Hoyle Carpenter
Any music student at Glassboro from 1957 to 1976 had a seat in one of the classes taught by Professor Hoyle Carpenter. “When I started, I was a jack of all trades, including teaching piano, organ and oboe,” he says. Moving from his home in California with his wife, Rose, he saw the opportunity in Glassboro as “interesting.”

Until the mid-1950s, faculty members had little opportunity to teach courses in much depth because survey-style instruction dominated the curriculum. But immediately before Carpenter joined the faculty, a new curriculum came to be, according to Dean Robert D. Bole’s history of the college, More than Cold Stone. The new plan’s “enlarged opportunities attracted to Glassboro a new breed of faculty members who were specialists in fields of knowledge.”

With his doctoral degree earned at the University of Chicago, Carpenter helped Glassboro qualify for its rank in the top quarter of the nation’s colleges in faculty preparation.
Indeed, Carpenter was part of a new breed of professionals poised to meet the growing demand for music educators well-versed as scholars but not at the expense of performance. Having played oboe in the Woodbury Symphony and piano as a soloist, Carpenter reflects that a successful musician “must be adequate technically, but the more you know about music, the better chance you have of performing a piece well and being able to instruct others.”

Carpenter taught specialized courses including Piano and Organ Literature and continued developing his skill and interest in music research. Years later when selected for inclusion in the International Who’s Who in Music, his profile would identify him as a musicologist, organist and educator with many publications, professional memberships and honors.

Carpenter and his colleagues Clarke Pfleeger, Clarence Miller and the late Frank Astor designed a four-year degree program that required students to take 128 credit hours: 36 music credits along with teaching and general education courses. The 1958 curriculum is much like today’s, preparing students for both elementary and secondary school. “The goal was to produce good teachers,” Carpenter says. “We had no trouble enrolling students.”

Today Carpenter plays piano and recorder occasionally and regularly researches and writes program notes for performances and recording projects. Local musicians and those at a distance rely on his vast knowledge and writing skill. “It keeps me going,” he says.

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Alumni can help keep the music program strong through support of scholarship funds and other investments. Donations can be made in honor of retired faculty or as unrestricted gifts to the music program. Call Anne Hagan at 856-256-5402 or visit the Rowan University Foundation.