David Lyman Buttolph, 89, of Branford, died on April 22 after a period of failing health, with his beloved wife Ewa and daughter Katherine at his side. David was born in White Plains, New York, on August 21, 1923, son of James Elliott and Edna Gibson Buttolph. A graduate of The Gunnery School, he received a BA in music from Yale University in 1944, where he counted himself lucky to have worked with Paul Hindemith.

David served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as an officer in the USNR, with destroyers in Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific operations, and was in combat. Upon returning, he completed a BA in piano and an MS in conducting from the Julliard School of Music. He also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Felix Passerone, at Tanglewood with Hugh Ross and Eleazar de Carvalho, at the Ecole Monteux with Pierre Monteux, and in New York City under Saul Goodman.

David wrote and arranged music throughout a career that included positions as timpanist with the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony; chairman of the Music Department at Dillard University; a member of the conducting staff at the Manhattan School of Music; and director of musical theater productions in the New York metropolitan region and east coast venues from Florida to Canada. He spent from 1966 to 1988 at SUNY Binghamton, conducting major choral works with orchestra, and led national and international concert tours. He also taught theory, percussion, elements of Kodaly training, and was founder/director of the Elizabethan Madrigal Dinner evenings, an ongoing annual event.

As an educator, David took particular pride in the formation and development of choirs, as founder/director of the Louisiana Choral Society in New Orleans, 1954 to 1963, and conductor/director of the Saint Cecilia Chorus of New York, The Harpur Chorale, and The University Chorus, Binghamton University.

From the 1970s, David was an avid proponent of the Kodály Method of Music Education. He studied at the Kodály Musical Training Institute in Hungary. In the U.S., he developed a Kodály Training Chorus, presented invited lectures on the Kodály method, and did extensive teaching of the method in a variety of settings.  He served in 1978 as president of the America Kodály Music Institute.

During his professional life, David directed and conducted the Utica Symphony Orchestra, the Cornell Glee Club and Cornell Chorus, the Buffalo Symphony, the Oneonta Community Chorale, the Catskill Choral Society, SUC-Oneonta Choir, and Tri-City Chamber Singers. His numerous invited guest appearances as conductor included the All-State Chorus under the Georgia Music Educators Association; the All-County Rockland Music Festival; New York State School Music Association in Whitesboro; and the National Conference of the Organization of Kodaly Educators.

Also a noted composer, arranger, and lyricist, David counted among his creative highlights He Is Born The Beloved Child, The Beatitudes, He’s Gone Away, Psalm 118, and numerous folksong arrangements; Touch of the Child, a musical by Max Showalter, choral arrangements; and the music and lyrics for The Best of Intentions, an original musical.

In accordance with his firm belief that music transcends international boundaries, David sought funding, sponsored, and served on host committees for the Brno Academic Choir in Czechoslovakia; the Hart House Chorus from the University of Toronto, Canada; the Szczecin Technical Institute Choir, from Szczecin, Poland; and the Treklangen Choir, from Sweden.

During retirement, David was fortunate to be able to indulge in his second career, the theatre, performing in South Pacific and Inherit the Wind in Endicott, New York; Ten Little Indians at the Ivoryton Playhouse; and The Sunshine Boys at the Stony Creek Puppet House. He also sang the role of Simeon in Touch of the Child, and twice conducted that musical at Ivoryton, Clinton, and the Garde Theater in New London.

During a conducting tour to Poland in 1988, David, who had been widowed, met Ewa Borowiec, who became his second wife and his loved and loving companion for the last 25 years of his life. 

After his retirement, David returned to Indian Neck, Branford, a place where he had spent his summers as a child with his grandparents, parents, and two late beloved brothers, John and Bob.  David was loved and respected by many students, colleagues, and by family, friends, and neighbors in the Indian Neck community. He was also an active volunteer with the Shoreline Arts Alliance.

Everyone who knew David especially appreciated his sense of humor, kindness, warmth, and his outgoing and gracious personality.

Besides his wife, he is survived by his children Katherine, Peter, and James Buttolph, and Diana Norcross and her husband Alastair; his stepdaughter Agnieszka Rybkiewicz and her husband Mark; eight grandchildren; two great-grandsons; and Ewa’s two grandchildren. He is also survived by three nieces, Carol Williams and her husband Alan, Janet Brown, and Barbara Sargent and her husband Ron; two nephews, Stephen Buttolph and his wife Judy and Brian Buttolph and his wife Ellen:  his first cousin Philip Buttolph; and two sisters-in-law, Frances Buttolph and Anne Howe. He was predeceased by his first wife Janet Howe Buttolph.

Memorial services will be held on Friday, May 10, at Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, at 11 a.m., and on Saturday, May 11, in the Dwight Chapel of the Yale University Old Campus at 11 a.m.  In lieu of flowers, David’s family asks that contributions be made in his memory to The Shoreline Arts Alliance Scholarship Funds, 725 Boston Post Rd., Guilford, CT 06437, or to The Gunnery School, 99 Green Hill Rd., Washington Depot, CT 06793. The Hawley Lincoln Memorial, New Haven, is in charge of arrangements.