1976 Nescatunga Honors

from the Alva Review-Courier, September 22, 1976

Oscar Stover One of Nescatunga Honorees

An award for his contribution in the field of music will be presented to Oscar Stover at the Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council banquet Oct. 8 on the Northwestern Oklahoma State University campus.

Stover began his career as an educator teaching junior high vocal music in his home town at the Coffeyville, Kansas public schools in 1935. He moved in 1942 to Kansas State College of Pittsburg as band director and instructor of brass instruments. His work was interrupted by two and one-half years of military service during World War II, most of that time with the 13th Airborne Division Band. 

He returned to Coffeyville in 1947 as instructor of music at Coffeyville Junior College and supervisor of music in the Coffeyville Public Schools. He was granted a leave of absence in 1952 to complete a year’s residency requirement toward an Ed.D. at Michigan State University. In the spring of 1953, he was hired as an instructor of brass instruments at Michigan State and in the fall of the same year was employed full time as assistant director of bands and instructor of percussion instruments. He was later promoted to an assistant professorship. 

During his eight years at Michigan State University, Stover made two trips with the marching band to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, in 1954 and again in 1956. He was faculty advisor for Phi Mu Alpha, Sinfonia-Fraternity.  

In 1960, he took over the chairmanship of the music department at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva, and has served in that capacity and as band director sine that time. 

He is a member of Music Educators National Conference, National Band Association, Oklahoma Band Association, Oklahoma Music Educators Association, College Band Directors Association, Phi Beta Mu and Kappa Kappa Psi. 

In 1970, he was named to the President’s Advisory Committee for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. 

He has authored several articles published in periodicals. A number of his percussion works have been published. He has served as a clinician and adjudicator in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma and Louisiana. He formerly served on the board of advisers for the Slingerland Drum Company. He was elected to the Oklahoma Band Masters Hall of Fame in 1974. 

He was Outstanding Teacher in Coffeyville in 1952 and Teacher of the Year at Northwestern in 1969. He is listed in “Who’s Who in the South and Southwest” “Outstanding Educators of America” and “The World Who’s Who of Musicians.” In the fall of 1974, he returned to Michigan State as guest conductor of the alumni band at the opening of the football season. 

Stover is a past president of the Alva club of Rotary International and is an elder and choir director of the First Presbyterian Church, Alva. 

Stover was the associate director of the bbd part of the American Youth Midwest Bicentennial Band and Choir that went on tour to Europe this past summer. 

He retired this summer from the NWOSU faculty, but is still on staff part-time as music instructor. 

For the past five years, he has been director of the Miss Northwestern Pageant and was associated indirectly with the Miss Oklahoma Pageant. Recently, he has assumed the duties of state field director for the Miss Oklahoma Pageant. 

Many local pageants in Oklahoma and the Miss Colorado pageant have been judged by the Alvan. 

Stover and his wife, Catherine Elizabeth, formerly of Columbus, Kansas, were married August 23, 1936. 

Among his hobbies, Oscar lists fishing, music and model railroading.

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