Stanley Newmyer Shumway

STANLEY NEWMYER SHUMWAY was born in Omaha, Nebraska on February 19, 1932, and was raised and educated in the small town of Lyons, Burt County, Nebraska. His parents were Lorin L. and Helen Newmyer Shumway. He worked on the family farm and enjoyed the security of growing up in a happy and secure environment, surrounded by his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. He graduated from Lyons High School in 1950. That summer he traveled to Paris, France with a youth group.

In the fall of that year, Stan enrolled at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He majored in music and in five years earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He was active in many musical activities. As a trombonist, he participated in the Concert and Marching Bands, University Orchestra, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, National Guard Band and several small ensembles. For three years he was trombone soloist with the NU Concert Band on annual tours around the state. He was an assistant in music theory as an undergraduate, and later he was a Graduate Teaching Assistant in brass instruments. He was president of the band and also of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha. With the latter he organized and directed a male glee club that performed around the city and the university.

He married Janice Ann Fullerton in 1954. Jan, an accomplished pianist, developed a fine career as a performer and teacher. They were to have five beloved children. The oldest, Steven, died in 2000. All five earned degrees from KU and four of those degrees are in music. Those four went on to earn advanced degrees and pursue successful careers in music.

In July 1955, after completing a Master’s degree in music at Nebraska, Stan was drafted into the U. S. Army. He took basic training at Ft. Leonard, MO followed by Army Band School at Ft. Knox, KY. While at Ft. Knox he auditioned for and was accepted into the Seventh Army Symphony. However, his orders were changed at the last minute and he was assigned to the Seventh Infantry Division Band stationed at Camp Casey in northern South Korea, the only military base where he could not take his family. The assigned tour to Korea was for 16 months. During that time he organized a glee club and organized and taught a class in music theory. He became first sergeant of the band company.

Upon his return from Korea he joined his wife, Jan, on the music faculty of Midland College in Fremont, NE. In 1959, after two years at Midland, he was accepted into the doctoral program in music theory at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he became a Graduate Teaching Assistant. He completed the PhD program two years later and joined the music faculty at KU in 1961.

He remained at KU for the next 35 years, teaching undergraduate and graduate classes in music theory. In 1970 he published Harmony and Ear Training at the Keyboard , which was widely used at colleges and universities around the country and abroad, and was published in Spanish and Chinese. He also did administrative work including several stints as Associate Dean of the School of Fine Arts. There had never been a unified music unit at KU; rather the music faculty was organized into several small departments. Those small units were unified in 1981, and Stan became the chair of the first true music department in KU history, a post he held for five years. He also served as chair of the Annual Symposium of Contemporary American Music. Each year the Symposium hosted a notable composer, including Gunther Schuller and Aaron Copland.

Stan secured a grant to establish the first electronic music studio at KU. He composed music for various media, often for his own family. He provided electronic music and effects for several University Theatre productions including Equus and Rashomon.

Stan was a member of the Rotary Club and Plymouth Congregational Church. He served on the board of the Lawrence Arts Center and worked to raise funds for the new facility. He retired from KU in 1996 and returned several times to teach and do administrative work. He enjoyed his family, golf, and gardening, especially roses. He was preceded in death by an older sister, Lois Jean, (1928-1935) and a son, Steven, (1955-2000).

Survivors include wife: Jan Shumway; sister: Mary Rounsborg; daughter-in-law: Christine House Shumway, children: Susan Shumway, Sally Shumway Satalof, Mary Berry (Richard), David Shumway (Cynthia); grandchildren: Morgan Shumway, Dylan Shumway, Tyler Joseph (Michele), Madelyn Joseph, Sydney Satalof, Sarah Cranston (David), Daniel Berry, Amy Foley (Ryan), David Berry, Samuel Shumway, Peter Shumway (Emily Call-Shumway); great-grandchildren: Ian Cranston, Wyatt Cranston.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Plymouth Congregational Church or the Lawrence Arts Center and may be sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13 ^th Street, Lawrence, KS 66044.