Ruth Orcutt Bacon, pianists' mentor, dead at 103
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Viola "Ruth" Orcutt Bacon, the dean of Hawai'i piano instructors who instilled the love of music in countless youths, died Feb. 22. She was 103.
Advertiser library photo • March 19, 1982
Bacon's musical career spanned nearly the entire 20th century. Born Viola Orcutt in Gillespie, Ill., in 1900, she began playing the piano when she was 4. At age 12, Bacon was an accomplished musician who played beyond her years.
During her years in Kansas, Viola Bacon earned her pilot's license and joined the Civil Air Patrol.
She continued playing the piano well into her 90s and she was honored in 1994 by the Windward Community Arts Council for her 80 years as a piano teacher.
Bacon was a respected member of the local music scene. In a joint statement, piano teacher Ellen Masaki, pianist Marianne Miyamura and former assistant Honolulu Symphony conductor and University of Hawai'i music professor Henry Miyamura said Bacon will be greatly missed.
"Ruth was a first-rate musician, composer, pianist and teacher," they said. "She was an accompanist for named artists coming to Honolulu in the '40s and '50s, among them (famed saxophonist) Sigurd Rascher."
The Miyamuras and Masaki sent their daughters to study under Bacon.
Bacon received her music education at Forest Park University for Women in St. Louis, Mo., and at the Chicago Musical College. For her master's thesis she wrote a concerto for piano and orchestra, which she performed with the Chicago Symphony orchestra and the Honolulu Symphony at age 84.
Bacon studied under noted pianist and composer Percy Grainger and Ernest Richard Kroeger, one of the finest composers and musicians in St. Louis.
She joined the music faculty at the University of Kansas, where she taught for 18 years. During her years in Kansas, Bacon also earned her pilot's license and joined the Civil Air Patrol.
After three-straight Christmases with pneumonia, Bacon took a leave of absence in 1946 to teach at Punahou School. Soon after arriving, she met and married Burt Bacon, a field superintendent at 'Ewa Plantation.
Ruth Bacon taught at Punahou for 10 years and gave lessons out of her 'Ewa home for 20 years. She also performed as a soloist with the Honolulu Symphony several times.
In 1976, the couple moved to Pohai Nani Good Samaritan Retirement Community, where she became its music association's chairwoman and continued to teach.
Bacon is survived by nieces and nephews.
Visitation is at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ruth Orcutt Bacon Auditorium at Pohai Nani Good Samaritan Retirement Community in Kane'ohe; service at 1:30 p.m. Private scattering of ashes.
Donations may be made to the Ruth Bacon Trust, c/o Bank of Hawai'i, P.O. Box 3170, Honolulu, HI 96802.
