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| The grand UMM men's chorus of the 1960s |
This Friday, Sept. 21, the campus community as well as the broader Morris community will re-focus on good ol' Edson. It has been refurbished, pretty elaborately I gather, although I haven't been there to observe. I will be present among other UMM backers this Friday, Sept. 21, for the dedication. I will need to have some details filled in. My impression is that the auditorium will continue to have the Edson name. However, it will be under the umbrella, as it were, of something named for the generous Morrison family.
The Morrisons are totally invested in our U of M-Morris campus. Already their name adorns the art gallery in the HFA. Edson is a performance venue but it is not part of the HFA. If the music discipline is to perform at Edson, instruments and other gear will have to be taken from one building to another.
UMM started out with music housed in the historic old building now used for multi-ethnic. Obviously I hung out there some when I was a kid. Other P.K.'s (professor's kids) like Mark Lammers spent time on campus too. Theater was the Lammers' thing. A theater at the HFA is named for Ray Lammers. At the end of Ray's life, he often sat across from me for lunch at the Morris Senior Community Center. He was a nice down to earth person around me. I remember theatrical presentations being done at Edson, way back when.
I can remember visiting the original Louie's Lower Level. That place probably has an inflated reputation in people's memories. It's in line with "the good old days." We tend to remember good things about the past and disregard the bad (or bland).
I actually played French horn in the UMM band toward the end of the '60s. The whole panorama of '60s problems and issues were evident on campus at the time. We had "moratoriums" then. The counterculture most definitely sprouted.
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| Ralph E. Williams |
My father Ralph was the only UMM music faculty in the institution's first year. I have always heard he did more than he was technically required to. Going way back, he first visited this campus when he was a boy of 12! He performed in the district music contest at the WCSA in 1928.
Remember the P.E. Annex? That was a spanking new building when Dad returned to campus to play in the West Central Minnesota Symphonic Orchestra in 1931. I remember attending UMM basketball games at the P.E. Annex. Eventually we got the P.E.Center.
My father was a 1934 graduate of Glenwood High School. He was the youngest of five boys. Since my mother's recent passing, I have gone through old things and found the guestbook for my grandmother Carrie's funeral in Glenwood. She was Grandma on my father's side. She was only 63 years old - my age now - when she died of a stroke in 1949. I was born in 1955 so I never knew her, nor my grandfather on my father's side, Martin. He preceded her in death. He died from stomach cancer although my father suspected it might really have been colon cancer. Dad told the story of when his father first consulted with the doctor about his symptoms. The doctor began his assessment by saying "how's your soul?"
Dad went to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where he earned a baccalaureate and later a master's degree in education. He posed for a photo at graduation with his mom and his brother Howard, the long-time banker in Glenwood. Dad taught at Brainerd High School in 1941 and '42, then signed up with Uncle Sam to serve in the Navy in the Pacific Theater of the war. He was a gunnery officer. He told me that he and a crew were assigned to guard a tanker. Later in the war he was assigned to the USS Appalachian, and he with other officers visited Tokyo in the immediate aftermath of hostilities. It was a horrifying scene as he described it, obliteration everywhere. He said the Japanese people were totally humbled by that point. I found a drawing he had done of himself when in the service - he had a moustache - and it was titled "Lt. Williams." We have a commemorative ashtray - now, that's a dated memento - with "USS Appalachian" engraved.
Teaching career flowers
With war over, Dad became choral director at the U of M St. Paul School of Agriculture. I was preschool age when Dad was in that phase. I fondly remember that time in my life.
Let's see, Dad taught in Brainerd in '41 and '42, and Mom was a 1942 graduate of Brainerd High School. Hmmm. My understanding is that they had a pleasant acquaintance at the start and things fell into place later. Mom showed me a picture of Dad she took from back when she was in high school, and she noted she was "brave enough" to ask him to pose for it!
Our history moves on to Morris. My first impression of this community was with the "circle drive" on campus. The entrance to that from the north eventually got cut off for reasons I don't understand. I also heard rumors there was a proposal to simply eliminate the circle drive. There is no parking lot located a convenient distance from Oyate. An amazing part of UMM history is that for many years, there was no student center at all! Quite a different world.
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| Rodney Briggs, UMM's first leader |
A UMM publication from 1978 reported "the song is still sung at commencement." Well it's not performed now, don't know why really. There must be issues but I don't know what they are. The lyrics? My father, as a prolific published composer, would understand better than anyone the reality of "rejection" in music! I once attended a songwriting seminar where a Nashville big shot told us that even he would get the door slammed on him sometimes!
Music maestro please!
My father organized the University choir, band, orchestra, men's chorus and chamber singers here. His forte was in vocal but in college he played trumpet and led a dance group, the "Campus Nighthawks." The group got its name from some used music stands that Dad found available, stands that had the "CN" initials on them! How industrious.
My father took the UMM men's chorus to the Seattle World's Fair where it opened the Minnesota Day program. The recruiting value for UMM wasn't so much with the fair attendees, it was with the many other student musicians from Minnesota who were at the fair that day. JFK was supposed to visit for the fair's closing ceremonies but he "called in sick," as it were, but that was a cover: JFK was really preoccupied with the Cuban missile crisis. Dad took the chorus to the New York World's Fair in '64 and I was along, with Mom.
The UMM community always had a scowling view toward me. My parents brought me to orchestra practice where I'd just hang around in an aimless or maybe hyper way at Edson. It's possible that no babysitter could handle me or would want to. Janet Holt tried, as I recall. Her dad directed the soils lab. I have arrived at the theory that I may have grown up with Asperger's.
People around town could see that my parents over-indulged me. People got angry about that, not at my parents but at me. I told Warrenn Anderson once: "Do not think that I am not aware of everything that has happened in my life." I was never cut out to attend UMM. From Day 1 the place has seemed rather alien to me, intimidating to me. That's unfortunate. Maybe in the afterlife I will not experience any friction anymore.
I realize this post comes across like the Robert Stack character at the end of "Airplane": "I had a rough childhood, Striker."
A tribute to Mom
In 1967 the Cowsills were at their peak and Rod Carew was a rookie with the Twins. The testimonial you see below was written by Kay Carlson about my mother in July of '67. It was written to the business manager. It was cc'd to "Dean R.A. Briggs." Mom's title was bookstore clerk at UMM. She is best remembered as UMM post office manager which she became later. Martha received the Martelle Award. Kay is no fan of mine but she obviously greatly appreciated Mom so God bless her. I am sorry that I have not been able to live up to everyone's expectations.
Sometimes the work that a person does is not recognized by more than immediate fellow workers. In Martha Williams, the University has an outstanding employee, and I wish to take this opportunity to give you my estimation of her and her work since you will not have the chance to really get to know her. Mrs. Williams is an extremely valuable University employee. I am not exaggerating when I say that she is the most dependable, ambitious, conscientious, accurate and thorough worker that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Martha is in the bookstore to work, and she does just that from the time she arrives until the bookstore closes in the afternoon. She takes directions well and carries out her tasks carefully and willingly no matter what they may be. Besides being an outstanding worker, Martha is a very pleasant and sincere person, a joy to know and work with!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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