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‘Man loved by so many,’ longtime music teacher at Utah’s Highland High School honored with scholarship

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Paul Christensen visits with some of his former students following a Christmas concert at Cottonwood Place senior living community in Holladay Friday December 15, 2017. During the concert the Salt Lake Education Foundation presented a new scholarship in his honor. For 30 years, Christensen inspired generations of students at Highland High School to pursue their musical talents as the lively choral director of the schoolÕs many music programs.

Holladay • Retired music teacher Paul Christensen lit up Friday as he entered the crowded multipurpose room of Cottonwood Place Senior Living community center.

The former Highland High School choral director, who is 88, smiled broadly as he was unexpectedly greeted by former students, longtime friends and several family members, all of whom gathered to present Christensen with what he called “a true surprise.”

To honor his 30 years at Highland and a lasting legacy, the nonprofit Salt Lake Education Foundation announced the creation of a new music scholarship dedicated in Christensen’s name.

“A man loved by so many deserves a scholarship in his name, awarded to excellent singers,” said Cherilyn Bacon Eagar, marketing director for the senior center, who said she conceived of the scholarship after seeing so many former students and friends visit him and sharing their memories.

Friday’s surprise tribute to Christensen also served as a kick-off for fundraising for the scholarship, to be dubbed the “Mr. C Scholarship for Academic and Artistic Achievement in Vocal Performance.”

James Yapias, Salt Lake Education Foundation’s executive director, said the fund will honor Christensen, but also bolster Highland’s musical programs and help students pursue music during and beyond high school.

”The most important element is that [the scholarship] will continue a tradition and love for music in students,” Yapias said. That, he said, is what Christensen “stood for and this can help further the impact he has had on so many lives.”

A committee of alumni and current Highland music faculty will convene to decide how money raised for the scholarship will be used.

Musical education has been at the center of Christensen’s life since he was a boy. He learned to play the piano at nine, then the organ in high school, and studied both at Brigham Young University. He began teaching choir at East High School after graduating college, but was recruited to take over choir at the newly opened Highland High School in 1955.

In his three decades at Highland, Christensen mentored several choral groups, including Girl’s Glee Club, a junior choir, an a cappella group and the Madrigals. He also conducted school musicals, helped compose a medley of Highland fight songs and taught piano lessons privately throughout his teaching years and into retirement.

Christensen’s daughter, Becky Durham, beamed as she spoke of her father’s influence on her own love of music during the tribute video. While growing up, Durham said it was clear how important each of Christensen’s students was to him and she joked that he probably liked them more than his own children at times.

More than a dozen alumni gave Christensen a final surprise to conclude Friday’s celebration – a performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” As his former students sang, Christensen conducted from his chair in the front row with one of his granddaughters on his lap.

“I had to keep time for them,” Christensen joked after the performance, one of his few quips during the event.

Donations for scholarship can be made to Salt Lake Education Foundation, with “Mr. C Scholarship” written on the memo line and mailed to Mr. C Scholarship, c/o Salt Lake Education Foundation, 440 E 100 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84111.

Donations can also be made online at https://give.saltlakeeducationfoundation.org/highlandhigh-donation.