A celebrated icon of the North Olympic Peninsula music community has died.

Dewey Ehling, renowned teacher and longtime conductor of the Peninsula Singers and Port Townsend Community Orchestra, died Aug. 7 of pneumonia at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, his friends confirmed.

He was 87.

A private ceremony was held on Aug. 13 and Ehling was buried in Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.

Ehling touched thousands of lives and entertained thousands more as a conductor, choir director and stage producer in his 30 years on the North Olympic Peninsula, longtime friend Paul Martin said.

“He would lift people up,” Martin said last week.

“There was a touch of greatness in this guy. He just made people better by being a good man.”

Ehling, aka the “music man,” also was active with Olympic Theatre Arts, Port Angeles Symphony, The Ballet Workshop, Port Angeles Light Opera Association, Readers Theatre Plus, Port Angeles Community Players and Sequim Community Aid.

In 2011, Ehling received a Clallam County Community Service Award for his involvement with theatrical, cultural and community-aid groups.

In his nomination letter for the award, Martin described Ehling as a “force.”

“At the same time, he’s a kind, hands-on, warm human being who has had a positive impact on his community and on the amazing number of singers, actors, stage directors and instrumentalists with whom he has worked,” Martin wrote.

Gary McRoberts said his longtime friend and fellow musician was always kind but expected his artists to come prepared.

“He brought out the best of people,” McRoberts said.

Ehling lived in Port Angeles with his wife of 45 years, Lauretta Ehling, who could not be reached for comment.

They moved to Port Angeles from Alaska after he retired from Anchorage School District. He also was a U.S. Marine.

“He was known all over,” McRoberts said.

Ehling was a volunteer conductor and/or director for more than two dozen large-scale productions on the North Olympic Peninsula, Martin said.

The maestro relished leading Handel’s “Messiah” sing-along as a Christmas-season fundraiser for Sequim Community Aid.

“He was very much into helping people,” McRoberts said.

Ehling became musical director and conductor for the Peninsula Singers in 1990 and the Port Townsend Community Orchestra in 1995.

Those groups performed dozens of major works from renowned artists such as Bach, Mozart and Brahms at venues throughout the region, according to information provided by Martin.

“He loved doing major works,” McRoberts said.

Husband and wife Jim Dries and Carol Swarbrick Dries first met Ehling at auditions for the OTA production of “Side by Side by Sondheim” in 2004 where Ehling was serving as musical director for the production.

Jim Dries said through the years they became close friends with the Ehlings.

“In my mind, he was sort of like a big brother,” Dries said.

The couples went on in different roles to help form Readers Theatre Plus, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Organizers even named the group’s awards after Ehling.

He led music for all of the group’s Gilbert and Sullivan performances.

“He made such a difference in so many lives,” Swarbrick Dries said.

She attributes him with the first opportunity to sing with an orchestra.

“He had an appreciation for all kinds of music,” she said. “What he did for Readers Theatre Plus, the Port Townsend Orchestra and Peninsula Singers brought out more than the best in us all.”

In 2010, Ehling was named by the Washington Music Educators Association as one of the outstanding educators of the Pacific Northwest.

Before moving to Port Angeles in 1986, Ehling was a community chorus and youth symphony conductor — and school district music director — in Anchorage, Alaska.

“I was proud to call him my friend,” Martin said.

Hollie Kaufman of Port Angeles will be taking over directing for the Peninsula Singers and Port Townsend Orchestra after assisting Ehling with his duties in recent years.

Matthew Nash contributed to this report.

Rob Ollikainen is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum.