The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. MBisanz ^talk 02:38, 27 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Laven Sowell (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

Non-notable. Local music teacher. No career backed by reviews in publications. Kleinzach 07:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. -- Fabrictramp | talk to me 23:20, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Living people-related deletion discussions. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:01, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Note: This debate has been notified to WikiProject Oklahoma and WikiProject Opera - Voceditenore (talk) 06:27, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• delete no evidence of the extensive coverage in reliable secondary sources required to pass WP:BIO, or evidence of academic impact required to pass WP:PROF. Pete.Hurd (talk) 03:07, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Neutral for the moment. Re coverage - his official web site has scans of articles by and about him. However, the ones about him are restricted to local Tulsa publications. Here are two examples:[1], [2]. The next two are from the in-house magazines of the University of Tulsa and the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce: [3], [4]. There are also entries in Dictionary of International Biography (1976), Men of Achievement (1978), Who's who in American Music: Classical (1983) [5]. Re his career - the most notable aspects (if at all) are:

1. Sang Marcello and Colline in La bohème throughout US and Canada with the Charles L. Wagner touring company which was fairly notable as such companies go (See: Wagner's book [6], Time Magazine article about him [7] and mentions in these journals [8], [9])
2. Sang comprimario roles at Tulsa Opera before becoming their Chorus Master, a position he held for over 30 years.[10]
3. Received the Oklahoma Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (1991).[11]
4. Books: Williams, Jack A. and Sowell, Laven (1992) Tulsa Opera Chronicles 1948-1992, Tulsa, OK: Tulsa Opera; Sowell, Laven (2000) My music notebook, Tulsa, OK: Hammondo Press. Voceditenore (talk) 06:02, 22 October 2008 (UTC) (further additions Voceditenore (talk) 07:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC))[reply]

• weak delete Really doesn't do anything to assert notability, certainly not why it is notable on a world level. The introduction does not do this either. The sources above indicate above that the subject has some claim to notability, it could probably me made into an acceptable article if such sources were added and above all that the articles affirmed a bit better why the subject is of note. I suggest that the article is rescued and somebody tries to address these problems, if so I would lean towards weak keep. Blofeld of SPECTRE (talk) 14:29, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. The most glaring problem is that article is written like an affectionate tribute from one of his students, which it probably is. I might be able to 'rescue' it to a "weak keep" in a few days when I have more time. But, I'd like to see what the general feeling is here before I put in too much effort. Voceditenore (talk) 14:45, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Weak delete. Any notability seems to be of largely local nature. The book co-authored by him is not widely held by U.S. libraries[12]. Does not seem enough here to pass WP:BIO. Nsk92 (talk) 15:15, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. Which Wikipedia policy has raised the required threshold of notability to "a world level"? Michael Bednarek (talk) 01:24, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK, but is this man even notable on a national level? --Kleinzach 02:18, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.