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| Bill Robb (Hantge McBride Hughes Chapels) |
The site was the McNamara Center. Bill Robb was the first Morris person to befriend me there. He helped me feel relaxed in this big city place, after I had driven through Minneapolis at around 5 p.m. on a weekday. Why does it seem harder now than when I was younger? I drove occasionally to "the Cities" over many years and felt in control. Today I do not relish it. But the evening at the McNamara Center was most worth the stress.
So there was Bill Robb in a happy mood because he was around people who celebrated the University of Minnesota. "Goldy" the mascot was there.
Bill was a primary person guiding me toward establishing a UMM gift/fund named for my parents. It was important to get oriented the right way. Robb and his colleague Erin Christensen helped me feel relaxed and comfortable. My father had passed on but Mom was still alive. I remember at one point the U people really wanted Mom's signature on something. I fully understood that. Mom was in decline with various issues at the time. You may recall.
But as I have noted before, her issues sometimes subsided, usually when she was at home. Her best time of day was mid-morning. It was after she had her morning cold cereal, usually bran flakes. Mom and Dad both started out their day that way. Their lunches came from the senior center. At night I prepared something quite sufficient. So it was all a quite manageable routine, for a long time. But people do not live forever.
Donald Trump's ex-wife died in a fall. The end can come in all sorts of ways. Often we're left wondering if measures could have been taken to delay death, "cheat" death or whatever. Many things can in fact be done. But so often the death can come out of the blue. Our jaws drop. And that is exactly what happened in late June with Mr. Robb. I got the phone call about his sudden passing last week.
There were no hints this was coming. We digest this news with the knowledge that the end comes for all. A calming knowledge? Maybe that's one way to put it. Death is something we all have in common.
Bill Robb was my age, 67, having been born in 1955, same year as me. So we were "boomers," at the heart of that actually. We were the first generation of kids to be marketed to. Our parents allowed us to watch too much TV. Just think, they had grown up without it. A miracle in their eyes, but to us, a thing to be assumed. So we began poking fun at it through Mad Magazine.
The boomers are beginning their exit from this life. Perhaps it's pretty far along already. Even the millennials have moved up a notch, to be replaced at the young end by "generation Z." So time rolls on.
Occasions to visit
Bill Robb leaves a void at UMM. I did not talk to him often but it was always enjoyable. I remember having a nice conversation with him at the time of the barn quilt dedication. I had no prior knowledge of the event and was simply out for one of my occasional walks. I head east through the UMM campus, which is why I have been so observant about the softball complex. Other friends of mine were at the dedication, and in these pandemic times we appreciate the more-rare occasions when we can socialize.
I remember speaking with Bill at the outdoor retirement reception for Michelle Behr. It was on the UMM campus mall. Maybe I should type "UMN." My, all these changes all the time.
I joked with Bill about his "radio voice." I envy the skill at those times when I record an occasional podcast episode. My podcast is "Morris Mojo." Bill told me about how he had come to reside in Glenwood. That was his residence at the time of his passing on June 21. He died at home, quite unexpected. Thanks to Erin for calling me about this. Erin stays in touch regularly.
A celebration of Bill's life will be held on Sunday, Sept. 25, at Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Bill had a moniker, "Begonia Bill," that I was unaware of until I read his obit. The funeral home is in Hutchinson. The obit states that Bill left us "peacefully." God rest his soul. He was a native of Langdon ND. He graduated from UND in 1977, a year ahead of my graduation from St. Cloud State. So he was on the model four-year plan while I - ahem - spun my wheels some.
I could never have attended UMM - too demanding academically - and if I had failed there, it would have shamed the family. Had I tried taking some classes here, it would have been best to try to use an assumed name. Truth be told, I should have just stayed in Morris and not gone to college. Grades K-12 had been very hard on me psychologically (especially 7-12) and my self-esteem was battered. To a pulp actually. The school system did a good job of that. It rendered me unable to just put myself forward as a proud representative of the Williams family. That's what I should have been allowed to be all the time.
You can't undo this
I'm sure I did not attend any of my father's concerts after grade 4 or 5. I felt shunned. I was an only child although I had not created those circumstances for myself. I should have found some path to put myself forward as a respectable human being.
Perhaps my "curse" was to have been recognized for having a talent for writing at a very young age. So this is what I finally went out and did. I was in the very heart of the "Watergate" generation of mass communications aspirants. That ended up not being a very good thing, I guess, although I have never been ashamed of my perspectives. Today I look at the Morris newspaper, and it's all puffy white clouds. "All our kids are above average." That would be a premise for it all, albeit delusional.
I digress obviously. Yes this blog post is coming off here like Robert Stack at the end of "Airplane." "I was never happy as a child, Striker."
Bill Robb had radio in his background. I mentioned Perry Ford in my conversations with him, and he said he knew the coach. Perry coached the Cougars and was quite gifted with recruiting and public relations, recruiting being a rather daunting challenge for UMM hoops. UMM had to find "refuge" in the UMAC. Ford is deceased.
UMM athletics seems a quite contented place now. I would like the school to drop football.
UMM sports fandom once had a quite arrogant and often-disrespectful attitude. I find now that current UMM people may have no familiarity with that. One of them contacted me after I had alluded to it. She was wondering if I was referring to fans just making a lot of noise when an opponent was at the freethrow line. Oh my goodness, NO. What a happy situation it would have been, if that was the extent of it. For reasons of taste, I do not wish here to get into the details. Let the past die.
"Sweet spot" for career!
Bill Robb found in 2008 that he had discovered his true calling. He used his people skills and genuine caring attitude to get into "major gifts and planned giving." He began this journey at Jamestown College. He traveled a lot in the role. He rubbed shoulders with alumni and formed lasting friendships, and of course all this continued when he moved into his office at the Welcome Center of UMM. I hope I became one of those contacts that he enjoyed.
But the focus of my family fund is my late parents. Mom left us in 2018.
I remember the day I brought Mom in wheelchair to the Welcome Center to supply a signature that the people in charge decided was needed. I did have power of attorney. That morning, I worried some about Mom's ability to still write her name and get it in the proper place, on the dotted line. I had her practice. Maybe I was most worried about the dotted line thing. I brought Mom in to Erin's office, where of course Erin was in command of everything. Happy ending: Mom signed her name just fine.
I told Mom in front of Erin what we were doing but did not state a dollar amount. Remember, my mom and dad were both products of the Depression era! They had the typical traits, as they never considered any sum of money too small to overlook. Let's not underrate that trait.
The family fund hopefully cancels out any frugality my father might have exhibited, perhaps to an unreasonable degree! I'm thinking that just maybe he did that! The focus of our fund is music. The campus will always need music.
It won't be the same stopping by the Welcome Center with Bill Robb not there to share his pleasing and disarming nature. You just knew he cared. Bill Robb RIP.
This 1962 photo at the state capitol shows my father Ralph E. Williams at right, and Governor Elmer L. Andersen at left. My mother and I were about a half-block away when photo was taken, and I remember Mom saying under her breath "Smile, Ralph." My mother was Martha Williams, long-time manager of the UMM campus post office. She received the Martelle Award one year. UMM was finding its legs in 1962. The chorus trip was a PR plum.
From the Morris newspaper, 1962
Ralph E. Williams, director of the Men's Chorus from the University of Minnesota, Morris, has been commissioned a "goodwill ambassador" for Minnesota by Gov. Elmer L. Andersen.
At a brief ceremony Monday on the capitol steps in St. Paul, Governor Andersen presented Prof. Williams with a certificate making him a "10,000 Laker." Williams went to the capitol for the final briefing before he and his 36-voice chorus leave Friday for the Seattle World's Fair. Plans were announced yesterday for a "send-off" party for the Male Chorus at the Great Northern depot here just before the chorus entrains at 12:48 p.m. for Seattle.
Another vocal group and four bands, the governor and royalty from the St. Paul Winter Carnival and Minneapolis Aquatennial will join the Morris chorus for Minnesota Day festivities at the fair Tuesday, June 12.
"I want to tell you all," said the governor Monday to representatives of the organizations participating in the World's Fair ceremonies, "that we're all mighty proud of all these organizations going out to Seattle."
Minnesota Day ceremonies in the fair's Plaza of States will last from 10:20 a.m. to noon.
The Morris group will open the program and sing for 10 minutes. Its four numbers will be "Onward, Ye Peoples," "Born to Be Free," "Rock-a My Soul" and "Russian Picnic."
From 2:20 to 2:30 p.m. in the Plaza of States, the chorus will sing.
The chorus will leave Morris by train at 12:48 p.m. Friday and arrive in Seattle the following day. Leaving Seattle Wednesday, June 13, the group will arrive in Morris the following Friday.
Other units that will participate in the Minnesota Day ceremonies at the fair are: The Owatonna high school choir, high school bands from Fairmont, Proctor and Minnehaha Academy (Minneapolis) and the Minnesota Over-60 Band from Gaylord.
All of the nearly 500 members of the Minnesota delegation will be provided with colorful brochures to distribute along the way to promote the state as a tourist spot.
Bandsmen and singers will wear red and white badges bearing the messages "Minnesota Says Hello" and "Vacation Land of 10,000 Lakes."
The Minnesota Department of Business Development is co-ordinating the arrangements for Minnesota Day.
Recalling further
I was seven years old at the time, stayed home with Mom. Tensions were high in '62 with the Cuban missile crisis. Our home was built that year and it was within the pretty narrow window when new homes had "fallout shelters." Remember on "Happy Days" when the characters got tired of "prepping" for nuclear disaster? They figured that if such a catastrophe were to happen, life wouldn't be worth living anyway. We have used our fallout shelter for storage. It's an option when really bad weather is happening outside. Now that I live alone, I'm not that scared.
JFK was president when the UMM chorus made its trip to the wondrous Fair with its monorails. He was supposed to be present at the fair for closing ceremonies. He canceled out with the official explanation of illness, but the real reason was urgency for dealing with the missile crisis.
It's sad that apparently no one had a movie camera along for the men's chorus trip. Oh, to have captured some of those scenes for YouTube today! The people then could not have envisioned anything like YouTube.
The Minnesota Twins were in their second year in 1962 and finished second behind the Yankees in the American League, just five games out. Vic Power was our first baseman and was team MVP. I was a student at Longfellow Elementary School in West Morris. My third grade teacher Lillian Peterson (later Ehlers, living to over 100) got called into the commons one day, then came back to inform us that JFK had been shot.
On a happy note, let us remember that 1962 was when Gene Chandler had his hit song "Duke of Earl!"
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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