MTSU recording-industry professor Dr. Thomas W. “Tom” Hutchison passed away May 29 from an apparent heart attack in Surry, Maine.

Hutchison had been on leave from MTSU since July 2011 to serve as professor of marketing and director of the School of Business and Management at Husson University in Bangor, Maine, as well as executive director of academic affairs for Husson’s College of Business.

Dr. Tom Hutchison

A member of the Department of Recording Industry faculty in the College of Mass Communication since 1993, Hutchison made significant contributions to MTSU’s Music Business Program, including serving as coordinator of the Music Business Internship Program and the Executive Online Music Business Program.

He also was instrumental in starting the MTSU/ASCAP Songwriting Degree and in bringing the NARAS-sponsored Grammy University Network to MTSU, which was one of the first colleges to adopt the program.

He published the second edition of Web Marketing for the Music Business earlier this year, and in 2010, Hutchison released The Music Business and Recording Industry with his co-authors, MTSU Professor Emeritus Geoffrey P. Hull and Dr. Richard Strasser of Northwestern University. Hutchison’s other publications include Record Label Marketing, Record Label Marketing, CyberMarketing: Your Interactive Marketing Consultant and Interactive Marketing: The Future Present.

Hutchison, 60, a native of Tallahassee, Fla., earned his undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees at The Florida State University.

He received MTSU’s 2003 Outstanding Achievement in Instructional Technology Award and the University’s 2009 Distinguished Educator in Distance Learning Award. He also is responsible for the development of the MBA online program and the MBA program at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and has long been an in-demand music-industry consultant and researcher.

In addition to his academic and business pursuits, Hutchison was a respected musician. He was a member of bands like the popular beach-music group The Eight of Us and released six singles and an album as Hutch n’ Hoss with longtime music partner Dick Hosford. He also occasionally performed with his students, including Erin Enderlin, The Karg Boys, Jesse Lee Campbell, Alison Parson, Kristan Preble and Eric Paslay.

Hutchison is survived by his wife, Lynne, as well as family members, friends and colleagues.  A memorial service was held June 8 in Maine. Memorial donations may be made to the Hancock County, Maine, SPCA or the Bar Harbor-headquartered Jackson Laboratory Cancer Research Center.