In Memoriam: John Lawson (1926-2021)
Most students, faculty, staff, and patrons to the faculty probably don’t know who Dr. John Lawson was, but his volunteer and leadership efforts greatly shaped our U of T Music community, and music in Canada.
The Faculty of Music sends our condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Lawson, who passed away last week on October 12 at the age of 95. An attendee at hundreds of concerts in MacMillan Theatre, Walter Hall, and halls across Toronto, his warm smile and excitement for performances will be deeply missed.
Dr. Lawson was the former chair of the Faculty of Music Endowment Campaign Committee. This Committee helped raise millions of dollars for student support and programs. We are deeply grateful for these efforts. In 2005, Dr. Lawson established the endowed Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award.
One of two of our largest graduating awards, the Rogers Graduating Award is given to a graduating student who is deemed to have the greatest potential to make an important contribution to the field of Music who is an Ontario resident demonstrating financial need.
Dr. John Lawson named the award for his grandfather, Tecumseh Sherman Rogers, a judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, who passed away when he was a child. It was his grandfather’s money (left to his mother) that paid for Dr. Lawson’s piano lessons at an early age and in the years that followed. Dr. Lawson gave up the piano to join the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, which opened up a new world to him.
John B. Lawson, Q.C., B.A., LL.B., LL.D. (Hon.), D.S.L. (Hon.), was Associate Counsel, McCarthyTétrault LLP and a member of the firm since 1951.
His volunteer efforts spanned across major arts organizations across the city. He was a past president and chair of the Board of the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall and of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. He was also a past president of the Glenn Gould Foundation and the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation; director, the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund; the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Foundation, the Roy Thomson Hall Foundation; the Toronto Summer Music Festival and Academy, chair of the Centenary Committee, The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto; former director, Aldeburgh Connection Concert Society; the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, amongst others, and former Chair, University of Toronto, Faculty of Music Endowment Campaign Committee.
Dr. Lawson received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto in 2003 and Trinity College, University of Toronto in 2008.
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