John Marshall Kernochan was a law professor, composer and music publisher who founded Columbia Law School's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts. His pioneering work in intellectual property law helped spur stronger protections for artists.
Early life
Kernochan was born August 3, 1919, the only child of Marshall R. Kernochan and Caroline Rigney Kernochan, a World War I nurse. His father studied music in Frankfurt, Germany with Ivan Knorr and with Percy Goetschius at the Institute of Musical Art and later served as president of the Galaxy Music Corporation. Kernochan prepared at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts. There, for the school's yearbook, he produced memorable verses on that year's graduates, which kicked off a lifelong pastime of writing doggerel verse and bawdy limericks. He also composed religious music. After a year at Princeton University, he dropped out to devote himself to composing. He studied under Howard Brockway, and spent a year visiting Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Kernochan composed several choral and orchestral compositions, which were later recorded. He transferred to Harvard University, graduated in 1942. His paternal grandparents were Louise Marshall Kernochan and John Adams Kernochan, a brother of J. Frederic Kernochan and James Powell Kernochan.
Career
When the U.S. entered World War II, he enlisted. On his way to his posting, he composed his best-known recorded song, "As I Go Riding By." Following the war he attended Columbia Law School; he subsequently became a professor there. Kernochan, who published and encouraged such American composers as Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Ward, William Bergsma, Donald Waxman and Allen Shawn, became heavily involved while a professor at Columbia Law School as an advocate for artists' intellectual property rights. Kernochan also developed the U.S. chapter of the Association Littraire et Artistique Internationale, originally created by Victor Hugo and others to press for international authors' rights. Kernochan directed Columbia's Legislative Drafting Research Fund from 1952 to 1969, organizing projects and studies in witness immunity, financial protection against nuclear hazards, arms control and health and air pollution regulation. He was a member of President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women, which helped lead to women's rights legislation in the late 1960s. For many years, Kernochan ran his family's music publishing company, Galaxy Music Corporation, inspiring a revival of English and Italian madrigals by publishing a series edited by the Thurston Dart.
