Anderson, Walter F. : Home

Walter F. Anderson

Walter F. Anderson’s mother, Mrs. George Coston, was a member of the last integrated class at Berea graduating in 1903 before the passage of the Day Law. He graduated from Oberlin Conservatory and afterward studied at Berkshire and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He worked as Chairman for the Music Department at Antioch College. His highly creative work in response to the challenge presented by Antioch’s unique academic program established his reputation as an outstanding music administrator and eventually led to his appointment as Director of Music Programs of the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest post in The United States government related to the art of music.

Anderson was a fellow in the American Guild of Organists and performed as a pianist or organist at various colleges and universities across America and Yugoslavia. His compositions and arrangements of spirituals and folk songs have received numerous performances. He was a Rosewald Fellow in composition from 1948-1949, and he held the Pi Kappa Lambda key for excellence in performance and composition. 

Anderson was a member of the Advisory Council to the Institute of the Black World at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center and as a Hazen Foundation Associate. 

Berea College awarded Walter F. Anderson the honorary degree of Doctor of Music in 1970.

• Berea College Vertical File, Special Collections and Archives
  
  
• RG 11 – Honorary Degrees III, Berea College Archives