Dr. Sarah Ruth Reid

Sarah Ruth “Sally” Johnston Reid
BIRTH
30 Jan 1948
East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio, USA
DEATH
21 Dec 2019 (aged 71)
Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA
BURIAL
Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum
Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA
MEMORIAL ID
205641585 · View Source
MEMORIAL
PHOTOS 2
FLOWERS 3
Dr. Sarah "Sally" (Johnston '69) Reid, professor emerita of music, died Dec. 21, 2019, in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 71. Funeral Service will be held on Friday, December 27, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. with a one hour visitation prior to the service at Otter Creek Church of Christ.
Reid was born Jan. 30, 1948, in East Liverpool, Ohio, and graduated from Box Elder High School in Brigham City, Utah, in 1965.
She married Dr. Brad Reid ('70) on Aug. 18, 1974, and they each taught on the ACU faculty – she in music and he in business – for more than three decades.
She earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from ACU, a master's degree in music theory/composition from Hardin-Simmons University (1970) and a doctorate in music theory from The University of Texas at Austin (1980). Sally received her Ph.D. in Music Theory from the University of Texas at Austin. As a composer and professor, she touched the lives of many future musicians at Abilene Christian University and Lipscomb University. Sally was a pioneer in electronic music and set up the original music computer lab at Abilene Christian. She won many composition prizes from Mu Phi Epsilon, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awards, and first prize of the Fifth International Festival of Women Composers. She served as editor of the International League of Women Composers (ILWC) Journal from 1991–95 and as president of the International Alliance for Women in music from 1999-2000. Sally's compositions have played worldwide including in Fiuggi, Italy and the Vatican.
Reid was an award-winning music faculty member from 1970-2001 as an instructor (1970), assistant professor (1974), associate chair (1978), chair (1979), associate professor (1980) and professor (1986). Her primary teaching fields were oboe and English horn, and music theory. She also was a pioneer in digital synthesis.
She was Department of Music chair from 2008-16 at Lipscomb University, where she retired as professor in 2017. Under her leadership, Reid grew its music program from a department to a School of Music and to achieve an All-Steinway School status, among other accomplishments. She also was an important voice in helping shape Lipscomb's George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts, and in creating a commercial music degree program.
A prolific composer, she won a composition prize from Mu Phi Epsilon, a number of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awards, and her Fiuggi Fanfare for saxophone quintet won first prize at the Fifth International Festival of Women Composers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1998. Reid served as editor of the International League of Women Composers (ILWC) Journal (1991-95) and as president of the International Alliance for Women in music (1999-2000). She appeared in the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston in 2005.
Her Jesus, Redeemer, Messiah composition, with lyrics by Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon ('77), was performed in September 2000 in Rome's Vatican Audience Chamber as part of the Roman Catholic Church's Jubilee 2000 celebration.
Reid was a longtime member of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra. Reid also chaired the music advisory panel for the Texas Commission on the Arts, and served on the Board of Officers and Directors of the Texas Association of Music Schools.
Sally is survived by her husband of 45 years, Braxton (Brad) Reid; children Sarah Gibson and husband Paul, Julia Edgecombe and husband Troy, and William Reid; grandchildren Emily Gibson, Colette Edgecombe, and two on the way; sisters Marjory Johnston, Cynthia Brewer and brother Richard Johnston; along with many other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, William Dale Johnston and Mabel Ruth Voyles Johnston; and a brother, Daniel Johnston.

Family Members
Parents

William Dale Johnston
1922–2017

Mabel Ruth Voyles Johnston
1923–2010

Siblings

Daniel Dale Johnston
1961–2019

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/205641585/sarah-ruth-reid