Maxinkuckee overture  

Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series, Volume 6 Copyright Office, Library of Congress., 1952

BOWLES RICHARD W Maxinkuckee overture for band by Richard W Bowles Condensed score and parts $6 HT FitzSimons Co inc Chicago 13 Aug 52 EP65890

1952 - Sep 3 - 'DIck Bowles' New Band Composition, "Maxinkuckee Overture", Released

"Maxinkuckee Overture", a composition for band by RIchard W. Bowles, has now been released by the publishers, H. T. Fitzsimmons Co., Inc.

The coposition carries Mr. Bowles' program notes which include the meaning of the word Maxinkuckee as "Big Stone country".

Although his music is not intended to be descriptive, its theme was suggested by the majesty of Lake Maxinkuckee an the beauty of the surrounfing country.

"The Peck Horn's Revenge", another of his compositions bor band, was released by the same publisher in Jul. - Citizen

Of some of the hundred - compositions he wrote some others are:

Burst of Flame
The Invisible Boundary
Sword and Shield
Extended Fanfares
Fanfares for Today
Four Forte Fanfares
Four Sonorous Fanfares
Functional Fanfares
The Show Piece
The Swing Set
Marching the Blues
The Brigadier Overture
Bordogni Medley

Culver High Scholl Music department - Sep 1940--Aug 1953

Richard William BOWLES Birth 30 JUN 1918 Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas Death 07 DEC 2009 Gainesville, Alachua County, Flordia son of Rev. James D Bowles and Bessie Alice Bagby of Crown Point, Indiana

Richard W. "Dick" Bowles, nationally known bandmaster, outdoor writer, and sport fisherman, died peacefully at his home in Gainesville on December 7.

Bowles taught at the University of Florida from 1958 until his retirement in 1985. He directed the University of Florida Gator Bands from 1961 to 1975, and had over 400 published works of music.

His outdoor writing career included the weekly columns "A Pinch of Salt" and "Outdoor Journal" for the Gainesville Sun, and the monthly "Big Bend Action Spotter" for Florida Sportsman.

He was a teacher and mentor to thousands of people in the musical and outdoor worlds.

He graduated as valedictorian from high school at the age of 15. After touring as a musician for two years to earn tuition money, he graduated from Indiana University in 1940.

He met the love of his life, Margaret Alice Thompson, at IU and they were married on May 3, 1941. Margaret ("Tommy") preceded him in death in July, 2007, after 66 years of marriage.

He served in the U. S. Army Air Force in World War II as a bandleader, and after the war he taught in Culver, Indiana, and Lafayette, Indiana, before joining the UF faculty in 1958.

He led the Gator Bands through a period of rapid and sustained growth, and guided many students through the uncertainties of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. He wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements for the bands, including the Gator fight song, Orange and Blue. He received the Distinguished Faculty Award from Florida Blue Key in 1973.

In 1975, Bowles stepped down as band director but continued to teach at the University. After his 1985 retirement, he expanded his second career as a journalist, photographer, and environmental advocate.

A frequent guest conductor and clinician with bands, lecturer on fishing and environmental issues, and award-winning photographer, Bowles continued his journalism career until he sustained injuries in a fall in 2008.

Between his 80th and 90th years, Editions Musicales Européennes published 270 of Bowles' trombone duets, he wrote 120 monthly columns for Florida Sportsman, and several pieces for concert band.

His book, A Pinch of Salt, based on saltwater fishing columns from the Sun, was published in 2002.

Bowles was inducted into the Florida Bandmasters Association Roll of Distinction in 2001, the first person so honored. Other musical awards came from ASCAP, Phi Beta Mu, Tau Beta Sigma, and Kappa Kappa Psi. He was honored numerous times by the Florida Outdoor Writers Association for columns, photography, and feature writing. The Gainesville Offshore Fishing Club was a special part of his life, and they presented him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

married May 3 1941 Salem, Indiana Margaret Alice "Tommy" Thompson Name: Margaret Alice Thompson Birth: 08 Oct 1919 Death: 20 Jul 2007 - Gainesville, Florida daughter of Garrett Allen Thompson, Helen Evlou Shanks

He graduated from Indianaia University, 1940 receiving a degrees of Bachelor of Public School Music. He is a member of the Kappa Kappa PSi honorary band fraternity.

1942 - Jul 22 - He's In The Army Now - Richard Bowles...was inducted into the army Thrusday morning. He left here Sunday, July 12, and volunteered for service at Gunter Field Montgomery, Alabama. He passed the phsical examination with flying colors. Mr. Bowles is with the A.A.F. Band at Gunter Field, which is an aviation training center. The band is being recruited mainly with former Indiana Universitu musicians...

Private Richard A. Bowles , of CUlver, (right) Gunier Field Band trombonist, accepts enthusiastic approval from Warrant Officer Howard A. Way, band director, upon his latest composition, "The Gunter FIeld March"... dedicated it to Col. Aubrey Horaby, commanding officer of Gunter Field....

He served in World War II ; Lockbourne Air Base Band, directed by Master Sgt. Richard W. Bowles.

1944 - Jul 19 - M. Sgt. Richard W. Bowles former C. H. S. band director, has been promoted to warran officer junior grade

1946 - Jan 30 - Warrant Office RIchard W. Bowles has been discharfed from the Army at Patterson Field, Ohio, and is nor on 30 days terminal leave. He is remaining in Columbus, Ohio, to direst four radio programs in March. These will be on Satuday nights from 6:45 tp 7:15 and entitled "Somthing New in Columbus". Mr. Bowles, former C. H. S. music instructor is writing all the music for the shows.

1947 - June 25 - RIchard Bowles to Return to Music Dept.

Richard W. Bowles, original director of Culver Hight School Band when it was first organized, has been appointed director of the high school music department, accordin to an announcement mad Monday by Trustee Maurice A. Curtis. He fills the vacancy caused by the resignation of Bazil O'Reilley, who will teachin the Warsaw school system next fall.

Mr.Bowles was a member of the local faculty from 1940 to 1942, when he enlisted in the army. He advanced to the rank of warrant officer, directing an arny band that included musicians that had played with prominet symphony orchestraa and "name" bands.

Since his discharge from the service Mr. Bowles has been director of music in a Houston, Texas church.

Mr. and Mrs. Bowles and their 14 month old son, Daniel Alan expect to arrive in Culver by September 1.

Local school officials feel themselves fortunate insecuring Mr. Bowles as experineced band directors are scarce and his outstanding record when here before and the wide experience he has had om the five years assire tje continance of first-class direction in the music department.

1953 - AUg 26 - Richard Bowles Resigns As CHS Music Director

Richard W. Bowles, head of the music department of the CUlver High School and director of its outstanding School ban, has resigned to become director of the band and orchestra at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, one of Indiana's leading high schools.

Announcement of Mrs. Bowles' resignation and its acceptance was made by Maurice Curtis, trustee of Union Twonship, and Floyd M. Annis, principal of the local High School. Both officials stated that the popular music instructore had been granted a release from his contract inorder to accept the highly attractive offer from Lafayette.

Mr. Bowles will begin his new duties in Lafayette on September 8

"DIck" Bowles, contributor of a widely read regular column to the Culver Citizen, will be sorely missed not only by the high school but by the entire community.

Both he and Mrs.Bowles has been extremely active in local affairs. The Thuirsday evening band concerts in the Town Park just won't seem the same without Dick's peerless conducting.

A graduate of both Indiana Unicersity and the University of Wisconsin, Mr. Bowles is will known in musical circles. He is a member of the executive council of the Indiana Music Educator's Association.

His Culver school band units and vocal groups have repeatedly ranked high in state competition.

He came to CUlver as director of the music department in 1940 and in July 1942, he entered the Army and served with the AAF band for four years.

FOllowing his tour of duty he wasdirector of music at a church in Columbus, Ohio and later at Houston, Texas, before he returned to Culver in 1947 to resume his former post.

He is a talented composer and two of his more recent compositions, "Maxinkuckee Overture" and "The Peckhorn's Revenge", hade received popular acclaim.

For several years he directed the choir of the Culver Methodist Church. His wife, also an accomplished musician, served as organist at the church.

A member of the Culver Lions Club, Dick has been a hard worker in that organization.

Mr.Bowles finished his work here last week and he and his family plan to move to Lafayette immediately.

2004 - Posing with portrait created in 1976 by former student Glenda Spencer Jones.

Richard W. Bowles

By Diane Chun Staff writer The Gainesville Sun.
Dec 9, 2009

Richard W. Bowles wore many hats in his long career: director of bands at the University of Florida School of Music, a writer of both words and music, avid fisherman, conservationist, columnist for The Gainesville Sun.

Friends and colleagues say Bowles, who died Monday at the age of 91, would most like to be remembered as a teacher.

"He taught everybody he knew," son Daniel Bowles said Tuesday.

Bowles was born in 1918 in Rogers, Ark. He graduated from high school at 15 and was already an accomplished musician, especially proficient on the trombone.

He met his future wife, Margaret Alice Thompson, known to all as Tommy, while attending Indiana University. The couple married in 1941.

During World War II, Bowles served in the Army Air Corps as a musician, playing in and leading bands. After the war, he returned to school, earning his master of music degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1949.

The family, which now included two children, settled in Lafayette, Ind., where Bowles was band and orchestra director in the public school system. He was already becoming known as a composer in band circles, and his best-known composition, "Burst of Flame," was published in those years.

Dan Bowles recalls four-week-long family vacations at Fort Myers Beach.

"Dad's love of fishing and Florida weather led him to apply for college teaching positions in the state, and in 1958 he got his chance at the University of Florida," he relates.

Bowles took a position as assistant director of bands, and in 1961 was named director of bands. In 1962, he was elected to the American Bandmasters Association, the first of many honors.

Anyone who has taken a seat in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for a UF football game has experienced a bit of Dick Bowles' legacy. As director of the Gator marching band, Bowles produced many compositions. For him, the halftime show was the game.

The Gator fight song, "The Orange and Blue," that the team sings after a game ends? Arranged by Bowles. He's had more than 100 arrangements published.

Gary Langford, who followed Bowles as band director, described the unique unit that is a marching band.

For starters, then and now, most of the band members are not music majors. But in their time practicing band formations and learning compositions, they learn a lot about life.

"Band teaches discipline, work ethic, precision, responsibility and camaraderie," Langford said. "We took eight buses to Atlanta last Saturday, filled with students who all had the right uniforms and came prepared to play. That's inherent in the gig. With 330 people in the band, they have to learn responsibility."

Langford wasn't naming names, but he said some college band directors have built a reputation as tyrants. That wasn't true of Bowles.

"Dick was very task-oriented," Langford said, "He was about the nicest guy you'd ever know, but he expected you to do the job and do it right."

Whether it was learning how to fish, working with the concert band or marching band, or writing the many articles he had published, it had to be done the right way, Langford said.

"I think he'd like to be remembered through the accomplishments of his students, and for his dedication to the university," Langford added.

Bowles stepped down as band director in 1975 after a mild heart attack, but continued to teach full time until his retirement in 1985.

Retirement from the university just gave him more time to devote to his other loves: fishing, the outdoors and environmental issues.

He began writing a fishing column for The Gainesville Sun in 1978.

Rob Oglesby, who was then managing editor of The Sun, recalls Bowles' proposal that he write a column that would be entertaining and educational.

His columns - some 800 in all - appeared for the next 15 years. For those who fished, they provided essential information about what was biting, and where.

For those who'd never fished, Bowles' words made them wish they'd been out there on the water with him. "Dick's columns were written in painstaking detail, the same way he fishes," Oglesby recalled. "Very little went unnoticed by Dick. That is one thing that makes a great fisherman, and a good reporter and writer."

A collection of 48 of his columns were published in book form as "A Pinch of Salt" in 2002.

Bowles was an emeritus professor of music when he was approached by 20th Century Fox about using his arrangement of "When the Saints Go Marching In" in the 2002 film "Drumline."

Longtime Gator fans may recall the marching band playing the same arrangement when the team played Miami in 1964, earning a victory that sent them to a postseason bowl.

Langford said that Bowles' legacy is in the hundreds of students of his in the Gator band program who have gone on to all manner of successful careers. A number have gone on to become band directors all across the country.

Dan Bowles played for four years in the band his father directed. He said that his father's students felt not just taught, but mentored.

"He managed to do it all with such good grace," Dan Bowles said Tuesday. "I never saw him raise his voice. He always kept his cool in tough situations, and he passed that on.

"He taught me that you don't have to be a fiery jerk to get results. It has been a valuable life lesson for so many," Dan Bowles said. "With Pop, what you saw is what you got."

Dan Bowles said that a celebration of his father's life will be planned.

Langford added of his friend and colleague: "He and Tommy were two of the most wonderful people you'd ever hope to meet. Perhaps the times have become too fast-paced, but you don't find people like Dick Bowles anymore."

Children: Daniel AlanBowles
Mary Jane Bowles Ayers.