Travis Stimeling (1980-2023)

Travis David Stimeling of Buckhannon, WV, born April 7th, 1980, passed away in their home in Morgantown, WV, on Tuesday, November 14th, 2023. From the beginning, Travis had music in them. They grew up singing and playing guitar in church and found a path to West Virginia Wesleyan College with their trombone, graduating with a BA in Music in 2001. There, they were under the mentorship of David “Doc” Milburn who was deeply invested in Travis, so much so that Travis lovingly carried on his legacy through their own teaching.

After receiving a Masters in Music History at West Virginia University in 2003 and a PhD in Musicology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2007, they taught at Millikin University in Decatur, IL. Eventually, they made their way back home to West Virginia where they taught at WVU and created minors in Appalachian Music and Appalachian Studies. Throughout their career, they advised and mentored thousands of students and colleagues through not only their academic and professional journeys but their personal journeys as well. Travis’s office was always a safe haven for those who needed it.

In addition to being a professor, Travis was a musician, music producer, musicologist, ethnomusicologist, scholar of commercial country and Appalachian traditional music, editor, coauthor, and author of over ten books and numerous articles. Though they had many accomplishments, Travis was most proud of their work with the West Virginia University Bluegrass & Old-Time Ensemble. Travis founded the ensemble in 2014 to show that Appalachian music was just as important and worth studying as the classical music filling the halls of the music school. They prioritized touring the ensemble to the primary schools of West Virginia to nurture love and pride of Appalachian music and the people who make it in the youth of the state. More than that, though, Travis created an inclusive space where people of all walks of life could learn how to play music together as a community. Their motto was always “people first, music second.”

Travis was a beloved member of the old-time, bluegrass, and country music scene in Morgantown, attending local jams with friends and performing locally with the band Half Past Four and as a duo with Mary Linscheid. They are survived by their wife and child, Melanie (Jordan) Stimeling and Chris Stimeling of Morgantown, WV; their parents, Charles and Melissa (Dean) Stimeling of Buckhannon, WV; brother, Daniel Clay Stimeling of High Point, NC; parents-in-law Patricia “Edna” Karickhoff and Paul Karickhoff of French Creek, WV; sister-in-law Jennifer Jordan of Ohio; best friend Mary Linscheid of Morgantown, WV; and countless others whom they loved and who loved them. All who knew Travis can carry on their legacy by being supportive, generous, and loving to others.

Grover Pitman (1943-2013)

NEW WILMINGTON, PA. – Grover Allen Pitman, 69, passed away on May 30, 2013, in New Castle, Pa.He was born in 1943, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Mae Belle Reese and John William Pitman and moved shortly thereafter to San Antonio, where he graduated in 1961 from Sam Houston High School.He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD from Catholic University. He completed a college teaching career which spanned 43 years at Muskingum, Winthrop, and Westminster Colleges. At Westminster, he led a number of student tours to Europe and was chair of the music department for several years.Dr. Pitman also played French Horn professionally for 52 years, which included the San Antonio, Austin, Annapolis, Charlotte, Youngstown, and Warren symphony orchestras and numerous woodwind and brass quintets (including the Annapolis Brass Quintet), and he has concertized in Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S.

He served in the U.S. Navy as solo horn of the Naval Academy Band and in the Navy and Army Reserves. He was active in his church, St. John’s Episcopal in Youngstown, serving on the vestry and in the choir.


Robert Matthews 1934-2010

Long time Allegheny Chapter member Robert Eugene Matthews, passed away on Friday, November 12, 2010.  He was born in Akron, Ohio on March 10, 1934, the son of the late John and Mary Quittschreiber Matthews.He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Akron and a Master’s Degree from Columbia University.  He was a Professor of Music at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.   During his teaching and musical career he received numerous professional awards.Matthews was a member of many professional, civic, and volunteer organizations including Kiwanis Club, Zem Zem Shrine Band, American Musicological Society, American Federation of Musicians Local 17, and the American Recorder Society.  He also provided private music lessons to many children and adults.He was preceded in death by his wife, Margaret Nimer Matthews in 2009; and also a brother, Jack Matthews.  Survivors include two daughters, Sheri Shields and her husband, Bryan, of Akron, OH, and Teresa Graham of Woodbridge, VA; a sister, Mary McKinney of Barberton, OH; also five grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

Posted 8/17/10

Alan Krueck  1939-2010

Alan Henry Krueck, 70, of Brownsville, PA, passed away suddenly at his home on June 24, 2010. Alan was born November 15, 1939, the son of the late William F. Krueck and Ruth (Hayes) Krueck of Rochester, NY. Alan Krueck attended various elementary schools in Rochester, Albany and Syracuse, NY, and graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, in 1957.He received a Bachelor of Arts in music and related arts from Syracuse University in 1961. The same year he went to Switzerland to begin work for the doctoral degree in musicology at the University of Zürich. In 1963 he interrupted his studies and obtained a master’s degree in German language and literature from Michigan State University in East Lansing in 1965. He subsequently returned to Switzerland to conclude studies there and received his doctorate in 1966.His doctoral dissertation, The Symphonies of Felix Draeseke: A Study in Consideration of Developments in Symphonic Form in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century, was the first English-language study of Draeseke’s music. Alan joined the faculty of what is now the California University of Pennsylvania in 1967, where he remained for the rest of his career as a professor in the departments of music and modern languages, retiring as emeritus professor in 2004. Dr. Krueck was a renowned expert on late 19th- century music and was the world’s authority on the composer Felix Draeseke, about whom he prepared the chapter in the authoritative Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.He was instrumental in the organization of the International Draeseke Society http://www.draeseke.org/idg/index.htm of Germany and the U.S. and was the founder of AK/Coburg http://www.draeseke.org/akcoburg/index.htm, a music company that received high praise from music periodicals and publications for recordings with a high degree of originality and quality. Alan lectured frequently at scholarly meetings and earlier in June 2010 returned from the 24th annual conference of the Draeseke Society in Germany. He is survived by his brother, Donald of Syracuse; a cousin, Stephen Glanville of Rochester; and many other family members in Rochester and Canada.  His devotion to scholarship was equaled only by the generosity that he shared it with, and encouraged it in, others.  He will be missed and long remembered with great affection by all who had the privilege to know him and experience his sheer exuberance at the variety of life.

By Bob Rej, International Draeseke Society, Published in Syracuse Post Standard, July 4, 2010 more tributes may be found at:  http://www.draeseke.org/krueck/index.htm

Posted 3/20/07

Irving Godt 1923-2006

Dr. Irving Godt, Professor of Musicology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 1970-2003, died Dec. 5, 2006 at his home in Indiana, PA.  A son of Solomon and Sadie Godt, he was born March 13, 1923 in New York City.  He served in the U.S. Army during WWII and is survived by his daughter, Ella Godt and her husband, Drew Silver of Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Godt earned his Ph.D. degree in historical musicology from New York University in 1969, studying with such renowned scholars as Jan LaRue and Gustave Reese.  His early specialty in musicology was Renaissance music, defending a dissertation on Guillaume Costeley.   He began teaching at IUP in 1970, after having taught at the University of Minnesota, Claremont College in California and at the University of Illinois, Urbana.  He taught every undergraduate and graduate course in music history at IUP, and through his teaching became a generalist.

He published more than sixty articles in a wide variety of scholarly journals, and is one of the few musicologists to have published at least one article on every era of music history.   After retirement, he continued to write articles on a wide variety of topics.   At the time of his death he had six articles under review and fourteen awaiting submission.   He wrote or revised three articles for the New Grove 2nd ed. (2001).

Besides his dissertation, he wrote two books which remain unpublished: one on word painting entitled Music About Words and the other a biography and source book on the composer Marianna von Martines with the working title, The Hunt for Marianna: A Lost Composer Found.   He also edited and published a major choral and orchestral work by Martines, her Dixit Dominus  (AR Editions, 1997).  Since 1974, he completed more than twenty trips abroad, to fifty-three cities in ten countries to pursue his research interests.

He made nearly one hundred scholarly presentations, almost forty of them at meetings of the Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society.   He was a founding member of the Chapter, and served as Program Chair and President on several occasions.   He will be greatly missed.

Carl Rahkonen, Indiana University of Pennsylvania