those decisions and actions might have been (and
sometimes were). That characteristicalone made him a rare human beingone who could and did contribute professionallyat lofty levels and, at the same
time, maintain the highest ethical standardsand great cheerfulness, all while
actively encouraging others to do the same.
Jere T. Humphreys
Arizona State University

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