COOVER, James B(urrell) 1925-2004

(C. B. James)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 3, 1925, in Jacksonville, IL; died May 28, 2004, in Williamsville, NY. Educator, library director, musician, and author. Coover was a music professor emeritus at the University of Buffalo. After serving in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, he attended Northern Colorado University, where he earned a master's degree in 1950, and the University of Denver, where he received a second M.A. in 1953. His first job was with the Bibliographical Center for Research in Denver, where he was assistant director until 1953; he then joined the faculty at Vassar College. At Vassar he was director of the George Sherman Dickinson Library, remaining at that post until 1967. While there, Coover played timpani and percussion for the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, also serving as the group's manager of personnel and special concerts. In 1967 he moved to the University of Buffalo faculty as professor of music; he chaired the department from 1974 to 1976, and again from 1978 to 1981, when he was named Ziegele Professor of Music. Coover retired as a professor emeritus in 2000. Named State University of New York Distinguished Service Professor in 1992, he was the author or editor of several books, many of which concerned music librarianship. Among these are Music Lexicography Including a Study of Lacunae: 1500-1700 (1958), Music Instrument Collections (1981), Music Publishing, Copyright, and Piracy in Victorian England (1985), and his last work, Private Music Collections: Catalogs and Cognate Literature (2001).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Buffalo News, June 4, 2004, p. D4.

Library Hotline, June 28, 2004, p. 2.

ONLINE

UB Reporter,http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/ (June 10, 2004).