Former BU professor to receive lifetime achievement award posthumously

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This article was published 20/05/2022 (1386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Brandon University music professor William Gordon will be attending the school’s upcoming spring convocation in spirit, since he is one of the latest recipients of the school’s lifetime achievement award.

Kathie Gordon will accept the award on her husband’s behalf during the May 26 portion of the school’s two-day graduation ceremony.

Gordon died last October at the age of 75 after suffering a heart attack. News of his death prompted a massive response from friends, colleagues and former students, many of whom paid tribute to his 50-year career on social media and elsewhere.

This outpouring of goodwill eventually manifested in a drive to nominate Gordon for the lifetime achievement award, with current BU staff like music professor Wendy McCallum believing that he more than meets that standard.

“Bill’s outreach, musical leadership, vision, dedication, compassion and mentorship touched BU students and alumni, colleagues in the School of Music, the local community, and the Canadian music scene,” McCallum wrote in her award nomination letter. “He provided 50 years of service to BU in the School of Music and in student services, and his service and outreach merit recognition and celebration.”

Gordon originally joined BU in the fall of 1970 and taught at the School of Music in a full-time capacity until the end of 2013. Even after retiring, Gordon continued to provide university-level instruction until 2020.

Thursday’s news release from BU highlighted some of Gordon’s major career accomplishments during his time at the university.

They include directing the very first BU concert band and going on to conduct groups like the School of Music’s wind band, wind ensemble, symphonic band, orchestra, percussion ensemble and brass ensemble.

Gordon also took on a variety of high-ranking administrative responsibilities when the situation called for it, serving as the acting dean of music on three separate occasions and chairing the music education committee from 1970 to 1981.

Former student Wendy Stenger also pointed to Gordon’s contribution to the Queen Elizabeth II Music Building, since he is credited as a project co-ordinator for the design and construction of the structure.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever been in another building with such definite functionality and purpose,” Stenger wrote in her nomination letter. “Bill has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to music education and to Brandon University and has done so with deep professionalism and aptitude.”

Even before he arrived at BU, Gordon was an accomplished horn player in his country of birth, the United Kingdom.

After graduating from the Royal College of Music in London, Gordon immediately won a chair in Ireland’s acclaimed Ulster Orchestra and would go on to play in recording sessions that led to The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

Once he moved to Canada in 1967, Gordon eventually pivoted into the realm of education, teaching at Gordon Bell High School and Sisler High School in Winnipeg before getting a job in Brandon.

Throughout his lengthy run at BU, Gordon took on almost every course and subject imaginable at the School of Music and was deeply engaged in the design of the university’s curricula from a student-success perspective.

“He was enormously generous in welcoming new colleagues, gently showing us the ropes, and being incredibly open to new ideas,” BU dean of music Greg Gatien said shortly after Gordon’s death last year.

“He was a role model in so many ways and taught so much to so many of us … We will miss him a great deal and always be grateful to have had him on our faculty.”

The BU lifetime achievement award is approved by the university’s Senate every year. The award recognizes people who have made significant contributions to the broader school community and their own lives.

Longtime BU librarian Heather Coulter will also receive a lifetime achievement award at next week’s spring convocation.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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