Dr. Moog and My Alma Mater

Dr. Robert Moog: Synthesizer inventor, UNCA professor.

Just had lunch with one of the most delightful people I know, Robyn Schon, and the always-full-of-info Roanoke Civic Center manager dropped this on me:

My buddy Robyn Schon, laughing, as usual.

Dr. Bob Moog, inventor of the synthesizer--the thing that changed music dramatically in the 1970s--used to head a department at the closest thing I have to an alma mater, UNC Asheville.

In fact, a few years ago, UNCA dedicated the new Bob Moog Electronic Music Studio to him, posthumously. Robyn's former husband, a piano player, studied under Moog when they lived in Asheville. I attended UNCA long enough to flunk out (never passed a course), but I still think of it fondly.

Says this piece from the UNCA website: "Moog retired from full-time teaching in 1993 and went back to work tinkering with electronics until his death. Moog died in 2005 at the age of 71 from an inoperable brain tumor. Musicians around the world mourned, and the New York Times eulogized Moog with a half-page obituary. Memorial concerts were held, and a foundation was established to preserve his archives."