Shirley Patricia Anderson

The Story of Shirley Patricia Anderson October 10, 1933 – August 20, 2018 Shirley was born in Aberdeen, Washington to Donald C. and Lylas (Broom) Anderson. At age 12 she went to The Annie Wright School in Tacoma, WA to study art, receiving her high school diploma in 1952. Shirley excelled in school, receiving her Associate of Arts degree from Colorado Women's College in 1954, her Bachelor of Music from the Philadelphia Musical Academy in 1959, her Masters of Music in Percussion from Combs College of Music in 1961, and her Doctorate in Musicology in 1963. She continued her music education at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts from 1976-1980. She also studied sign language at the Community College of Philadelphia, fine arts and music at the University of Pennsylvania, and art in Japan. She studied percussion with Fred Hinger, Charles Owen and Michael Bookspan while working towards her degrees in music. Shirley taught music therapy at the Coatesville V.A.; percussion at Combs; English composition and fine arts at Rider College in NJ; served 6 years as a social worker for disaster services with the American Red Cross; 17 years on the Aquatics staff at the YMCA; 4 years as the Program Aide to the Mayor's Commission on Services to the Aging in Philadelphia - teaching art to Alzheimer's patients, tutoring children in all classroom subjects and working with the SIDS program at Jefferson Hospital. Shirley also created "Anderson's Animals" - visual teaching aids for music. In 1966, the anti-war demonstrations prompted Shirley to leave her job at Rider College and join the USO. She served as the program director for the Hoover Beach USO in Guam for 2 years, where she created the "Olympiad Games of Guamania". Her Olympiad games included hermit crab races (where she convinced 23 servicemen to sign up as hermit crab jockeys), frog jumping contests, tug-of-war battles, and jump roping contests. While in Guam, she played the timpani with the Guam Symphonic Wind Ensemble, led a 32 member all-Guamanian Girl Scout troop, was a member of the Guam Women's Club and St. John's Episcopal Church. A reporter for the Navy Crossroads stated she was a "many-faceted person, talented and serious, yet unpretentious and full of light, bright ideas. One seldom meets such a delightful enigma as Doctor Shirley Anderson, painter, musician, and teacher who can so easily offset her serious artistic temperament with a sort of endearing wackiness." One of her unusual achievements was successfully spoofing eight distinguished Philadelphia Museum art judges. They awarded her a cash prize for 'Tree,' a self-described monochromatic monoprint. At that time a movement was afoot for more seriousness in art, so of course Shirley took all the green paint she could find, smeared it over a newspaper, and squashed her fingers into the paint. After the mess dried, she saw a resemblance of a tree and entered it in the show. Shirley was the first female percussionist of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. By 1962 she had already written 6 fugues for the organ, performed in Philadelphia. She wrote a piece for 13 percussion instruments, unaccompanied, entitled "Peace for Percussion". It was written for three musicians who run back and forth (in a serious manner) between instruments. In typical Shirley fashion, she claims the piece takes about five minutes to perform…depending on how fast the players can run with dignity. She was very active with the church, serving as a choir member at the Calvary Episcopalian Church, 1st Presbyterian Church, The Church St. James The Less, and Memorial Church of The Good Shepherd. She constantly volunteered her time to serve the needs of others, and always had a blast. She loved being around people and made friends everywhere she went. She was a member of the: Girl Scouts of the USA since 1942; Philadelphia Musical Society, Local 77 - Percussionist, since 1959; Percussive Arts Society; American Musicological Society; served on the Parish Council for the Church of the Holy Trinity along with the Altar Guild, and devotions chairman for the Evening Division of the Women's Group; supporting member of the YWCA; board member of the Alumni Association of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Philadelphia. VIVA (Voices in Vital America). In her free time she loved swimming, scuba diving, writing music and prose, collecting orchids, hiking, canoeing and dachshunds. She was an avid scuba diver, holding memberships with the Guam Marianas Divers, Princeton Y's Divers, the Underwater Society of America , Middle Atlantic Underwater Council , and the Philadelphia Sea Horses. She went on scuba diving expeditions in the Bahama Islands and on the Palancar Reef in Yucatan, Mexico. She received 10 certifications from the Red Cross including Basic Canoeing, Handicapped Swimming Instruction, Senior Life Saving and 3 Fifty Mile Swim cards. She was also certified in small boat handling by the US Coast Guard. She is listed in Personalities of the West and Midwest (1968-1971), won awards from Two-Thousand Women of Achievement, Outstanding Young Women of America, Who's Who of American Women, International Who's Who in Music, and Who's Who of American Musicians. She is survived by her beloved dachshund, Gretchen and friends around the globe who love her dearly.