Harold Dean Carson, 90, of Olton, died Wednesday, July 1, 2020, in Lubbock.  Graveside services will be held at 11:00 AM, Monday, July 6, 2020, at Olton Cemetery with Brother Glenn Harlin and Pastor Valentine Martinez officiating and under the direction of Ramage Funeral Directors. Visitation will be held Sunday, July 5, from 12:00 to 6:00 PM, at Ramage Funeral Directors, with the family being present from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.

Harold Dean was born on the family farm north of Olton on April 7, 1930, to John L. and Verna Belle (Bowden) Carson.  He trusted the Lord as Savior at age 13.  Attending Olton schools from 1936-1948, he graduated as salutatorian of his class.  Dean began playing the piano at around the age of five or six years old.  He began formal piano lessons with Iris Wilson at age 10 years and music was a major influence in his life.

Dean began teaching piano in Sunray, Texas, in 1948, attended St. Louis Institute of Music and obtained a teaching certificate for elementary, intermediate and advanced levels.  He attended Wayland Baptist College on a music scholarship from 1950-1953 and 1966-1969, where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education.  He studied Piano Pedagogy at St. Louis Institute of Music and The New School for Music Study, which was the piano pedagogy department of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., where his teachers were Frances Clark, Louise Goss, David Kraehenbuehl, Richard Chronister, and Elvina Truman Pearce.

Dean began a piano class in Olton in 1950 with three students: Jan Prestrige, Linda Kemp, and Saundra Hamby.  At one point in his career in Olton, he was working with 110 piano strudents weekly.

He was a musician at First Baptist Church in Olton for 25 years and also served at Mayfield Baptist Church.  He served as Music Director for the First Congregational Methodist Church in Amarillo, Minister of Music for Paramount Community Church and Reformed Episcopal Church of the Covenant in Amarillo.  He served as organist for First Presbyterian Church in Littlefield and organist for First Baptist Church in Springlake.  In January of 2012, he resigned that position and continued playing offertories and special music when called on.  Weddings and funerals kept him busy all through the years.  In 2014, he became Music Director at First Baptist Church in Halfway and served there until April of 2015.

He was a member of Music Teachers National Association, Texas Music Teachers Association, and Plainview Music Teachers Association (serving as president in the 1960's).  In 1971, he was given the title of "Certified Teacher of Piano" by the Music Teachers National Association.  He was a member of the American College of Musicians and the National Guild of Piano Teachers.  Dean was in the first group of teachers admitted to the Piano Teacher's Hall of Fame in the early 1960's. He served as adjudicator for this organization in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Missouri.  He was an authorized teacher of the McCLINTOCK PIANO COURSE.

Dean was the composer of a series of supplementary music for piano students "Pieces I Can Play" and "Pieces I Enjoy" and collections of hymn arrangements "Come Thou Fount", "Hymns From the Heart", "Calendar Pieces", "Londonderry Air and Other Tradional Melodies", "Pieces I Like to Play" and "Hymns I Like to Play". He also composed the musical score for "Ballad of Crawfish Draw", an outdoor drama depicting the history of the Olton area.  He wrote countless piano pieces for students tailored for their individual needs.

In 1976-1977, Dean served as a summer missionary in Switzerland with Child Evangelism Fellowship and wrote and edited music books for the children of Hungary while the country was still under the communists.

In 1992, the Olton Chamber of Commerce honored Harold Dean.  He was presented with the "Citizen Through the Years" award.  In 2008, he was honored as the "Distinguished Pioneer Descendent" at the Sandhills Celebration.  In 2012, he was named "Man of the Year".

Dean touched countless lives in the community of Olton and surrounding areas.  He taught and loved hundreds of students and they in turn loved him back and called him friend.  For 45 years, he taught students in a studio in the H.P. Webb Elementary building in Olton.  He maintained a studio in Amarillo at Tolzien's Music Store for 37 years and also in his home in Olton for over 67 years.  Harold Dean loved his family, his students, his friends, but most of all he loved his Lord.  He will be forever missed and remembered for his musical talent and for his kind, loving, and gentle spirit.

Dean was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers: Herschelle Carson, Joe Leslie (Lec) Carson, John Raymon Carson, and Carl Houston Carson, and four sisters: Nannie Gertrude Carson Bilbrey, Mary Opal Carson, Nora Adeline Carson Kemp, and Lillie Pauline Carson Hamby Coleman.

Those left to cherish his memory include 23 nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and great-great-nieces and nephews and countless students and friends.

The family suggests memorials be made to the Olton Cemetery Association PO Box 1055 Olton, Texas 79064 or the Olton Volunteer Ambulance Association PO Box 1087 Olton, Texas 79064.