Fred Bock; Publisher of Choral Music

Fred Bock, a nationally known publisher of choral music, composer, arranger, organist and choir director, has died. He was 59.

Bock died Friday at Tarzana-Encino Medical Center of cardiac arrest and complications from emergency kidney surgery, said David Hampstead of the Tarzana-based Fred Bock Music Co.

The publisher had been music director at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood for the past 15 years, and before that was music director of Bel Air Presbyterian Church for 14 years.

After working for Word Inc. publishers in the 1960s, Bock founded several of his own companies. His first, Gentry Publications, became instantly successful with a choral arrangement of “Scarborough Fair,” a song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel in the film “The Graduate.”

Gentry continues to publish choral music for schools, and the company bearing Bock’s name publishes church music for choir, organ, piano and other instruments. Bock also owned Raymond A. Hoffman Co., publisher of operettas for elementary schools, and H.T. FitzSimons Co., publishers of Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem.”

An expert on church hymns, Bock was editor as well as publisher of “Hymns for the Family of God,” which was first issued in 1976 and has sold more than 3 million copies.

The nondenominational songbook, popular among evangelical congregations of Presbyterian, Methodist and Southern Baptist churches, purposely features favorites like “How Great Thou Art” and “In the Garden.” Both have been excluded from various modern official church songbooks as non-biblical or old-fashioned.

“Most people know what they like and want,” Bock told The Times in 1986. “A hymnal committee gets together and a little old lady asks, ‘Is “Come to the Church in the Wildwood” in it?’ If not, she doesn’t want the book. Don’t change the words or tune of those songs that people already know and love; write new ones.”

Bock continued to publish the old and write the new. More than 300 of his compositions and arrangements are in print, including a cantata, “Song of Triumph,” performed by the Norman Luboff Choir, and a piano series called “Bock’s Best.”

A couple of Bock’s personal favorite albums, stored atop a file cabinet in his Tarzana office, recorded eccentric performances of Christian music--one by Tammy Faye Bakker and the other by Jimmy Durante. The publisher was known for his dead-on imitation of Durante singing “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”

Bock also edited the hymnal “Worship His Majesty,” published by Gaither Music Co., and with his wife, Lois, wrote “Creating Four-Part Harmony,” published by Hope Publishing Co.

Renowned as a choral director, Bock presented choral clinics across the nation and staged mammoth productions in the Los Angeles churches he served. He conducted a pre-Christmas “Messiah” sing-along at Hollywood Presbyterian in 1989.

“All the shower singers come out for this,” he told The Times with a laugh. But when talking with sheepish audience vocalists after the sing-along, he charitably assured them:

“If it’s true that God looks upon the heart, then he’s probably not going to judge us on our musical style or whether or not we were in tune. It’s an opportunity for everyone to join in the spirit of the season.”

Born in Great Neck, N.Y., Bock earned a bachelor’s degree in music education at Ithaca College and a master’s in church music at USC.

He served as president and secretary of the Church Music Publishers Assn. and was on the Writer’s Advisory Board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Survivors include his wife; his mother, Louise Bock; a sister, Karen Kimbrough; and two sons, Stephen and Jonathan.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Hollywood Presbyterian.