John R. Gurney; Metropolitan Opera Baritone

John R. Gurney, 95, whose bass baritone graced New York’s Metropolitan Opera from the 1920s through the 1940s. A graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard Business School, Gurney studied music in Paris in the 1920s before joining the opera company. After his retirement in 1947, he moved to Riverside and then to Corona del Mar, where he became a portrait artist and furniture designer and builder. In his later years, Gurney often gave concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. He also sang the national anthem at the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix and at other racing events featuring his son Dan Gurney. On Aug. 6 in Newport Beach.