Showing posts with label Columbia University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Columbia University. Show all posts

Sunday, August 29, 2010

FAMU 'Marching 100' creator dies at age 91

Dr. William P. Foster arrived at Florida A&M University a year after World War II ended and spent the next half-century building the school's marching band into a world-famous phenomenon. Under his tutelage and baton, the Rattlers' "Marching 100" wowed crowds during hundreds of halftime shows, marched at President Clinton's inaugural parades and was the only American band invited for the French bicentennial celebration in 1989.

Foster, whose musical talent blossomed early, died Saturday in Tallahassee. He was 91.

"I can attest to the fact that what he created was magical," said FAMU President James H. Ammons. "It was the marching band, at an Orange Blossom Classic in Miami, that sparked my interest in attending FAMU. "The band was dynamic, larger than life and something that I wanted to have access to even though I was not a musician," Ammons said in a statement.

Anthony Foster said his father had his students memorize the music rather than read it off sheet music attached to their instruments. That freed them up to perform precise dance routines while they played or marched in elaborate formations.




The announcer is the late Mr. Charles S. Bing, Associate Director of Bands and my lower brasswinds professor of music at FAMU. I will share some of my experiences with Doc Foster and the Marching 100 next month. Take care Rattlers everywhere...

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

NAACP selects new leader: Benjamin Todd Jealous, 35

The Rhodes scholar will become the youngest president and CEO in the 99-year history of the civil rights organization.

Benjamin Jealous, who was educated at Ord Terrace Elementary School in Seaside, Pacific Grove Middle School and York School in Monterey before becoming the only Rhodes scholar in Monterey County's history, was named president and CEO of the NAACP on Saturday.

Jealous, 35, lives in Alameda with his wife, Lia Epperson, a professor of constitutional law at Santa Clara University, and daughter, Morgan. He has been working as president of The Rosenberg Foundation, a grant-making organization that provides economic support to working people in California.

"I am tremendously excited. It's a real chance to get my generation of people — those from 25 to 45 years old — really engaged in the work of this association, and to get this association really engaged in the issues of this century," Jealous said. "This is an historic time and the association is needed, now as much as ever.

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