THEY ARRIVE AT the Chimacum fire hall Tuesday evenings during December.
Shedding coats, hats and gloves, they unpack their instruments — trumpets, trombones, clarinets and flutes — and proceed, literally, to warm up.
It’s rehearsal night for members of the Chimacum High School Alumni Band. Their upcoming performance: an annual singalong concert at Ferino’s Pizzeria in Port Hadlock.
The concert is free, but donations are accepted for the Duane Montgomery Music Scholarship.
How many members of the alumni band learned to play a musical instrument from Montgomery?
“All of us,” said Becky Lopeman Fernandes, class of ’72.
Fernandes plays the flute in the band, which was started by Montgomery and reorganized after his death two years ago by Mary Lou Montgomery, a music teacher and choral director who also taught at Chimacum Schools.
Members of the alumni band trace their knowledge of music to Duane and Mary Lou.
“She taught us how to read music,” Fernandes said. “When we got old enough, we went right into band with Mr. Montgomery.”
But when her husband was hired to teach at Chimacum Schools in 1954, there was no band program at the high school, Mary Lou said.
So to fill out the ranks, he recruited students from the grade school and middle school for parade appearances.
Marching in the Seattle Christmas Parade was a priority, Mary Lou said, because some of the Chimacum students had never been to the city.
But the players’ stature, or lack of it, caused comment.
“People would say, ‘Are those kids really in high school?’” Mary Lou recalled.
Now some of those “kids” are 60 years old, she said, and have children and grandchildren who play in the alumni band.
Duke Shold, ’64, and his nephew Geoff Rosbeck, ’05, are half of the trumpet section.
Shold’s daughter Trishia Miller, plays clarinet. Trishia’s son Nate, a sixth-grader, plays alto sax and is one of the grandchildren who will join the band at the concert for several numbers, including “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells.
Part of musical family
While all consider themselves part of the Montgomerys’ musical family, some literally are.
“I’m not only proud to be with these kids, but also my three children, six of my grandchildren and one great-grandchild,” Mary Lou said.
Cheryl Montgomery, Class of ’72, plays baritone sax. Rick, ’74, plays trombone and Ross, ’87, plays trumpet. Rick’s daughter, Kelly Brown, ’06, also plays trumpet.
Joining in Sunday’s concert are Kelly’s brothers Kyle, Jacob and Caleb and younger sister Laren, 12.
Ross’ daughter, Payton, 10, and Rick’s grandson Lucas, also 10, will play.
Other musicians have family ties. Fernandes, ’72, and her cousin Carolyn Lopeman Allen, ’69, make up the flute section.
Cousin Laura Lopeman Snyder, ’68, plays alto sax.
The alumni band also has two couples who played in the high school band: former County Commissioner Glen Huntingford, ’72, who plays trombone, and Barb Charwell Huntingford, ’73, saxophone; and Debbie Dustin Dodd (sax) and Jim Dodd, trombone.
Music also brought Duane and Mary Lou together.
He was from Sedro Wooley; she was from Mount Vernon.
They met at a high school mass band festival.
They studied music at Western Washington University, then Duane was hired by Chimacum Schools.
Duane, who lettered in three sports in high school, also coached football and basketball.
When he started teaching in 1954, people still remembered him from a 1949 high school game where he scored three touchdowns against Port Angeles High School.
Recent graduates
Two recent CHS graduates who will be home from college and playing with the band Sunday are Cody Othoudt, an alto sax player who attends Washington State University, and Acshi Haggenmiller, a clarinet player who goes to Yale University.
“People show up who haven’t rehearsed,” Laura Lopeman Snyder said.
The youngest resident alumni musician is Melanya Nordstrom, who attended the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding after graduating in 2008.
Nordstrom, who works in the Port Townsend Boat Haven, plays tenor saxophone.
Duane Montgomery had retired by the time she attended Chimacum High School, Nordstrom said, but added his input when she took tenor saxophone lessons from Mary Lou at the family’s home in lower Hadlock.
“He’d yell a comment from the other room,” Nordstrom said. “He also taught me some jazz theory.”
Mary Ann Larson Walters, a 1970 graduate, took up the alto sax to play in the alumni band after a break of 30 years.
Her sister-in-law, Bonnie Michaelson Walters, ’69, and Bonnie’s sister, Patty Beckman, ’77, are both clarinetists in the band.
Another returnee is Diane Johnson, who started grade school the year after Mr. Montgomery was hired to teach at Chimacum.
Johnson, who learned to play drums in fifth grade, now plays bass and will join Glen Huntingford, who also plays guitar, for a singalong of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and other children’s songs at Sunday’s concert.
“While the rest of us rest our chops,” Mary Lou said.
Duane Lee Montgomery died at age 77 on Jan. 30, 2009.
Nearly 500 people attended a celebration of his life at Chimacum High School.
For the past three years, a $1,000 scholarship in his name has been awarded to a Chimacum graduate who plans to study music in college, either performance or education.
On Sunday, Duane Montgomery’s legacy continues through the music of the students he taught.
“He was a tremendous influence in my life,” Walters said.
The Chimacum Alumni Band will play traditional Christmas carols and songs Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Ferino’s Pizzeria, 846 Ness’ Corner Road, Port Hadlock.
Donations to the Duane Montgomery Music Scholarship will be accepted.
Checks marked for the scholarship fund can be sent to P.O. Box 208, Port Hadlock, WA 98339.
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Jennifer Jackson writes about Port Townsend and Jefferson County every Wednesday. To contact her with items for this column, phone 360-379-5688 or email jjackson@olypen.com.
