PITTSBURGH, PA, September 28, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dr. Deane L. Root has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Joining the University of Pittsburgh in 1982, Dr. Root initially served at the prestigious institution as an adjunct assistant professor for a decade before being promoted to the post of an adjunct associate professor in 1992. He subsequently advanced to the position of professor in 1998, in which he operated within the department of music of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences until his retirement in 2020, when he was named Professor Emeritus. During his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh, he has excelled in several other administrative roles, including as a department chair, director of graduate studies, and director of graduate admissions. Likewise, Dr. Root flourished as the director of, and the Fletcher Hodges Jr. curator for, the aforementioned university's Center for American Music's Library System Archives and Special Collections between 1998 and 2019. His signature project with the Center has been Voices Across Time: Teaching American History Through Song, in collaboration with educators, the Society for American Music, and funding from Pittsburgh-area foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Likewise, Dr. Root reported to the University of Pittsburgh's Office of the Secretary of the Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1991, as well as the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement from 1991 to 1996. For nearly 15 years, he curated the Stephen Foster Memorial, while also administering the Heinz Memorial Chapel for 12 years. Furthermore, he was selected as the director of cultural resources, with oversight of the Heinz Chapel, Foster Memorial and Nationality Rooms Program for four years. Simultaneously, Dr. Root has found further international success as the editor-in-chief of Grove Music Online since 2009, which is published through Oxford University Press.
Prior to his esteemed appointments at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Root was employed by Florida State University's School of Music as a visiting research associate from 1981 to 1982, Lake City Community College as an instructor in music and humanities from 1981 to 1982 and the University of Illinois' Graduate School of Library and Information Science as a research associate from 1976 to 1980. From 1974 to 1976, he was active as the area coordinator for popular music for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians with Macmillan Publishers Ltd. in London. At the beginning of his career in 1973, Dr. Root contributed as a lecturer in music history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
To prepare for his career, Dr. Root pursued a formal education at the New College in Sarasota, Florida, earning a Bachelor of Arts in music in 1968. Relocating to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he obtained a Master of Music in musicology in 1971 and a Doctor of Philosophy in musicology in 1977. Throughout his career, Dr. Root has provided his wealth of knowledge to others as a workshop presenter, peer review committee member, interviewee and consultant on various affairs.
Dr. Root has maintained his affiliation as a council member for the American Musicology Society from 1989 to 1992 and 2018-2021, as well as the Society for American Music, for which he was elected as the president, ACLS delegate and chair of various committees. He was a founding board member of the Florida Folklore Society in 1982. At a civic level, he has participated on the board of the Friends of the Music Library of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh from 1983 to 2020, having also functioned as their president and vice president in the 1990s. Likewise, Dr. Root is a past president of the Calliope-Pittsburgh Folk Music Society, Gateway to Music and the Performing Arts and the Greater Pittsburgh Museum Council.
As a testament to his success, Dr. Root has accrued numerous accolades. Most recently accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Music in 2018, from whom he also received the Distinguished Service Citation in 2000, he was elected to the American Antiquarian Society in 2004. Bestowed with multiple grants as well, Dr. Root was notably presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for Vision and Leadership in Promoting American Music and Music in America from the Sonneck Society in 1993.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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