Smith Newell Penfield

Born Oberlin, Ohio, April 4, 1837. Graduated from Oberlin College, 1858. Studied with James Flint in New York, and with Moscheles, Papperitz, Reinecke, Plaidy, Richter, and Hauptmann at the Leipzig Conservatory, graduating in 1869. Returning to the US, he taught in Rochester, NY, then moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he founded the Conservatory and the Mozart Club. In 1882, he went to New York City, where for many years he served as organist of the Broadway Tabernacle. In 1885, New York University conferred a MusD degree on him. He died in New York City, January 7, 1920.

—AGO Founders Hymnal, pp. 104-05