Title
To honor, recognize, and celebrate the life of Mr. Donald Harris and to extend our sincerest condolences to his family and friends on the occasion of his passing, Tuesday, March 29, 2016.
Body
WHEREAS, Mr. Donald Harris, died peacefully on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, surrounded by family and some of his dearest friends; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris was an American composer born April 7, 1931, in St. Paul, Minnesota to the late Barney and Hattie Harris; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris earned his bachelors and master's degrees in composition from The University of Michigan where he was a student of Ross Lee Finney; continued his studies with Lukas Foss, Boris Blacher, Nadia Boulanger and Max Deutsch; and later received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Ohio State University in June 2012; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris lived in Paris from 1954 until 1968, where among other things, he was a music consultant to the United States Information Service - producing the city's first postwar Festival of Contemporary American Music; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris served as an administrator at the New England Conservatory of Music from 1967-1977, Dean of the Hartt School of Music located at the University of Hartford from 1977-1988, and later became Dean of the College of the Arts and professor of music at the Ohio State University from 1988-1997; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris, after a thirty-year career as a senior-level administrator in higher education and the arts, stepped down as Dean and rejoined the OSU faculty in composition; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris was the past president of The International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD); served on the board of the Ballet Met, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Martin Luther King Center, and the Johnstone Fund for New Music, where he was twice honored with the OSU School of Music's Distinguished Service Award “in recognition of his trailblazing contributions and dedicated service that he provided to the music profession and the arts community as a composer, professor and arts administrator;" and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris received numerous commissions, including but not limited to the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Radio France, the Cleveland Orchestra, and others; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris was the co-editor of the W. W. Norton publication of the correspondence between Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg for which he received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 1989; and was honored with an award in composition from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1991; and
WHEREAS, A documentary about Mr. Harris entitled "Sonata 1957" was produced by Daniel Beliavsky in 2011; this documentary explored Mr. Harris' development in mid-20th-century Paris, when pre-war musical thought bridged with post-war experimentation - Mr. Harris was also honored by The King Arts Complex with the Legends & Legacies award in October of 2011 - however aside from the numerous accolades and awards that have been bestowed upon Mr. Donald Harris over the years , for those who knew him, he will best be remembered as a genuine, kind man who was a mentor to many; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Harris is survived by his loving wife, Marilyn; sons, Daniel Yves (Tracy) and Jeremy William (Aileen); daughters, Leanne Moulton of Amherst, MA, and Kristine (Bob) Phillips of Stratford, CT; grandchildren, Marc, Spencer, Sophia and Amelia Harris, Aubrey Mae Moulton, and Carrie Phillips; great-granddaughter, Marleigh Hope; brother L.R. "Buddy" (Natalie) Harris of Palm Springs, CA.; and several nieces and nephews, now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That this Council does hereby honor, recognize, and celebrate the life of Mr. Donald Harris, and extends our sincerest condolences to his family and friends on the occasion of his passing Tuesday, March 29, 2016.