Elmer Ramsey memorial service April 28

Cal Lutheran professor brought music to Conejo Valley

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Ramsey died Feb. 9 at his Thousand Oaks home after spending more than half a century bringing concerts to the Conejo Valley and guiding generations of musicians. 

Photo: Brian Stethem

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – April 12, 2018) The memorial service for California Lutheran University music professor emeritus Elmer Ramsey will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 28, in Samuelson Chapel on the Thousand Oaks campus. 

Musicians and vocalists performing at the service will include several Cal Lutheran alumni and music professor emerita Dorothy Schechter.

Ramsey died Feb. 9 at his Thousand Oaks home after spending more than half a century bringing concerts to the Conejo Valley and guiding generations of musicians. He was 87.

Born in North Dakota, Ramsey grew up in a musical home in Washington and began playing trumpet professionally at 14. After college, he did studio work for NBC and 20th Century Fox, toured with stars like Mel Tormé and conducted concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and venues in Austria, Germany, England and Israel. 

He and his family moved to Thousand Oaks in 1965 when he became a professor at Cal Lutheran. Ramsey began conducting the college-community symphony and guided it as it became the professional Conejo Symphony Orchestra. He created arrangements for and conducted Cal Lutheran’s orchestra on tours that included stops at the Los Angeles Music Center. Ramsey retired from Cal Lutheran in 1992.

Ramsey was instrumental in the development of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. He launched the Conejo Pops Orchestra, which presented popular Independence Day concerts for 44 years until 2016, when muscle weakness forced him to set down his baton. He also co-founded the Oakleaf Music Festival. For a time, he was conducting 14 concerts a year and pulling in guest artists including Shirley Jones, John Raitt and Carol Lawrence. 

The Conejo Future Foundation and Thousand Oaks Arts Commission are among the many organizations that have honored Ramsey. In 2009, Cal Lutheran presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. 

Ramsey is survived by his wife, Elaine, and their children Dan, Laura, Janine, Doug and Angela, who all attended Cal Lutheran. 

The chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane. Parking is available in lots at the corner of Mountclef Boulevard and Olsen Road.

To make donations to the future Cal Lutheran Center for Media and Performing Arts in Ramsey’s memory, mail them to 60 W. Olsen Road #1625, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, go to CalLutheran.edu/memorialgift or contact Lana Clark at 805-493-3163 or lclark@callutheran.edu.

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