A remembrance from Tom Bulleit ’79, Michael Hrycelak ’97, Jeff Freeman ’57, and Lindsay Elliott ’04.  With heavy hearts, the DMAA Board is sorry to announce the passing of one of the truly great Duke’s Men alumni. Linus Travers ’58 ended a life well-spent in the company of his family in Milton, Massachusetts in the early hours of Sunday, November 8th after a courageous battle with metastatic lung cancer. At the family’s request and with an assist from members of the Board, recordings from two of the singing groups lucky enough to have him as a member—the Whiffenpoofs of 1958 and the Duke’s Men of 1956—were streaming in the background in the days before his passing. Although he attributed his election to the Duke’s Men to the fact that he had a car, Linus had that rare basso profundo voice that made him a desired commodity in men’s a cappella groups. His vocal talent has been preserved on numerous recordings, including the solo on Robinson Crusoe on the Duke’s Men’s 1956 LP, again on Johnny One Note on the ’58 Whiffs’, and on Harry Belafonte’s Matilda at the 60th reunion in 2013. But beyond these times when he stepped out of the shoe, it was the richness of his voice as a bass part singer, anchoring the sound of the Duke’s Men and Whiffs during his four years at Yale, that made him such a musical treasure. He first met Duke’s Men founders Parker Towle ’55 and Paul Thompson ‘55 when they were summer camp counselors together, and though it was technically against the singing group rules at the time for first term freshman to join, he was an unofficial member beginning in the Fall of 1954. A year later he was instrumental in recruiting his Deerfield friend, Augustus “Fritz” Kinzel to the group. His musical legacy thus includes Fritz’s arrangements which (together with those of founder Walt Farrier ’54 and Carl Kaestle ’62) dominated the doox repertory until the early ‘70s. In addition to his roles in a cappella singing, Linus was also one of the great and dedicated alums of all singing at Yale. At the time of his passing he was on the Board of Directors of the DMAA. He served earlier as Trustee of the Yale Whiffenpoof Alumni Association, and continued to volunteer after his several terms ended. He attended every reunion that the DMAA ever planned (we took over that job in 2008), and was frequently a panelist during our history sessions. He frequently traveled from his home in the Boston area to New Haven for Duke’s Men concerts, Whiffenpoof alumni events, YGC concerts, and YGCA annual singing dinners. He was a past board member of the Yale Glee Club Associates and authored the introduction to the 150th Anniversary volume of the Yale Glee Club. Linus was also heavily involved with the workings of the Yale Alumni Chorus and was a fixture of that organization as well. He also chaired several of his 1958 Yale class reunions. For his work in various alumni capacities, he was awarded the Yale Medal in 2017. The importance of Yale music in his life was fully demonstrated at the award ceremony, as outside of his immediate family, all of his chosen guests were members of the Yale music community. On a personal note, a more pleasant, welcoming person never lived. We never spoke to Linus without hearing several self-deprecating jokes along with warm advice and a sympathetic ear. He was a fixture as interlocutor in the humming chorus of Bandolero, with an ability to improvise humorous and on-point dialogue at any concert, eliciting laughs from the audience and singers alike. He handled time and change with grace all the way to the end. In addition, he was a force for bringing people together: when there was disagreement or tension, he always had a way of achieving harmony. Perhaps due to his profession as a college professor, Linus had an enviable and uncanny way of remaining relevant to generation after generation of young Yalies, and while he remained life-long friends with many of his contemporaries, even those who graduated years later counted him among their best friends, and he will therefore be missed by many. The DMAA would like to extend their deepest condolences to his wife, Margaret, their children Jonathan and Julia (both of whom are also alumni of the Yale a cappella community), and his grandchildren, all of whom he loved deeply. |
Linus’s obituary from the Boston Globe is linked below:
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=linus-travers&pid=197106127