Bill Shepherd Music

Reflections from Randy Hogancamp, delivered at the concert.

Thank you to Danny Galyen and the Board of the Waterloo Municipal Band for dedicating tonight’s concert to Bill Shepherd! His legacy of music in the Cedar Valley deserves recognition, acknowledgment, and praise. I feel humbled and thankful to be a part of Bill’s life and appreciate the opportunity to share some thoughts with you.

Waterloo American Legion Band

In preparation for tonight I asked Julie Anderson to search the files for some information about the history of the Waterloo Municipal Band, and she was able to find some notes concerning the beginning of the band and its early years. In short, the idea for this band was conceived aboard the USS Wisconsin between 1917-19 by Cressy Whalen (the band’s first conductor), Les Hartman (tubaist), and Charles Ball (solo cornetist & later conductor). On their return home after WWI the band went through several iterations and came to life on Memorial Day of 1926. As of April 1, 1929 it became the official band of Waterloo. Prior to Bill the longest tenured conductor was Charles Ball at 20 years. Bill served as conductor of this band from 1982-2018, encompassing 37 seasons, making him the longest serving conductor of the WMB! It also appears that in just two more years the band will be celebrating its 100th Anniversary!

Preparing for tonight brought back some “old” memories for me with this band. My first summer season was in 1967 when the band was known as the Waterloo American Legion Band and rehearsed in the American Legion hall next to the KWWL building. The conductor at that time was Jimmy Selland and the percussion section was Jim Coffin, Bob Kehe on bass drum, and Jack Dunlevy on timpani. Other familiar names in the band were Bob Shafer, Milt Mikesh, and Dave Kennedy. I returned in 1972 to teach at UNI and remember playing in the band for several summers with various conductors. When I realized that Bill’s last concert with the band was July 26, 2018 I knew I wanted to play for him that one last time. Tonight I am thankful to be able to play for him once more.

Playing with Bill

Following his arrival at UNI in 1976 Bill and I shared hundreds of playing experiences over the years with the WCFSO, Bill’s combos, the BSBB, his Red Hot’s Dixieland Band, and at the Cattle Congress for acts ranging from Jim Nabors & Myron Floren to Charlie Pride, Mac Davis, Roger Miller, John Davidson, & Roy Clark as well as Red Skelton and Bob Hope! Bill also booked the band for the Sports Shows at the Dome where we played for a myriad of events from high wire circus acts to dog shows and everything in between. The most memorable was a snake charmer: the cobras were reasonably tame and slow, but when the rattlesnakes were loose on stage the band hopped off! Every year the highlight was when the Queen and her Court from Pella brought the band a box of Dutch almond letters!

UNI

We both survived the ups and downs while teaching at UNI - changes of administrators, various classes of students coming and going (each with it’s own personality), new faculty arriving and then leaving for the next job, and the inevitable state funding crises one after another. All the while there was a core faculty in the School Music that kept the department going, and Bill was one of the most dedicated, consistent, and reliable. I remember one summer while we were playing a Friday Concert in the Park at the National Bank of Waterloo gazebo, we looked around and realized that we were the only SoM faculty left in town, working in CF/W’loo while most everyone else was gone for the summer. Eventually, I joined the others and would leave town for the summer to play with the NHMF, but Bill was always here - still playing in and for the community!

Bill was a positive presence and role model for our students, whether in Marching Band or Symphonic Band, conducting class, band methods, or student teacher supervision. He was also perhaps the most recognizable face from the School of Music to the community at large. In the 1990s John Vallentine asked my wife Jane Whitehead to begin the process of starting a New Horizons Band modeled after the one established by Roy Ernst from the Eastman School of Music. Bill was the first director of that band as it grew and became a mainstay in the community. As the Director of the PMB Bill was seen in public during one halftime performance by probably more people than any of the rest of us was seen in all of our lifetime performances. When he led the BSBB, Bill’s was the face people wanted to see - they all wanted to rub elbows with him! His leadership of the Waterloo Municipal Band made their Thursday night concerts highly successful, including an appearance at the IBA Conference in Des Moines.

Personal

Although I always considered Bill a friend and respected his musicianship, knowledge, and teaching, it wasn’t until we were both retired that we really had a chance to develop our connection on a deeper level. Until the pandemic we walked and talked at College Square Mall nearly every day, along with a community of other “mall walkers” who all seemed to know Bill. If ever he wasn’t there to walk one day, they would notice and question me about “where was Bill? is he OK?” During the pandemic and throughout his radiation treatments, Bill & I walked outside in his neighborhood, weather permitting. It was during these times that we realized how similar our backgrounds were coming from small MidWestern towns. I learned how Bill grew up just a stone’s throw from his grandparent’s house, and how respected his dad was in the community. We had time to talk about so many interests, including books that he would recommend such as the bios of Frank Sinatra, Sammie Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, and others as well as the books “Life After Life” and “Life Before Life.” He shared with me his experiences “on the road” with the Tommy Dorsey Band. We discussed everything from local issues to national concerns. In short, we usually solved the world’s problems time and time again! Even when we weren’t able to walk, one or the other of us would call to check in at least weekly. When my son Nathan died Bill was there to share my grief while we listened to Nathan’s music. Thank you, Bill.

One story that I believe sums up Bill’s life occurred just a short time before his passing. I was visiting with Bill at NewAldaya, and pretty much all he talked about was the visit he had had the day before from three students who played in one of his high school bands from Wooster, Ohio. One travelled from CA, another from Chicago, and the third from Ohio. They planned the trip to meet in CF and take Bill out to dinner. He was overwhelmed with joy and almost in disbelief that they made such an effort to see him. Those students and hundreds or likely thousands of others are Bill’s legacy! We all owe him a debt of gratitude for being part of our lives. His was a life well-lived to the benefit of others!

Tonight’s program

First, congratulations to Danny for programming an outstanding selection of music to honor Bill! It appears that each and every piece was selected with him in mind.

“I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” was Tommy Dorsey’s theme song, and a trombone feature no less! I remember hearing Bill’s sweet, smooth, silky sound as he played this!

Of course, what better march than “Men of Ohio,” Bill’s origin and home state.

“West Side Story” was a new Broadway production when Bill was in NYC on tour with the Dorsey band, and he would tell me how shocked the musicians were to play music with such advanced meters!

“Here’s That Rain Day,” arr. by Dee Barton, was a staple of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. It is one of the most beautiful trombone section features I have ever played!

“Ol’ Blue Eyes” is, of course, for Frank Sinatra, one of Bill’s favorite singers. In fact, if you heard Bill sing “New York, New York” you would swear it was Sinatra you were listening to!

And most fitting, “The Boy from Carroll County” is a tribute by Bill’s son-in-law to a memorable man and musician.

While Bill was a talented musician with the smoothest, and silkiest trombone tone you will ever hear, an extraordinary teacher as evidenced by scores of successful students, and one of the finest gentlemen you will ever know, in the end I believe Bill’s best talent was people, and that is why we remember him!