Robert M. Cundick: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”

My wife and I were very saddened this morning — though not altogether surprised, since he had been ailing for quite some time — to learn that our dear friend Bob Cundick, distinguished composer and former Tabernacle organist and one of the kindest, humblest, most sincere men we’ve ever known, had passed away.

We first came to know Bob and his wife, Cholly, in the first half of 1993, when they were a service couple at BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and I was over in Israel, with my family, leading an intensive Arabic study program at the Center.  He played the organ there (and at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, in the Old City), and they hosted visitors and led the Center’s extremely successful public concert series.  They were and are perfectly matched.

We kept in touch thereafter.  And, over the past year, my wife and I had the privilege of spending an unusual amount of time with Bob and Cholly as we participated in recorded interviews and discussions with them.  On behalf of the Interpreter Foundation, we’re working with a few others on a short film about his life’s work and its expression of faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon.  I regret that he didn’t live to see it finished.

It is intended to be the first of a series of profiles of important thinkers, scholars, writers, and, yes, artists and composers who’ve devoted much of their lives to expressing their testimonies.  We call it “Foundation Stones.”  The challenge, alas, is that these lives have been long ones, and that the task, in some cases at least, is therefore urgent.

We’ll miss our friend Bob.  Very much.  We’re sorry for this temporary break in the magnificent and richly productive companionship that he and Cholly shared.  We’re grateful, though, that he left such a legacy of work behind him.

For a wonderful 2001 tribute from his son, Robb, see “Creation of a Masterpiece,” here.

Please give five minutes to the powerful choral piece “He is the Root and the Offspring of David,” a deep personal favorite mine from Bob’s The Redeemer: A Sacred Service of Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM0HFPvkU3M&list=RDFM0HFPvkU3M#t=5

The text is taken from Revelation 22:16-17, 20:

[I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.]  I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.  And let him that heareth say, Come.  And let him that is athirst come.  And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. . . .

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus.