Donald Frederick Haynes

1907 - 1975

Donald Haynes was a minister and gifted writer and musician who sang, played the organ and violin, and conducted choral groups. He provided music for pioneer evangelists Robert Boothby and John Shuler and many others, and became a well-known composer and arranger.

Donald was born in Camden, New Jersey, on April 2, 1907, the son of Carlyle Boynton and Alfreda Weber Haynes. His father was a noted Seventh-day Adventist writer, speaker, pastor, and administrator.

Donald attended Greater New York Academy and then graduated from Atlantic Union College with a Bachelor of Theology. He was active in choral and instrumental activities at both schools, singing in male quartets and choirs, and directing the AUC orchestra in his last three years of college. He graduated with an M.A. in Bible and Systematic Theology at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary in Takoma Park, Maryland, later the Seminary at Andrews University, and completed an M.A. at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee.

He married Lilah Mae Baer on October 30, 1934, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Lilah was a pianist and singer who had graduated from UC in 1931 and was serving as girls’ dean at Campion Academy in Loveland, Colorado when they met. They were married by his father in the College View Church. They would have a daughter, Dona Louise (Schultz).

While his primary identity was that of a minister, a pastor in several churches and an active evangelist, music was a major avocation. He composed 200 works, several of which were printed by noted publisher G. Schirmer. He is represented by hymn #699, “The Lord is in His Holy Temple,” in the 1941 SDA Church Hymnal, and by #449, “Never Part Again,” in the 1985 SDA Hymnal. The latter, a popular and often sung hymn dating back to 1853, was arranged by Haynes, who often sang it antiphonally with his father at large gatherings of Adventists, with one singing, "What! Never part again?" and the other answering from across the auditorium, "No, never part again." It was always a memorable experience for those who listened.

He prepared a compilation of songs, Sing Unto the Lord, published by Southern Publishing Association in 1967. Reviewer Paula Becker described it as a “great new collection of songs never before published.”

The Hayneses were residing in Glendale, California, at the time of his death on August 5, 1975, at age 68. Lilah died three years later, on April 2, 1978, at age 70. They were survived by their daughter, Dona, and her husband, David Schultz; and granddaughter, Jennifer Schultz (Bertolet).

ds/2007/2017

Sources: Wayne H. Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, 1988, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 447; Haynes Family Tree, Ancestry .com; Obituary, Review and Herald, November 20, 1975, 31; obituary for Alfreda Weber Haynes, Review and Herald, March 26, 1942, 27; Atlantic Union Gleaner, February 16, 1927, 8 and January 14, 1931, 8; “College Orchestra Gives Program,” The Lancastrian, January 24, 1930, 1; “College Orchestra Gives Program at Sanitarium,” The Lancastrian, November 14, 1930, 1; U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, Ancestry.com; Atlantic Union Gleaner, October 14, 1975, 8; The singing of “What, Never Part Again,” Hooper and White, quoting from a letter sent to them by Donald’s daughter, Dona, when they were preparing their book, pg. 447. The exact number of works composed by Haynes, claimed in their biographical sketch as 200, may be accurate. The claim that a “number of his 200 compositions were published by G. Schirmer” is open for challenge. A comprehensive listing of G. Schirmer publications does not support this assertion; Columbia Union Visitor, June 29, 1967, 13. In 1981 Dona Haynes Schultz (1935-2003) donated materials related to her grandfather, Carlyle B. Haynes, and father, Donald F. Haynes, to the Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University where they are now available, “Carlyle B. Haynes Collection Donated to Heritage Room,” Lake Union Herald, March 16, 1982, 2.