The University Church community is saddened to announce the passing of Irving Bunton, our Music Director Emeritus and a shining light in our congregation. Irving was a giant in the Chicago music community, using his gifted ear to serve as a teacher, mentor, and friend, and he was beloved by his five children and wife, Ragina. Let us keep the Bunton family in our prayers.
A homegoing service filled with the beautiful music he loved was held September 19, 2015, at Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Irving Bunton Memorial Skinner Pipe Organ Fund. Make checks payable to University Church, 5655 S. University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637.
Let us PRAISE GOD for the life of Irving Bunton, our beloved maestro!!!
You may use the comment section by scrolling to the bottom of the page to share stories, pay tribute to Irving, and share condolences with the family. (There will be a delay before your comment is published.)
View a 1989 video tribute to Irving Bunton.
Irving was about as beloved as they come. He was a world-class music director who just happened to be at University Church, a fairly small church for someone with such big talent. I will miss his sense of humor, his firm handshake, and that twinkle in his eye.
Some 30 years ago I met Irving Bunton as a young music educator adjudication for the All City Organizational Contest. I’ve always held him with great admiration and respect. The integrity of his choral musicianship has not been equaled even after his retirement. Please know that your family is in my thoughts and prayers.
I started singing in the choir after one Sunday morning early, I got a call. It was Irving, and in his deepest bass voice he said “This is the voice of the Lord calling, you are to be in church and sing with the choir today.” What could I say, it was the voice of the Lord (Bunton). I had sung with choirs all my life until I came to Chicago. Neither Community Christian Church nor South Community Church had had choirs and we lived way out in the suburbs by the time we joined University Church so thought that was not an option. Irving made it happen.
Hi Mr. Jonah, I am writing an obituary of Mr. Bunton for the Sun-Times. May I quote your nice story about the voice of God?
Sincerely,
Maureen O’Donnell
312/321-2550
Ms. O’Donnell, you may use the comment with Mr. Jonah’s permission.
My heart has been heavy all day for Ragina and family… and so many at University Church who are experiencing this profound loss. I didn’t have the privilege of singing with Irving directing, but I had a desire to sing my best when he was in the congregation. I didn’t get to know him in his prime, but I know just what Jean means about the twinkle in his eye, and the deep spiritual sense I got from him when my son and I interacted with him at church. I am thankful to have gotten to know him at least for awhile, and I offer countless hugs to Ragina and all who are mourning at this time.
I feel privileged to have been at University Church to hear Irving’s music and then to know his spirit these past few years. Much love and sympathy to Ragina and family.
Ina Hart
What a great teacher, mentor, friend and musician – Mr. Irving Bunton! I will always remember Mr. Bunton as he helped guide my professional career as a singer and teacher. Mrs. Bunton, you have been a faithful wife and supporter of your husband’s many endeavors. I am praising the Lord for Mr. Bunton’s life and I am praying for all the family in your grief. You have my deepest sympathy. May the Lord bless and comfort you.
I give God Great Thanks for having been a part of Unviersity Church from 2004-2008. Mr. Irving Bunton was so instrumental in my staying at U Church. I recall visiting several churches in the area in 2004. The music attracted me and was one of the major reasons I stayed. Under Mr. Bunton’s leadership the choir created a sound of Joy, Peace, Praise and Glory. You Lifted us up! What a life you led! What a gifted family! Your legacy lives on. I pray peace to Ragina and family. Love from Boston.
I sang in the University Church choir under Irving’s direction in the 1980s into the early 1990s, and after I moved to MN, I came back several times and sang in special musical offerings. We had a great community of singers and I always left a rehearsal feeling uplifted and in better spirits than when I arrived. Irving was a great leader of amateur singers and I have very fond and warm memories of Irving and of my fellow singers. May the Lord bless you and keep you. My deep condolences to Ragina and family.
I too understand when Jean says “that twinkle in his eye.” When Monica and I were searching for a church home eleven years ago, I noticed the name in the program Irving Bunton and knew it had to be the same Mr. Bunton from Englewood High that I had always so respected and admired. And there he was at the piano with that same twinkle and providing the same musical joy I remembered. It is absolutely true that my memories of this respected teacher decades before was a factor in my decision to join University Church. I was in awe of him in high school and will always be. Ragina, God bring you and your family peace and strength. You are in our prayers.
I did not know Mr. Bunton in his prime or when he served as music director of University Church. I knew him as a faithful attendee, sitting in his wheel chair every week, often with his aid, while his wife Ragina, carried on the Bunton tradition of sharing her gift of music with the congregation. I am saddened by his passing and pray for Ragina and their family that they be at peace, even as they mourn. He left a legacy that will be comforting and uplifting to many. May those memories sustain them. God’s peace to you all.
Christine and Paul Vogel
Heartfelt condolences to Ragina and family. We enjoyed singing with the choir, Ragina, the wonderful choir member and enjoying the church community.
I thank God for givng us Irving Bunton. He was a special person who gave love, leadership and boundless joy to all. Ragina and family, I know spirit comforts you. I send my prayers to you.
I have always wanted to thank Mr. Bunton for taking a young woman with an okay voice and helping me to gain self esteem through his tutelage while directing the Englewood A Cappella Choir. Not only did he extend his talents to me but to a multitude of young people from the south side of Chicago. We were all young and eager to learn but Mr. Bunton took that energy and molded us into the champion world class choir under his direction. He made us come to school at 7:30am every morning for rehearsals… (We weren’t to happy about this)… We all showed up because everyone “wanted” to be a member of the Englewood A Cappella Choir and would do whatever it took to maintain that honored space!! Because of this discipline (without our understanding), Mr. Bunton was preparing us for the challenges that lay ahead in our adult lives. I have spoken of his wonderful gifts to many. I cherish the moments we spent learning as well as competing with all city choirs. We always won!!! That was Mr. Irving Bunton who would not take second best at anything. He taught us that greatness was not achieved without putting in the practice and then giving it your all!! At 71 years of age I continue to pass on that sentiment to family and friends thanks to Mr Bunton!! My life would not be as full without the wonderful guidance, patience or love that was poured into me (and all of the young black students of music at Englewood High!..Thank you. … Mr. Bunton … We are all blessed to have known you!
It was a honor and a pleasure to sing in a choir directed by Irving. His music selection was a wonderful combination of classical music, spirituals, and conventional church choir music. I don’t think he saw any limitations in what a church choir can do and the results were both spectacular and really fun to sing. He was also a mentor; his musical opinion was of great value to me and my children. We will all miss him, but we are blessed to have known him.
I dare say that I’ve known Irving longer than most folk. I remember he and his late brother, William, playing four-hand duets. Through the decades we had made musical contacts. When the late Rev. Joseph Roberts, Jr. came to Kalamazoo College to receive an honorary doctorate, Irving and others who knew him from Coppin Chapel AME came over for his (Roberts’) address. Irving stayed at our home. When he moved to Atlanta to work with Joe Roberts, I interacted with him there (my daughter lives with her family in Stone Mountain). My cousin, Connie Rounds Nelson, was a student of Irving’s at Englewood High School as well as a member of his church choir. His is a memory I cherish, as opposed to a loss to mourn. “May the soul of the departed rest in peace, and may God’s perpetual light shine upon him.”
It was an honor and a pleasure to sing in a choir directed by Irving. He selected a wide variety of pieces for the choir to sing, from classical music to spirituals to conventional church music. I believe he did not think there was a limit to what a church choir could sing, and the results were spectacular and, more importantly fun and satisfying to sing. He was also a mentor; his musical opinion was of great value to me and to my children. We will miss him, but we have been blessed to know him.
Words can’t express just how beloved Irving has been to University Church. I am reflecting upon his abundance of musical talent, his conducting, his use of language and his wonderful, low speaking voice, …….and his affirmations of me as a singer. Each choir rehearsal was like a mini voice lesson. I improved my singing so much under his direction. His mind was always working — thinking about the next idea or plan for the music at church. Sometimes it was receiving a phone call from him late at night – sometimes for me, sometimes for Charlie, and in his very authoritative, bass voice stating ‘This is the Lord Speaking’, …….and then we laughed, and he proceeded with his idea or plan or request for us.
Just how we, as a small church, were graced with the presence of such a talented music director was always a mystery. We were blessed, and I am very thankful for his presence with us. He will be very, very missed.
I had the pleasure of singing in All City High School Chorus under the direction of Mr. Bunton while singing alongside of his son, Irving Jr., at Lindblom Technical High School. My deepest sympathies are extended to the Bunton family in the loss of your husband and father. His music ministry had a wide ranging impact on many, including me.
Prayerfully,
Rev. Dr. Jeffery L. Tribble, Sr.
Prayers for Ragina and the Bunton family and thanksgiving for the wonderful life of Irving Bunton and all the lives he touched through music! It was always a pleasure to sing with him and to see him at church as a kid and in recent years on return visits to University Church in Chicago.
Irving and I met as graduate students at Northwestern.
My fondest memory: during an illness I received an interesting call. “I heard that heaven had an opening for a choir director and I’m calling to see if God offered you the job.”
My prayers are indeed with the Bunton family.
His life was a gift. May his memory be a blessing. I always left University happier for having listened to Irving’s music. My condolences to Ragina and to his (and my) University Church family.
When I left University Church in 1979, after having been at various times Music Director, Organist, and Composer over most of the preceding decade, I was delighted that Irving Bunton agreed to become music director. When it came to the Buntons,I had mostly worked with Ragina Bunton, whose beautiful voice and spirit have been such a gift. But Irving made contact with me on occasion, in subsequent years. And I visited the church from time to time, where I was witness to his wonderful musicianship and to his gifts in making music a spiritual practice in a congregational community. At a distance, I now join University Church in mourning his loss and in gratitude for his life and work.