Local woman’s music career spans more than 70 years
Phyllis Ronald
sits at the piano
in her living room.
Phyllis Ronald of New Philadelphia found that when it came time to go to college, she just couldn’t give up the one thing that led to her career of more than 70 years.
“I thought I was going to go into nursing and, in fact, had pretty well planned that,” Ronald said. “And then at Christmastime, my senior year, with all the music at church and everything, I thought I just can’t give up piano.”
Ronald had been taking lessons since she was 8 years old with several different teachers locally. She then attended the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
“I had to audition at Oberlin to be admitted there as a music major,” Ronald said.
Her piano teacher at Oberlin, Axel Skjerne, was from Scandinavia, and he helped Ronald to further develop her skills. He encouraged her to continue in music even after Ronald and her late husband Richard married in 1953.
“When we were going to be married, he said he had hoped I’d stay in school and thought I could be a concert pianist,” Ronald said. “And I said I don’t want that kind of a life. I want to have a family, and he encouraged me. I did study with him some more, but he said you’re certainly ready to start teaching. He was very, very supportive.”
Ronald was required to practice the piano three hours each day in college and still keep up with her academic courses. She also studied the organ under a different instructor.
Ronald began giving piano lessons, mostly out of her home, in 1953.
“Early in her career, students from the Bowerston, Conotton Valley area wanted to take piano lessons but did not have transportation to get to Tusky,” Ronald’s daughter Kim Smith said. “So she contacted a church in Bowerston and traveled there every Saturday for years to teach students in that area.”
There are no formal records indicating the number of students Ronald taught over the years.
“Years ago when she was recognized for 39 years of teaching, she was able to identify 250 families from across 13 states,” Smith said. “In all probability, that number is likely much higher, as she taught multiple children from within a family often from a time span of elementary school through high school, and she is now teaching the third generation of children and grandchildren of students she taught in the 1950s.”
Ronald and her husband were high school sweethearts at Tuscarawas Warwick High School, where Ronald graduated first in her class. Another fond memory is her participation in the Tuscarawas Warwick Trumpet Trio along with fellow members Jean Wolf Mathias and Sarah Everett. The trio was invited to many places around the area and state to perform.
After their marriage the couple lived in the village of Tuscarawas for many years, where Ronald gave lessons at their home. In 1993 the couple moved to New Philadelphia, where she is still actively teaching the piano.
There was more to Ronald’s life than the piano. “You cannot overlook her role as the wife of an educator and active member of the community,” Smith said.
In the mid-’50s, after their first two children were born, Richard Ronald was determined to go to college to become a teacher.
“He commuted every day to Muskingum College and worked nights at Tusco in Gnadenhutten,” Smith said.
With his wife’s support, Richard Ronald graduated in three years with honors and began his career in education at Gnadenhutten High School.
“He accepted a job at Tusky High School, teaching biology and science, and from there advanced to principal of Indian Valley North Junior High in its first year of existence and eventually to the county superintendent’s position,” Smith said.
With a full scholarship for her husband to earn a master’s degree, Ronald packed up her family to move to Wisconsin for one summer, where the family lived with their three children under the age of 6 in a three-room cabin with no indoor plumbing. The family also lived for six summers in Norman, Oklahoma while Richard Ronald completed his degree at the University of Oklahoma.
The couple had four children: Shelley, Kim, Brent and Bruce, who is deceased.
Ronald was fully supportive of her husband’s career and is a strong advocate of public education.
Ronald is a member of the Ohio Music Teachers Association, the Music Teachers National Association and the Tuscarawas County chapter.
She is a lifetime member of the Sharon Moravian Church near Tuscarawas and serves as the director of music, directing the adult choir and the brass choir. She previously served as organist and was involved in music camps, conferences and youth convocations.
“For a number of years, she produced amazing musicals in a week’s time with junior and senior high school students at Tar Hollow, the Middle States Moravian Youth Camp, and also at an International Youth Convocation,” Smith said.
She has served the larger church organization as a member of the Northern Province PEC for 12 years, Eastern District Christian Education Commission for four years including two as the chair and the Eastern District Youth Ministries Task Force chair. She also has served as a Moravian Music Foundation trustee for several terms.
Locally, she served for two terms as a member of the Tuscarawas County Philharmonic Board of Trustees including two years as president. She also has accompanied choirs at concerts held at Indian Valley Schools in the past and as an accompanist for New Philadelphia High School instrumentalists in OMEA competitions.
“She has accompanied dozens of students at music competitions for years and has prepared her students for auditions at various colleges throughout Ohio,” Smith said. “Through her work and career, (Ronald) has left a rich legacy, demonstrating the value of arts and education and perhaps even more important the value of community.”