Dr. Paula Survilla 100 Wartburg Blvd • PO Box 1003 • Waverly, IA 50677-0903 800-772-2085 • www.wartburg.edu Saturday, April 24, 2021, 10 a.m. | Neumann Auditorium Wartburg is dedicated to challenging and nurturing students for lives of Streamed Live on Knight Vision leadership and service as a spirited expression of their faith and learning. Obituary Order of Service Dr. Maria Paula Survilla passed away quietly at home, surrounded by her friends and family, on April 25, 2020. Paula had recently been diagnosed with Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, an extremely rare, incurable neurological disease. Welcome and Opening Prayer Born in Madrid, Spain to Janka and Ivonka Survilla, Paula inherited a natural affinity The Rev. Dr. Brian Beckstrom for language, learning three simultaneously as a child (French, Spanish, and Belarusian). Her family moved to Canada in 1969 where Paula learned her fourth language, English, as she went to school and grew up. Reflection As a teenager, Paula became active in advocacy for captive nations, especially Belarus, President Darrel D. Colson a formerly independent nation that had been annexed by the Soviet Union. She was a founding member and chair of the Youth Canadian Ethnocultural Council. She studied ethnomusicology at the University of Ottawa, was a member of the Governor Generals Reflection Foot Guards Band, and was employed as a tour guide for the House of Parliament and the Dr. Joyce Boss, Professor of English & Modern Languages, Governor Generals Residence, both in Ottawa, Canada. In 1987 Paula and Eric Wachmann Co-Director, Multicultural and Diversity Studies were married. They moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Paula started her master’s and completed a PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan. In 1991, Paula was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research in Belarus Special Music which ultimately culminated in her acclaimed book “Of Mermaids and Rock Singers.” Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 .................................... Sergei Rachmaninoff Returning home, Paula taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro before she moved to Waverly to teach at Wartburg College. Paula was a member of the Wartburg Dr. Jennifer Larson, soprano faculty for 26 years, teaching music history, music theory, and many other courses, including Sam Stapleton, violin ethnomusicology, Inquiry Studies, and capstone. Her research interests included the role Laurie Braaten-Reuter, piano of contemporary music (urban rock and popular genres as well as rural ritual music) in the construction of personal and national identities in post-Soviet Belarus. As the Harry and Polly Slife Professor in Humanities from 2011 to 2016, Dr. Survilla introduced Reflection several initiatives on the Wartburg campus, including the Hearthside Project, to increase an appreciation of the humanities in contemporary attitudes towards a broad and holistic Abree Russell ’21 education. She, along with others in the college’s Humanities Think Tank, was a strong advocate for the arts and humanities. Dr. Survilla was the faculty advisor for the French Club Reflection and for Peace and Justice, and her passion for ritual and sound inspired her to lead several student May Term trips along the Camino da Santiago in northern Spain. Leticia Silva ’22 In 2008, Paula was appointed as the executive director for the Center for Belarusian Studies, an independent educational center founded by Ambassador (ret.) David Schwarz. Reflection The Center (now Foundation) relocated to Waverly and is one of the largest research centers of Belarusian politics and history outside of Belarus. She was also a founding member of the Ted Reuter, Professor of Piano Waverly Chamber Music Series and served on their board as director of marketing. In 2011, Paula launched Knitbaahpurl, a creative, whimsical graphic arts company Special Music ......................The Wartburg Choir, Dr. Lee Nelson, Director working within the fiber industry and encompassing all of the fiber arts. Her company is well represented in fiber stores across the United States and Europe. In 2016, Paula published her A Departing Blessing ...............................Amelia Ouverson ’22, music first children’s book entitled “Over the Moon: A Sheep’s Tale,” which has become a favorite Andrew F. Newell ’21, text of children everywhere. Nathan Hickox Young, violin Prerecorded Paula and Eric have two children: Anton, who recently graduated from college, and Vaalik, who is a sophomore at Wartburg. She was an accomplished artist and avid photographer and enjoyed climbing and hiking in the Adirondacks at the family cottage and Closing Prayer and Benediction working in her garden. She was passionate, determined, creative, independent, caring, and Pastor Beckstrom gentle. She is missed greatly by her family and friends..