The CBB mourns the passing of its Mentor

As you may already know, Jack Browne passed away on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006. His entire family was with him at the time.

The Chico Enterprise Record has posted a very nice obituary about Jack. You can read it here: John "Jack" Browne Jr.

For those that didn't know Jack, he was the brass choir and low brass instructor at Chico State University for a number of years, and most notably during the time that many of us in the Chico Bavarian Band were there.

Jack was one of the few faculty members in the Music Department that approved of -- and even encouraged -- the existence of the Chico Bavarian Band: most of his peers felt that playing in the CBB was not a productive use of our time. (Those of us that were in the band, on the other hand, could never understand why spending time performing for people was a bad thing for music majors to do, but oh well.)  Jack was the only one who actively supported the group, even going so far as to put the CBB on the program for one of his Chico State Brass Choir concerts.

Jack was a combination of professor, counselor, mentor, and musician. He handled each of these roles with ease for he was an intellectual, an artist, a keen wit and -- on occasion -- just a bit of a scallywag. (I still remember how he deftly persuaded me into joining the pit orchestra for the stage production of "Anything Goes" -- which required countless hours of rehearsal -- despite the fact that I was taking a full load that semester and working 30 hours a week!)

After retiring from the University, Jack joined the CBB. I sometimes wonder if he didn't do so just to see the look on the faces of the remaining faculty members. It took some getting used to after dealing with him as a professor for so many years, but he quickly became a staunch member of the trombone section and "one of the boys". He played with the band for a number of years, sometimes even arranging his post-retirement travel plans around our Oktoberfest schedule.

It's hard to believe, but for those of us that knew him since college, it has been some 30-plus years. It is, therefore, with melancholy that we say goodbye to one who was an educator, a mentor, a talented musician... and a friend.

Prost!