Carl P. Daw Jr.

18 March 1944—

CARL PICKENS DAW JR. was born 18 March 1944, in Louisville, KY, son of Carl Pickens Daw (a Baptist pastor) and Sara Ruth Keith. His family lived for many years in Tennessee as his father pastored the First Baptist Church of Newport, worked on a degree at Vanderbilt in Nashville for five years, then took a position at Third Baptist Church in Murfreesboro. Carl Jr. left Tennessee to earn a BA in English from Rice University, Houston, Texas (1966), followed by an MA and PhD from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (1967, 1970), after which he taught English at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia (1970–78). While at Charlottesville, he met and married May Joan Bates, with a ceremony on 31 May 1969 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ivy, VA. Together, they had one daughter, Elizabeth. May had earned degrees from Duke and Columbia and was working as a librarian for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

He then pursued a master of divinity degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, TN (1981), resulting in his ordination in the Episcopal Church. He thus served as assistant rector of Christ and Grace Church, Petersburg, VA (1981–1984) and vicar/chaplain of St. Mark’s Chapel, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (1984–1993). For the next three years, he with his wife lived in the Community of Celebration, Aliquippa, PA as a Resident Companion (1993–1996), during which time he served in interim ministry positions.

Daw’s endeavors in hymnody began as a member of the text committee of The Hymnal 1982, through which he met and learned from F. Bland Tucker (1895–1984). He contributed his first hymns to that hymnal, and he also contributed research to The Hymnal 1982 Companion (4 vols., 1994). His first solo collection, A Year of Grace, appeared in 1990. He would become Executive Director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 1996 and serve in that capacity until 2009. During that time, the Society was headquartered at Boston University. He has also served as Adjunct Professor of Hymnology (1996–2019), Lecturer of Hymnology, and Curator of the Hymnological Collections at the School of Theology, Boston University. In 2018 and 2019, he was a Lecturer in Sacred Music at Yale Divinity School/Institute of Sacred Music. Daw was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society in 2007 and Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music in 2011. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary (2009) and the University of the South (2012).

Featured Hymns:

Holy lovely is thy dwelling place

Collections of Hymns:

A Year of Grace: Hymns for the Church Year (1990)

To Sing God’s Praise: Metrical Canticles (1992)

New Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1996)

Gathered for Worship: Fifty New Psalms and Hymns (2006)

Prayer Rising into Song: Fifty New and Revised Hymns (2016)

Praise, Lament, and Prayer: A Psalter for Singing

Vol. 1 (Psalms 1–50, 2018)
Vol. 2 (Psalms 51–100, 2020)
Vol. 3 (Psalms 101–150, 2022)

see also:

The Hymnal 1982 (1985)

A HymnTune Psalter, 2 vols., with Kevin R. Hackett (1998, rev. 2007)

Liturgical Music for the Revised Common Lectionary, Years A, B, C (3 vols.), with Thomas Pavlechko (2007–2009)

Glory to God (2013) &
Glory to God: A Companion (2016)

Related Resources:

E. Margaret Clarkson, Carl P. Daw Jr., and Fred Pratt Green, “Approaches to hymn writing,” The Hymn, vol. 35, No. 2 (April 1984), pp. 79–82: HathiTrust

Harry Eskew, “An interview with Carl Daw,” The Hymn, vol. 40, no. 2 (April 1989), 24–29: HathiTrust

Carl P. Daw Jr., Breaking the Word: Essays on the Liturgical Dimensions of Preaching (New York: Church Publishing, 1994).

Melissa Boher Jacobson, “Carl Pickens Daw,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, ed. Raymond Glover, vol. 2 (NY: Church Publishing, 1994), pp. 391–392.

Paul Westermeyer, “Carl P. Daw Jr.,” With Tongues of Fire: Profiles in 20th Century Hymn Writing (St. Louis: Concordia, 1995), pp. 26–35.

Beverly Howard, “An interview with Carl P. Daw Jr.: A decade of effective leadership,” The Hymn, vol. 57, no. 4 (Autumn 2006), pp. 30–32: HathiTrust

Carl P. Daw Jr., Nancy Wicklund Gray, “From the executive director,” “News,” The Hymn, vol. 58, no. 4 (Autumn 2007), pp. 3, 5: HathiTrust

Scott R. Schilbe, “Carl P. Daw Jr.,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 2 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 288–289.

Mike McMahon & Carl Daw, “100 Years of Song,” Hymn Society of the U.S. and Canada, 24 January 2022: YouTube

J.R. Watson & Carlton Young, “Carl P. Daw Jr.,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/c/carl-p-daw,-jr

Carl P. Daw Jr., Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/person/Daw_CP

Carl P. Daw Jr., Hope Publishing Company:
https://www.hopepublishing.com/26/