Dale Peters

Submitted By jev0010 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:00am
Dale Hugh Peters (’52, ’53), Denton, Professor Emeritus of music, 1959-2005, died July 16. He was coordinator of organ and harpsichord instruction for 20 years and served for 12 years as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Music. His organ students won state and regional contests and held college teaching positions and church music appointments in several states.Peters earned bachelor’s degrees in organ and English from North Texas and a master’s in musicology from Columbia University. He won first prize in the American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition in 1954 and served as assistant organist/choirmaster at St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University before receiving a Fulbright grant for study in Denmark. In 1983, he passed the American Guild of Organists choirmaster examination and received the highest score nationwide on the guild’s Fellowship examination, which earned him the S. Lewis Elmer Award.Peters began playing organ at the First United Methodist Church in Denton in 1949 and, after a break for graduate study and Army service, became the full-time choir director and organist in 1963, serving in those positions for 40 and 50 years. The church is home to the Dale H. Peters Sanctuary Pipe Organ. Peters and his wife, the late vocalist and lecturer Juanita Teal Peters (’51), regularly presented concerts together. Donations may be made to the College of Music’s Dale Peters Organ Scholarship.

Dale Hugh Peters (’52, ’53), Denton, Professor Emeritus of music, 1959-2005, died July 16. He was coordinator of organ and harpsichord instruction for 20 years and served for 12 years as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Music. His organ students won state and regional contests and held college teaching positions and church music appointments in several states.Peters earned bachelor’s degrees in organ and English from North Texas and a master’s in musicology from Columbia University. He won first prize in the American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition in 1954 and served as assistant organist/choirmaster at St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University before receiving a Fulbright grant for study in Denmark. In 1983, he passed the American Guild of Organists choirmaster examination and received the highest score nationwide on the guild’s Fellowship examination, which earned him the S. Lewis Elmer Award.Peters began playing organ at the First United Methodist Church in Denton in 1949 and, after a break for graduate study and Army service, became the full-time choir director and organist in 1963, serving in those positions for 40 and 50 years. The church is home to the Dale H. Peters Sanctuary Pipe Organ. Peters and his wife, the late vocalist and lecturer Juanita Teal Peters (’51), regularly presented concerts together. Donations may be made to the College of Music’s Dale Peters Organ Scholarship.

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