It is funny how lives intertwine. It is also odd how someone you have never even met can greatly impact your life. Even stranger, is how someone born in the mid-19th century can affect the life of someone born in the late 20th century.

For instance, take the case of Neal Springer and Theodore Presser. Neal is a music student at Hardin-Simmons University. Theodore Presser, at the age of 14, molded cannon balls during the Civil War. By the time Theodore was Neal's age, he was managing the sheet music department in C.C. Mellor's Music Store in Pittsburg.

Neal Springer graduated from R.L. Turner High School in Carrolton and moved to Abilene three years ago from Farmers Branch. Springer will be a senior next year at HSU. He plays viola in the Hardin-Simmons Orchestra, acts as the orchestra librarian, plays in various string chamber ensembles, and sings in the HSU Concert Choir.

Presser studied piano with a Lutheran minister, played guitar with his brother, and instructed his fellow classmates at the New England Conservatory in sight-reading music. A couple of years later, he joined the faculty at an Ohio university and earned enough money to begin a study of music in Europe.

What changed Presser's life was a tiny magazine, Etude, he started on $250 after he returned from Europe. By the turn of the century Presser was a wealthy businessman who had not forgotten his humble beginnings. In 1906, he established the Presser Foundation, that still today, helps universities help students.

Neal is one of about 40 students in the School of Music at HSU who will share in about a $100,000 of endowments set up by donors to HSU. Springer is also the recipient of the prestigious Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award.

Hardin-Simmons is one of the colleges chosen by the Presser Foundation this year to receive a sizable amount of money to be awarded to a student who "shows excellence" in music study and who is well-rounded in other studies.

Neal was chosen by the faculty of the School of Music to receive the award. Neal meets the requirement very well. According to Lawson Hager, Dean of the HSU School of Music, "Neal is an excellent musician, is in the top of his class, and participates in theatre productions on campus. He also serves as a student leader for New Student Orientation."

It's funny how lives intertwine. It's odd how someone you have never met can impact your life. Even stranger is how someone born in the mid-19th century can affect the life of someone in the 21st century.

That is the case of Neal Springer: musician, violist, HSU student; and Theodore Presser: cannon ball molder, musician, publisher, and philanthropist.