Interim Director, Professor of Music
Phone: (239) 590-7374
E-Mail: rthayer@fgcu.edu
Office: Music Building 203

Robert Thayer received his undergraduate degree in music education from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, the Master of Music Education degree from Wichita State University, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa.  From 1983 to 1993 he served as Dean of the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.  He retired as Dean in July, 1993, then served for three years as Development Officer for the College, retiring again in 1996.  During the 2001-2002 academic year he was Interim Dean of the School of Music at DePauw University in Indiana.  During the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years he was Interim Head of the Department of Music at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.  From 2005 until 2008 he served as Dean of the Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University.  He returned to Bowling Green State University as Interim Chair of the Department of Music Education for the 2008-2009 academic year, and from Fall 2009 to present is serving as Interim Director of the Bower School of Music at Florida Gulf Coast University.  He is also engaged as a consultant, principally to music units in institutions of higher education.

Dr. Thayer has played French horn in the Erie Philharmonic, the Wichita Symphony, and the Cedar Rapids Symphony and has taught in elementary and secondary schools in Pennsylvania and Kansas.  He taught for five years at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, during which time he also was instructor of horn at Wichita State University.  Following this, he was for fourteen years a member of the music faculty at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

From 1972 through 1983 Dr. Thayer was a faculty member, then Associate Dean, and then Dean of the Crane School of Music, State University College of Arts and Sciences, Potsdam, New York.  In the capacity of teacher-consultant in the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program, he has served as lecturer, clinician, and teacher in workshops in various parts of the United States.  He has also assisted with development of a Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program for music education in the college curriculum.

While chief administrator of the Crane School of Music, Dr. Thayer had major responsibility for the ceremonial music for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.  Orchestras, choruses, bands, and chamber groups from the Crane School participated prominently in support of the Games from pre-Olympic events through the closing ceremonies.

Dr. Thayer has served as consultant to many organizations in this country as well as to the Ministry of Education in Taiwan, Republic of China, and the Xi’an Conservatory in the People’s Republic of China.  He has been an accreditation evaluator and consultant at more than ninety-five music units in the United States. 

Dr. Thayer holds membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the Music Educators National Conference, and the College Music Society.  He has served the National Association of Schools of Music as accreditation evaluator, Chairman of the Commission on Non-Degree-Granting Institutions, member of the Graduate Commission, Chairman of the Nominating Committee, and consultant to the Commission on Accreditation.  He has been named a Friend of the Arts by Sigma Alpha Iota and an Honorary Member of the National Association of Schools of Music.