Robert Burns King, 78, died September 27 in Burlington, North Carolina. Born in 1938, he grew up in Conway, South Carolina, where he began to play for Episcopal and Methodist churches. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music and French at Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, and a master of sacred music degree from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, where he studied organ with Vernon de Tar. He studied as a Fulbright Scholar in 1961–62 with Maurice Duruflé and Jean Langlais and was the first American to win the Prix de Virtuosité from the Schola Cantorum in Paris. Later, he studied in Germany with Michael Schneider.
His early career was spent as organist for churches in Greenville, South Carolina, Rockaway Beach, New York, and in Paris. After a year of teaching at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, he served for 45 years as organist-choirmaster for an extensive music program at Burlington’s First Presbyterian Church, retiring in 2007. During this time he taught at Elon College (now University), Elon, North Carolina, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G). He was a consultant for various new organ projects, including Schantz and Andover organs at the First Presbyterian Church and for an Andover organ at UNC-G. He performed recitals across the United States as well as in Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, and Portugal.
Robert Burns King is survived by a brother-in-law, Daniel Burn Shelley, Jr., a niece and nephew, Susan Shelley Sisk and husband Mike, and Daniel Burn Shelley, III, and wife April, and extended family.
