James Thomas Quarles

{{Short description|American musician (1877–1954)}}

File:Missouri United Methodist Church pipe organ (June 2020).jpg

James Thomas Quarles (November 7, 1877 in St. Louis, Missouri – March 4, 1954 in Los Angeles, California{{cite web|title=California Death Index, 1940-1997|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP6W-72N|website=FamilySearch|access-date=17 May 2018}}) was a 20th-century American organist, educator, and academic.{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/newmusicreviewa00orgagoog/newmusicreviewa00orgagoog_djvu.txt|title=Full text of "New music review and church music review"|work=archive.org|access-date=13 September 2015}} He was National President of both the Music Teachers National Association and music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.{{Cite web |url=http://members.mtna.org/Conference/MTNAConferenceHistory.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320002042/http://members.mtna.org/Conference/MTNAConferenceHistory.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-20 |url-status=dead }} In his long tenure he taught at Lindenwood University, Cornell University, and the University of Missouri.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OlueLL17Y6gC&pg=RA1-PA15 |title=Review of Reviews and World's Work|work=google.com|year=1907|access-date=13 September 2015}} He was the founding dean of the University of Missouri School of Fine Arts including the University of Missouri School of Music.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC&pg=PA43 |title=Dictionary of Missouri Biography|isbn=9780826260161|access-date=13 September 2015|last1=Christensen|first1=Lawrence O.|last2=Foley|first2=William E.|last3=Kremer|first3=Gary|date=October 1999|publisher=University of Missouri Press }} In 1905 he wrote one of Cornell's school songs "Cornell Hymn"{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjA6AAAAMAAJ|title=Songs of Cornell|work=google.com|year=1906|access-date=13 September 2015}} In the 1920s he edited a compilation of Missouri school songs and was advisor to the Zeta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He acquired and played the organ at Missouri United Methodist Church in Columbia, Missouri.{{cite book |last=Stephens |first=Frank F. |date=1965 |title=History of the Missouri Methodist Church|location=Columbia |publisher=The Missouri Methodist Church|page=174}}

For a time Annie White Baxter served as his secretary.{{cite book|author1=Lawrence O. Christensen|author2=William E. Foley|author3=Gary Kremer|title=Dictionary of Missouri Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC&pg=PA43|date=October 1999|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6016-1|pages=43–}} He studied organ under famed St. Louis organist Charles Henry Galloway.