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James Coover, retired director of music library
James Burrell Coover, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Music and retired director of the Music Library, died May 28 in his Williamsville home after a brief illness. He was 78.
Born in Jacksonville, Ill., Coover developed a love of jazz and classical music while growing up in Colorado. He became a drummer and percussionist, and played with jazz ensembles.
After high school, he joined the Army and served in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in music theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado and a master's degree from the University of Denver.
He was director of the George Sherman Dickinson Music Library at Vassar College from 1953-67. He played percussion and timpani in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Society from 1959-67 while also serving as the orchestra's personnel manager and special concerts manager.
Coover and a Vassar colleague, Carol June Bradley, came to UB in 1967 and, as director and associate director, respectively, built—essentially from scratch—a small music library into a large, diverse, research collection to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding music department. They also oversaw the music library's move in 1981 from the South Campus to its present home in Baird Hall on the North Campus.
Both Coover and Bradley were honored by the New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association following their joint retirement in 1999. Coover also served a term as president of the association and received a Distinguished Service Citation from the group in 1990.
Coover held the Birge-Cary Chair in the Department of Music from 1974-76 and 1978-81, and also was Ziegele Professor of Music from 1981 until his retirement. In addition, he held an appointment as an adjunct professor in the then School of Information and Library Science. In 1992, he was named a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees.
A tireless researcher, Coover published numerous articles in scholarly journals and wrote nearly a dozen books, including "Medieval and Renaissance Music on Long-Playing Records" in 1964, "Music Publishing, Copyright and Piracy in Victorian England" in 1985 and "Private Music Collections: Catalogs and Cognate Literature" in 2001.
A private memorial service is planned.