Peter W. Dykema - Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity

Considered one of the most influential leaders in the Fraternity's history, Dykema was elected as an honorary member of the Fraternity's Alpha Chapter at the New England Conservatory in Boston on or around January 8, 1917 while serving as president of what is now the Music Educators National Conference. Three years later, he was elected an honorary member of the Beta Chapter at the Combs College of Music in Philadelphia. He was a member of the class that chartered the Phi Chapter at the University of Wisconsin in 1921, and was elected as a national honorary member (Alpha Alpha Chapter) in 1932. Based on the records compiled by former supreme historian Thomas Larrimore, it appears that Dykema holds the record for the most multiple chapter memberships.

Following a period of internal difficulty following the active departure of Ossian E. Mills, Percy Jewett Burrell, and other early Fraternity leaders, the Fraternity experienced internal difficulty (made more significant by the challenges of World War I) during the five years leading up to Dykema's election in 1922. Upon his election, Dykema addressed the delegates at the Chicago convention, "I want to hear from each one of you. The first thing I want to know is, 'Why should this fraternity exist at all? Why shouldn't we abandon the whole idea?" (Underwood, p. K.2). Dykema's words challenged and stirred his listeners, and the Fraternity's second defining period commenced. The number of active chapters grew significantly under his watch as president, and during those years the Fraternity was introduced to major universities such as Pennsylvania State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Illinois, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Arizona, and Columbia University.

Dykema made several contributions to the Fraternity. He served on a team that oversaw the develop of membership intake protocol in 1926 and 1938. He served as editor and compiler of the 1931 edition of Sinfonia Songs. In the 1920s, he established the province structure, appointing the inaugural class of province governors. He was instrumental in bringing multiple key leaders in music education and advocacy into the fraternity, including Paul J. Weaver, Edward Bailey Birge, and Clarence C. Birchard. He presided over the dedication of the memorial in honor of Ossian E. Mills in Putnam, Connecticut in 1928, in addition to presiding over the dedication of the Sinfonia Lodge at Interlocken.

As a faculty member at Teachers College of Columbia University, he maintained close involvement with the Beta Gamma Chapter, where he served on the faculty after leaving Wisconsin. Through his influence, many men associated with music education on the national level came into Fraternity membership.

He served as supreme president from 1922 to 1928, during which time the Fraternity essentially doubled its number of active chapters across the country. Dykema's ascendancy to the presidency came just five years after his first election to honorary membership in the Fraternity. After leaving office as supreme president, he served as Committeeman-at-Large from 1928 to 1934, and as Supreme Historian from 1934 to 1938. His total years of formal service to the national level was sixteen years. During the remaining thirteen years of his life, he continued to be actively involved with the Fraternity. In 1944, he helped coordinate a Fraternity reception in New York City in honor of the Republican presidential candidate, and fellow Michigan graduate and Fraternity member, Thomas E. Dewey.

He is credited with essentially saving the Fraternity from extinction through the administrative restructuring that took place under his leadership as president(which involved dividing the Fraternity into provinces and the appointment of province governors, one of the earliest of whom was Thomas E. Dewey. Through his involvement with the Music Teachers National Association and the National Association of Schools of Music, the Fraternity came into close collaboration with these organizations, which had a lasting influence on the Fraternity's focus on music advocacy for decades.

Dykema served as chair of the 1931 edition of Sinfonia Songs. Some of the popular songs of a "general nature" entered the songbook under his watch. Several of his songs are included in the current songbook published in 1998, as are several that had previously appeared in the Twice 55 Community Songs series edited by Dykema. Two of his sons were also Sinfonians: Karl Washburn Dykema (into the Delta Eta Chapter at Youngstown State University in 1959), and Roger Dunning Dykema (into the Beta Gamma Chapter at Columbia University in 1928). Along with William B. McBride, Dykema is one of only two men who served as national president of both the Fraternity and the NAfME.

The Fraternity commissioned an oil painting of Dykema. The painting is part of the Gottesman Libraries' collection at Columbia University. It was restored by Chelsea Restoration conservators during the summer of 2010.