Forwarded from another list:

It is with deep sorrow that I report the death of one of the greatest
scholars of African American gospel music, Dr. Horace C. Boyer, who
taught for many years at U-Mass Amherst and worked with me for a year at
the Smithsonian. The author of more than 40 articles as well as the book
"How Sweet the Sound," he was a master conductor and a warm and
wonderful human being. He will be sorely missed.

Here's his obituary:

(click here)

John Hasse