Submitted by
Dee Loflin SMT Manager/Writer

Cape Girardeau, Missouri - The Doyle A. Dumas Scholarship has been established through the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

The scholarship was recently endowed by the Dumas family and choral alumni.

The recipient of this scholarship will be a student enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University selected for the University Choir or a transfer student from a select choral group from another post-secondary institute with at least 60 hours of college credit. If an applicant is selected as a junior to receive the scholarship, the applicant may audition again his senior year.

Dumas, of Johnson City, Tenn., started his career in music education in 1952 as the choir director at Tilghman High School and Franklin Junior High School in Paducah, Ky. In 1954, he founded the 84th Army Band Chorus and served as the group’s conductor through 1956. During the 1956-1957 school year, he returned to Tilghman High School. His tenure at Southeast began in 1957, where he served as the choral director and a professor of music until 1975, when he became the chair of the Department of Music while still conducting the University’s top choir. He held the Department of Music’s chairmanship until he retired in 1988.

Since his retirement, Dumas has performed with the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, the Western Carolina Community Chorus and the Johnson City Civic Chorale. He currently sings with two choirs at the Central Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tenn., the first being the JOY (Just Old Youth) Choir for which he is the tenor section leader and soloist. He is also the bass section leader and soloist for the Chancel Choir.

Dumas won the All Army Entertainment and Talent Contest in 1956 and the Luther T. Spayde Award-Choral Director of the Year from the Missouri American Choral Directors Association in 1976. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Missouri Music Educators Hall of Fame Award.