Remembering Dr. Paul
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
At Tabor's Learning in Retirement Program last Thursday, director Connie Isaac asked the crowd two questions.
"How many of you have sung under the direction of Paul Wohlgemuth?" Issac said. "How many of you have sung out of the 'green hymnal'"?
By the time she'd asked the second question, nearly three-fourths of the crowd had raised their hands.
The group of more than 100 people gathered on March 21 to remember the life of Dr. Paul Wohlgemuth, the legendary Tabor music professor who died in a tragic car accident in 1987. The Wohlgemuth Music Center was built in his honor.
On hand at the program were Barbara Wohlgemuth Franz, Dr. Wohlgemuth's widow, and their two sons, Gary and Steven.
"In preparing for this, I realized that there could be so much said about his life," said Gary Wohlgemuth, now a vice president at Fidelity Bank and a part-time instructor at Tabor's Wichita campus.
Paul Wohlgemuth was born in Fairview, Okla., in 1927. Growing up, he developed his love of music on the piano and accompanied many musical groups.
"Music was an interest of his even back in grade school," Gary said.
When the Tabor College choir came to his church, Paul thought the music was amazing — and he wanted to join that choir himself one day.
He did, when he eventually left home to attend Tabor in Hillsboro. But Tabor didn't have a music major at that time, so Paul majored in biology. It was between his junior and senior years that he married Barbara Thiessen.
Paul and his wife eventually moved to Emporia, where he earned his master's degree in music. And then came an even bigger move — to the West Coast, where Paul earned his doctorate at the University of Southern California. His dissertation was titled "Mennonite hymnals published in the English language."
The Wohlgemuth family — now including sons Gary and Steven — stayed in the Los Angeles area for about ten years before heading back toward home to teach at Tabor College.
"He said, 'I just want to give back to Tabor because they had such an impact on my life,'" Gary said.
In addition to serving as the choir director and the head of the Tabor music department, Wohlgemuth also started the Kansas Mennonite Men's Chorus.
"He really loved that," Gary said.
Paul Wohlgemuth took his choirs very seriously, always conducting a very strict rehearsal, said son Steven Wohlgemuth, now vice president of information services for Flint Industries of Tulsa.
"He said God was listening, not just the audience," Steven said.
But it wasn't just his commitment to music that made him a special individual — it was his commitment to family and friends, Steven said.
"His professional and family life were very much interwoven," he said. "His life was one of service. He made a difference in peoples' lives."
