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Summer 2009 | Volume 67, No. 4
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William J. Reynolds, Renowned Professor and Hymnologist, Passes Away
by Southwestern News Staff
William J. Reynolds, church musician, composer, arranger, editor, hymnologist, and distinguished professor emeritus of church music at Southwestern died March 28. He was 88.
Reynolds was the nephew of I.E. Reynolds, a pioneer in gospel music at Southwestern for 30 years. In 1915, I.E. Reynolds led Southwestern in a systematic training of church musicians by outlining the emphases that continue to this day. William J. Reynolds followed in his uncle’s footsteps.
For 25 years Reynolds served with the church music department of the Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources). In 1980, he was appointed to the faculty of Southwestern as professor of church music, serving there until his retirement in 1998.
After his retirement, Reynolds donated to the Bowld Music Library at Southwestern Seminary an extensive music collection containing more than 1,500 volumes of hymnody, including hymnals, biographies of hymn writers, and histories of congregational hymn singing.
Reynolds authored two hymnal handbooks, Hymns of Our Faith (1964) and Companion to Baptist Hymnal (1976) and a hymnology textbook, A Survey of Christian Hymnody (1964). He also contributed to Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (1992) and wrote a history of music at Southwestern Seminary, The Cross & the Lyre: The Story of the School of Church Music (1944).
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