Funeral services for Dr. Francis Mayer

Funeral services Friday for Dr. Francis Mayer, longtime St. Thomas band director

Dr. Francis Mayer, who for 35 years conducted St. Thomas Concert Band, died Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007. He was 95.

Mayer was among 28 faculty who joined the College of St. Thomas faculty in 1948, as the college enjoyed a bursting-at-the-seams enrollment of former servicemen and pointed with pride to a new ROTC unit.

Dr. Francis Mayer May 1978 photo

Appointed instructor of woodwinds instruments and conductor of the St. Thomas College Concert Band, Mayer had a bachelor of science from the University of Minnesota and a master's degree in music from Northwestern University. He had taught music at Cretin High School for 15 years and taught part-time at the College of St. Catherine.

With the Music Department's chairman, Dr. Anthony Chiuminatto, and two other music faculty members, Mayer would encourage the college's first majors in music and music education. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of Minnesota. When Chiuminatto died in 1973, Mayer succeeded him as department chairman and director of the Division of Fine Arts. He was elected Professor of the Year by his colleagues in 1974 and chaired the Music Department until his retirement in 1982.

Mayer's "wide-ranging musical interests and his pedagogical talents, especially in the training of music instructors, have had a strong influence far beyond the St. Thomas campus," wrote Dr. Joseph Connors in his 1986 history of the College of St. Thomas, Journey Toward Fulfillment.

Mayer and his wife, Louise, lived on Montrose Avenue in St. Paul for many years. Louise died in July. They had no children.