Thomas Trobaugh was born on September 10, 1941 in Morristown, Tennessee. He received his
bachelor's degree in music from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York in 1963.
Trobaugh achieved his master's degree in music in 1966 at Indiana University in Bloomington.
He was an instructor of music at Troy State University in Troy, Alabama from 1966 through
1968. After a year of special study in harpsichord in Vienna, Austria, in 1969, Trobaugh
enrolled at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he earned his doctorate in music
in 1975. Trobaugh began his University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee career as a lecturer in the
Music Department in 1970. Steadily advancing in the department, he attained the rank of
associate professor in 1976. Trobaugh died of a brain tumor on November 15, 1979.
