Beverly Archer Rawles passed away on September 17, 2019 at the age of 89. She began piano lessons with Cynthia Adams at the age of 67 and at the age of 76 began lessons with Janice Cook. She never had music lessons as a child and was actually discouraged from singing by an elementary school music teacher (sad but true). She had a PhD in Adult Education – and a highly successful career – but found piano (and harp) study difficult. She wrote an article called “Advice to the Adult Who Plans to Begin Taking Piano Lessons” and it appeared in Keyboard Companion Magazine in the late 1990s.
When Cynthia served as CEOMTA President, Beverly joined as a Patron Member. She then got involved, serving as Publicity Chairman and working at the Ribbon Table at Scale Olympics three times. She LOVED seeing the kids being awarded their ribbons.
Beverly generously donated money to CEOMTA, and then about six years ago, set up a fund at The Columbus Foundation – the Beverly A. Rawles Fund for Music Education. CEOMTA administers the funds to help students with financial need, and for teachers who want to keep learning. You can read about it here: http://www.ceomta.org/beverly-a-rawles-fund-for-music-education
On Saturday, January 11, 2020 a Memorial Service to celebrate Beverly’s life will be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – 2151 Dorset Rd Columbus, OH 43221 (Upper Arlington). Music will begin at 1:35 p.m. and the service will start at 2:00 p.m. There will be a brief reception afterwards where we can share stories about Bev, eat birthday cake, and sing to her. She LOVED birthdays and was looking forward to her 90th, which would have been on January 14.
If you would like to “pay it forward” and help others the way Bev helped us, you can make a donation to her fund here: https://www.columbusfoundation.org/checkout/checkout-details?PortraitId=2724&PortraitType=Fund
You can also contribute to the CEOMTA Endowment fund: http://www.ceomta.org/endowment-fund
Music enriched Beverly’s life tremendously the last 22 years of her life. We were fortunate beyond measure to have her share her passion for music study with us.
Beverly’s complete obituary can be read at: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/beverly-rawles-obituary?pid=194016227
