ORANGE PARK, Fla. (ABP) — Longtime Baptist hymn writer and music professor Hugh McElrath passed away May 8 at his winter home in Penney Farms, Fla. He also resided in Louisville, Ky. He was 86.
McElrath was a professor of church music at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., for nearly 50 years, serving from 1948-1992. Officially retiring as the V.V. Cooke Professor of Church Music in 1992, he taught part time as a senior professor for a few years afterward.
He also served as minister of music at Beechwood Baptist Church in Louisville for 22 years.
A native of Murray, Ky., McElrath earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Murray State University, intending to become an English teacher. Instead, he entered Southern Seminary's first music degree program. He completed requirements for a bachelor of sacred music degree in 1947 and a master of sacred music degree in 1948. He earned a doctor of philosophy degree at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in 1967.
Singing With Understanding, a music textbook co-authored with Harry Eskew, is among his most noted works. He wrote several hymns, including We Praise You With Our Minds, O Lord.
In 1992, he was the first church-music professor to receive the Findley B. and Louvenia Edge Award for Teaching Excellence, the highest teaching honor Southern awards.
President of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference from 1987-89, McElrath served on the doctrinal/theological committee for the 1991 edition of the Baptist Hymnal, the Southern Baptist Convention's official hymnal. He also served as editor of an accompanying handbook.
He later served on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Coordinating Council.
Minds and Hearts in Praise of God: Hymns and Essays in Church Music in Honor of Hugh T. McElrath was published in December 2006 to celebrate his life and mark his contributions to church music.
He is survived by his wife, Ruth, and three children, Hugh Donald McElrath, Douglas McElrath and Margaret Partridge.