An Extraordinary Life: One man’s musical path

LOCKPORT – In the early 1950s, Bob Howell’s music future was bright indeed.

An accomplished tuba and string bass player, Bob was playing at the Naval School of Music in Virginia when he was ordered to play with the 7th Army Band in Europe, according to Jeffrey Howell of Lockport, Bob’s son.

But while driving home in a snowstorm on holiday leave to visit his family, someone hit Bob and pushed him off an embankment, where he lay until someone found him.

Bob’s injuries included a fractured pelvis and ruptured spleen. In the first week after the accident, his survival was uncertain, but Bob was a fighter, Jeffrey said. Bob spent nine months at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland and never went to Europe.

“That path did not work for him,” Jeffrey said. “That’s how he got started teaching and he was pretty darn good at it.”

Bob, who became a school choir director, didn’t pick up an instrument until he attended the University of Illinois, Jeffery said, where he majored in vocal music and minored in tuba and string bass.

“He sang for the first time in public when he was 13, at his grandmother’s funeral,” Jeffrey said.

Bob taught at Saybrook High School from 1955 to 1957 and Lockport Township High School from 1957 to 1959. He then went to Joliet Township High School District 204. During his teaching career, Bob moved among all three campuses.

“He had a good rapport with all the kids and had really good choirs,” Jeffrey said. “He was demanding, but he taught them well and expected a lot out of them.”

Mike Zigrossi of Joliet, Bob’s student at Joliet Central High School in the late 1960s, collaborated with Bob on the school’s Broadway musicals when Mike returned to Central in 1975 as a speech/drama/English coach.

Bob – whom Mike said he always called “Mr. Howell” – did great things for his students.

“He taught them to develop their ‘ear’ – singing in tune, singing in pitch and singing together with other people in their section so they sounded like one voice,” Mike said.

Bob also taught choir members how to breathe properly and sing correctly so they would not damage their vocal chords and throats, Mike said. The result was a 120-member choir with a high-quality sound, Mike added.

Even when Bob became Joliet Central’s department chair of vocal music and fine arts, he took time with students, especially those interested in choir, but hesitant of their own vocal abilities.

“He would sit them down at the piano and give them a little tryout,” Mike said. “He could tell right away if they had potential. Then he would take that talent and develop their voices.”

Bob is the former choir director at Richards Street Methodist Church and Central Presbyterian Church in Joliet. He participated in the Bicentennial Park Pops Band, the JJC Community Band and the Joliet American Legion Band, Jeffery said.

All four of Bob’s children played instruments, as do all six of his grandchildren, Jeffrey said. His wife, Marilyn, who died shortly before their 50th wedding anniversary, supported him completely, he added.

After Bob retired in 1992, he directed the church choir at Peace Lutheran Church in New Lenox, which he had joined as a charter member in 1987, in large part because Bob was impressed with its pastor, Dave Hedlin, Jeffrey said.

Bob was 85 when he died May 12. Dave said Bob was a compassionate person who worked with anyone wishing to sing. Bob did it with patience, kindness and encouragement.

“He wanted them to sing to give glory to God,” he said.

• To feature someone in "An Extraordinary Life," contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.

The article has been upated to correct the name of the person that returned to Joliet Central High School in 1975 as a speech/drama/English coach. the Herald-News regrets the error.