Dudley Powers, 92, a former music professor at Northwestern University and a former principal cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, died Monday, Feb. 23, in Blake Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, Fla.,, where he had lived in retirement since 1980 with his wife, Dorothy. “He was a quiet man with a deep passion for music and for life itself,” said granddaughter Joan Kay, an ordained minister from Oconomowoc, Wis., who presided over last month’s services for Mr. Powers in Bradenton. Born in Moorhead, Minn., Mr. Powers grew up in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. Mr. Powers attended the Juilliard School of music in New York. After leaving Juilliard, he returned to the Midwest and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern. In 1931, the university hired Mr. Powers as an instructor. During the World War II years, he was an inspector at a Chicago factory where warplanes were built. He worked the graveyard shift at the factory and played cello at the symphony orchestra during the daytime. “I just remember that we didn’t see much of him,” said his daughter, Jean Todd. Between 1944 and 1953, he held the chair of first cellist at the CSO. In 1955, Northwestern appointed him professor of cello. Mr. Powers retired in 1979. Survivors also include two other daughters, Anita Prouty and Eileen Buchanan; a son, Arthur; two brothers, Harold and Arthur; a sister, Lucile Kirkpatrick; seven other grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
