Katherine Livingston "Kay" Schnitker

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Katherine Schnitker Obituary

Katherine "Kay" Livingston Schnitker

NEW CONCORD: Katherine "Kay" Livingston Schnitker -- pianist, harpsichordist, educator, civic leader, wife and mother -- died Sunday, June 24, 2012, in New Concord, Ohio, her home since 1942. She was born to Corinne G. and Curtiss B. Livingston February 20, 1916, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Associate Professor Emerita of Music and Musician-in-Residence Kay Schnitker and her husband, Wilbur, came to Muskingum University in New Concord in 1942. She taught from 1943-49 and from 1968 until her retirement in 1980. She also served as special assistant to the president for a period. Following retirement, the couple continued to serve the university as goodwill ambassadors and in 1999 were awarded honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of their service.

Together, as duo-pianists, and separately the Schnitkers performed annual university concerts and throughout the midwest and eastern United States. Their artistic legacy has been preserved in recordings by a former student, Lee Weisert: www.crabtownmusic.com.

Kay's piano and harpsichord concerts included the Fine Arts Festival in Rochester, New York and the Put-in-Bay Festival in Ohio. She was well-known as an adjudicator and pedagogue and developed a technology to help keyboard students improve their sight-reading.

A Carthage College graduate with a master's degree from Northwestern University, Kay also studied with noted harpsichordists Dorothy Lane (Northwestern) and Louis Bagger (Eastman School of Music) and pianist/lecturer/author Arthur Loesser (Cleveland Institute of Music.)

Kay was a visionary civic leader who had an enduring influence on her community. She founded and led Community Services, a community-wide provider of food and assistance to home-bound residents; and Renew the Environment of New Concord (RENEW), which renovated the downtown and spawned many other village institutions, including the John and Annie Glenn Historic Site. She served on the board of directors of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Zanesville from 1976-87.

Kay was known for her hilarious sense of humor and many practical jokes on her friends and colleagues. She is survived by her daughter Mary Gifford (Grant) of Alpine, Utah. Her husband, Wib, preceded her in death in 2010.

Calling hours will be at Mock-Miller Funeral Home on Main Street, New Concord on Thursday June 28 from 6:00 pm-8:00 pm. A memorial service will be held at College Drive Presbyterian Church, New Concord at 11:00 am on Friday June 29.

Memorial gifts may be made to the music department at Muskingum University.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Times Recorder on Jun. 27, 2012.

Memories and Condolences
for Katherine Schnitker

4 Entries

Joan Thompson

June 30, 2012

Mary and family, your parents were such important people to me. I will always hold them close to my heart. I think of you often and remember youth group activities while still in New Concord. Joan Wellstead Thompson

Heather Swingle Collins

June 28, 2012

Mary and family,

Do you remember visiting my family in Stovertown? Our Mom's were cousins. And I remember your Dads mastery of the organ & accompanying the congregation in the 1960's at St. John Lutheran in Zanesville. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Roy W. & Nancy A. Carroll

June 27, 2012

Mary, and your family, . . .
Please accept our condolences on the death of your mother, Katherine. Time and distance will keep us from attending Friday's memorial service, but we will be there in spirit and prayer. Her obituary was so well written - thank you for that gift to all those of us who gratefully count ourselves as being part of your mother and father's "extended family."

This morning as I read aloud the list of activities and accomplishments that marked the life of Kay, and the reference to her "joy" in life, Nancy noted that we might also add the title of "matchmaker" to those activities. That Nancy and I are this very day marking the 41st anniversary of our wedding is at least in part due to the subtle, gentle, good-humored and persistent "encouragement" we both received from her during our "courting" days as students at Muskingum.

I also recall being just mesmerized at seeing and hearing "Mrs. S." play the Sperrhake harpsichord that now graces our living room here in Dubuque. Her legacy - and that of Wib's as well, of inspirational music making and teaching, lives on. Nancy and I will be using their harpsichord for the first time in public next month in an upcoming performance during a Fine Arts Week series of chamber music concerts being presented in nearby Galena, IL.

May your times ahead be marked by frequent occurences of beautiful, humor-filled and loving memories of your mom; and may those memories be encountered and shared in presence of family and friends who hold you dear in their hearts.

Roy W.('71) and Nancy A. Carroll ('70), Dubuque,Iowa.

Judge Ray and Martha Miller

June 27, 2012

Kay and Wilbur were certainly remarkable persons. We were priviledged to have known them and have the opportunity to enjoy their music over the years. Our sincere condolences to her family and her many friends. Ray and Martha Miller

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