Ronald R. Smith died on June 18, 1997, in Bloomington, Indiana.
Assistant Professor of Music, 1976-1978
(The following was provided by the American Folklore Society Facebook post on June 18, 2015:)
JUNE 18, we remember Ronald R. Smith, professor of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, who died on this date in 1997 (he was born in 1938). His specialty was folk music and dance of the African diaspora, folk religions of South America, and festivals.
According to Indiana University’s memorial, Ronald Richard Smith was born on October 29, 1938, in New York City. He graduated from New York’s High School of Music and Art in 1956, and received a bachelor of science degree in music from Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1960. For ten years prior to university teaching, Ronald taught music, mathematics, and general science in the New York City Public School system. He also served as an assistant school principal, conducted two all-city choruses, and directed a creative arts program for disadvantaged youths.
During this time, Ronald continued his studies in music and ethnomusicology at Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and the Mannes College of Music. In 1970 he received an IU fellowship to study ethnomusicology under George H. List, IU professor emeritus of folklore, and earned a master’s degree in 1971. Ronald continued to work towards his doctorate with two Ford Foundation fellowships and spent a year in Panama and Columbia under the auspices of a Fulbright-Hays fellowship, which permitted him to concentrate his studies on the music of the Southern Hemisphere. He earned a PH.D. from Indiana University in 1976.
A faculty member of the Folklore Institute since 1978, Ronald served Indiana University as associate dean of the Office of Research and University Graduate School and director of the CIC (Committee for Institutional Cooperation) Predoctoral Fellowships program from 1988 to 1996. In these roles he directed numerous minority fellowship and scholarship programs and organized national conferences for students who came to his office, directing them to career possibilities and higher education opportunities. He also served as director of the Archives of Traditional Music (1981-82) and director of the Ethnomusicology Program (1979-81; 1983-84; 1987-88). In addition, he was a member of the program faculties of the African Studies Program and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Ronald received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral and Postdoctoral fellowships, the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant, and various other institutional awards. As a result of his success in gaining fellowship support, Ronald was committed to assisting students in garnering fellowship awards. He also served as a member and chairperson of the Ford Foundation Fellowship selection panels in the areas of music, art, drama, communication, folklore, ethnomusicology, linguistics, anthropology, and Latin American and religious studies.
Ronald’s major research interests included traditional music, festivals, movement and dance, and religion within the African Diaspora with a special interest in Caribbean peoples. He conducted fieldwork in the United States, Panama, Colombia, Spain, Ghana, and Malawi. His projects included the Festival of Panama’s Black Christ in Portobelo, Panama, “El Torito Guapo” (festival of dancing bulls), and the history and development of religious brotherhoods (Cofradia) for free and enslaved Blacks in both Seville, Spain, and nineteenth-century Panama. He published book chapters, articles, recordings, and film and book reviews in these areas.
For nineteen years, Ronald integrated his research into the courses he taught at IU: Traditional Musical Instruments, Latin American Music, Computer Assisted Musical Analysis, Multimedia, Folk and Ethnic Music in the United States, and Transcription and Analysis of Traditional Music. He was instrumental in advancing the use of computer technology and multimedia in humanities teaching and research, with special emphasis in folklore and ethnomusicology. He taught students and faculty to apply computer-assisted analysis to the study of folklore, music, literature, and material culture. He developed several computer databases that are now used in cataloging extensive collections in various archives at Indiana University. He was often sought by colleagues and students from around the country concerning computer applications in the humanities.
He was a member of Alpha Phi fraternity, the American Musical Instrument Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Folklore Society, the National Council for Black Studies, and the American Association for State and Local History. From 1979 to 1988, he was treasurer of the Association of African and Afro-American Folklorists.One of Ronald’s greatest joys was helping underprivileged students discover their talents and dreams, and then helping them find the financial means to make those dreams come true. In hopes that future students could realize their goals, Ronald established a minority scholarship fund, with preference given to African American and Hispanic minorities.