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In Memoriam: Gordon Homann

Dear members of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music community,

Recently, the community was notified of the unexpected passing of staff member Gordon Homann. Gordon collectively served the two institutions for 11 years. He joined Berklee College of Music in January 2006, where he held temporary administrative assistant positions within counseling and advising and admissions. Later that year, Gordon became a full-time staff member in the College’s Office of Admissions, where he discovered his passion for providing support to international students. In August 2007, Gordon was hired by The Boston Conservatory, where he served as director of international student affairs. Following the merger, Gordon continued his work in International Student Services for the combined institution.

Gordon was an intense advocate for international students and cocreated the Music and English Intensive Program (MEIP), which helped many of our international students get the appropriate English language training to be successful at the Conservatory. Each and every day, Gordon worked tirelessly to make sure student needs were front and center, even taking time out of his vacations to check on the status of students with whom he was working.

Over the years, Gordon’s impact was felt through countless individualized meetings and counsel with students; often under the radar to the larger community, Gordon’s work was always appreciated and recognized by those he assisted.

Gordon believed deeply in the value of cross-cultural relationships and modeled those in his personal and professional life. He spoke German, loved traveling abroad, and was an avid Pokemon player. Gordon was also a charismatic presenter and facilitator of cross-cultural workshops and trainings. His fun and engaging style drew people to him, especially his witty, dry sense of humor. As a political buff, Gordon was always well informed and ready to share the latest news on the political front, and would quickly assess how news would affect our community.

In addition to his passion for helping our students, Gordon had a personal love of music, especially playing the guitar. In his role as director of international student affairs at the Conservatory, he found artistic inspiration from our students during the annual WorldFest, a program of cultural performances representing the international student population. In recent years, he took the program to new heights, adding a rock band representing the U.S. in which he played lead guitar.

Most importantly, Gordon was a proud father and husband. He and his wife Michiko derived immense enjoyment from spending time together seeing their daughter learn and grow. He was also incredibly proud of his wife’s career accomplishments, which include establishing a Japanese foreign language program that has grown to be Boston Latin Academy’s largest program for foreign language.

We invite you to share your stories and memories of Gordon Homann in the comments below.

Sincerely,

Betsy Newman
Senior Vice President for Student Enrollment and Engagement
Berklee

Cathy Young
Executive Director
Boston Conservatory at Berklee

Eileen Alviti
Vice President of Human Resources
Berklee

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3 Comments

  1. Yuan Tian

    I have 4 I20s which you helped me to get, you helped so many international students, thanks for all you did. We miss you, and good luck on the other side

  2. Inesa Gegprifti & Redi Llupa

    We were so shocked and sad to hear about this and our thoughts go out to Gordon’s family. He was so helpful to us as international students and one of the first persons to welcome us to this country.
    He will always be remembered fondly by the many generations of BoCo students!

  3. Cynthia Price-Glynn

    As a faculty member I was always grateful that Gordon was guiding the international students with such generous care and skill. His celebration of all the countries and cultures present in our student, staff, and faculty populations enriched everyone in the school. Thank you Gordon for your interpersonal skills, illumination of diversity, and great personality – – important ingredients in developing and maintaining the Boston Conservatory community.

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