John C. Warman

John (“Doc”) Warman was a native Washingtonian and local legend. He attended Sacred Heart Academy, Gonzaga College High School, and Georgetown University. After graduation, he spent most of his professional career at Gonzaga teaching Greek and Latin, eventually being appointed Chairman of the Classics Department. But his greatest gift to Washington, DC has been his music.  He was the Music Director at Our Lady of Victory Church since 1968 and has played the organ at Immaculate Conception Church and St. Mary’s Church since the mid-1960s as well. At Gonzaga, Doc was a fixture in their remarkable theater productions since 1967, as music director, producer, and accompanist, earning him the honor of being the first person inducted into the Gonzaga Theater Hall of Fame in 1999.

A child prodigy, when Doc studied the piano he quickly learned to  play by ear and  plays almost everything by memory.  This is especially remarkable at the Gonzaga musicals, during which Doc plays the entire score without a single sheet of music.  In 1986, Georgetown University recognized Doc’s tremendous contributions as a musician and teacher by awarding him a Ph.D., honoris causa.  In honor of this achievement, his students started calling him “Doc,” and it stuck.

Doc did what he loved -- teaching Greek and Latin, playing for the kids in the Gonzaga musicals, and providing the music for three DC Churches -- until his death on August 25, 2015.  For several generations of Washingtonians, Doc has been a teacher, a mentor, and a friend.  And now, through this scholarship and the JWS Musical Theater Chorus, the legend of Doc Warman will touch many generations to come.