Paul Barford Banham, age 61, died April 11, 1993 at his home in Salt Lake.
Born June 25, 1931 in Wichita, Kansas to Arthur E. and Naomi Stephenson Banham.The Wayshower: Master musician, artist, sage, poet, historian, humanitarian. Words reach for, grasp at but catch little more than hints and shadows of who Paul Banham really was. His encyclopedic command of the arts, his profoundly integrated understanding and his unique ability to share his knowledge, love and insight in caring and human ways made him a Renaissance Man in the truest sense, as well as a model by which we define great teachers. For Paul was a teacher. First, last, and always, Paul was a teacher - whether wandering with friends through fields of mountain wildflowers, leading graduate students through the twisted agonies of modern harmonics and composition or a class of freshmen through Music 101 - he brought the same inimitable magic and sense of adventure, the same charm, spontaneity and love to every effort.
While we all grew old around him, the youth and energy of his spirit preserved him - we falsely thought him ageless, leaned on him, and were enriched and quickened in his love and wisdom. None who ever knew him remained unchanged by him. And yes, he left poems, he left music, talks, drama and discourse; but his ultimate legacy, incalculable in any sense remains the untold thousands walking this world who were lucky enough to have crossed his path and whose lives became instantly and irrevocably more awake and aware, more gentle, more caring and more giving for having known him.
Survivors include his mother; uncles, Roy Banham and Henry Banham; uncle and aunt Rulon and Frances Stephenson; and many cousins and friends.
Graveside services will be Friday, April 16, 1993 at 3 p.m. in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, 4th Avenue "N" Street. Friends may call Thursday 6-8 p.m., at Larkin Mortuary, 260 East South Temple. Donations can be made to the Paul Banham Memorial Scholarship Funds at Westminster College and University of Utah: attention Development Office, either school.
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