In memoriam: Roger Nixon, August Coppola

Posted Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:50am by Matt Itelson

The College of Creative Arts mourns the recent loss of two members of its community: Professor Emeritus of Music Roger Nixon and former Dean August Coppola.

Nixon, a prolific composer and musician, taught at SF State from 160 to 1990. He was well-known for his fanfare and march compositions for concert bands, but was an equally talented composer of chamber music and an opera based on the story “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.” The San Francisco Symphony premiered many of his works, including his “Air for Strings” (1962), “Mooney’s Grove Suite” (1968) and Viola Concerto (1970). Nixon is survived by his wife Nancy, sons Mark, Arnold and Bruce; daughters Jennifer and Elizabeth; 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Coppola, a literary scholar, served as dean of the College of Creative Arts from 1984 to 1992. He helped secure a major addition to the Fine Arts Building, resulting in new labs, classrooms, studios and offices for Art, Cinema, Dance and Design and Industry. The August Coppola Theatre, a 150-seat screening room, was among the new facilities.

“August Coppola was a singularly creative leader who for almost a decade inspired the students and faculty of our school of Creative Arts,” SF State President Robert Corrigan says. “He reminded us all of why the arts matter. That we are more creative than we know. That boundaries are meant to be joyously tumbled over. And to be fully human, we must risk following our imaginations to their very limits.”

Coppola was the brother of Francis Ford Coppola and father of actor Nicolas Cage, Christopher Coppola and Marc Coppola.