Rodney H. Butler, professor and chair of the music department and chair of the Division of Performing, Visual and Digital Arts at California State University, Dominguez Hills, passed away at his home on Nov. 27. Butler was currently serving as chair of the university’s Academic Senate.

A Dominguez Hills alumnus (Class of ’73), Butler pursued his graduate studies at the Musikhogskolen in Oslo, Norway, and the University of Oslo. He completed his Master of Arts degree and doctorate in music theory and composition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He began his career at Dominguez Hills in 1991 following his tenure as music faculty and division chair of fine arts at Brookhaven Community College in Dallas, Tex. Prior to that, he served as head of the music department at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.

Butler was a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and held membership in many scholarly and professional organizations including Phi Mu Alpha, the Society of Music Theorists, and the National Association of American Composers and Conductors. Among his honors are grants and awards from the American Scandinavian Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the University of California Foreign Study Grant, and First Prize in the All Army Composers Arrangers Contest in 1968. A native of Southern Southern California, Butler is survived by one daughter, two sons, a daughter-in-law, a brother and sister-in-law.

> Click here to see the Tributes and Remembrances for Dr. Rod Butler 1947-2007