William Bergsma Dies At 72 -- Heart Attack Fells Classical Composer

William Bergsma, an award-winning composer of classical music and a former music professor at the University of Washington, has died. He was 72.

Mr. Bergsma died of a heart attack Friday at Swedish Hospital, where he was being treated for a broken pelvis, said his daughter, Anne Bergsma.

Mr. Bergsma was a professor of music at the UW from 1963 to 1986 and the director of its School of Music from 1963 to 1971.

He composed symphonies, chamber music and songs. His work included "The Voice of the Coelacanth," a set of 10 variations for horn, violin and piano that was named for a fish once thought extinct and was first played in 1981.

"He did everything so well . . . the absolute ideal as a performer, an artist, an administrator," said Robin McCabe, a professor of music at the UW. "He was a player in the game . . . so well-respected. Ears would perk up when his name came up."

Before arriving in Seattle, Mr. Bergsma was on the faculty of the Julliard School of Music from 1943 to 1963. He was an associate dean there from 1961 to 1963.

Born in Oakland, Calif., Mr. Bergsma was a recipient of numerous awards, grants and commissions, including the Guggenheim fellowships in 1946 and 1951.

He was a teaching fellow at the Eastman School of Music and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester in 1942. He earned his master's degree there a year later.

He is survived by his wife Nancy; his daughter Anne, a classical

soprano living in Seattle; a son, Laurence, of Seattle; two half-brothers, Edwin Bennett of Portland, Ore., and David Bennett of Oakland; and two half-sisters, Shirley Bennett of Maui, Hawaii, and Gloria Olson of Hillsborough, Calif.