I posted this last night in the guestbook, since for some reason I can’t update the site from home. Anyway, some of you know him, many of you probably don’t, but Dale Hopper, former director of the Western Illinois University Marching Band and WIU Jazz Studio Orchestra passed away Friday evening.
I’m pretty sure that he was never actually directly involved in drum corps, other than writing a book in the ’77 called “Corps Style Marching” designed for marching bands to learn how to march like a drum corps. However, I know that there were quite a few Knights that attended WIU and were in the Marching Band and/or JSO.
For the Knights that knew him and might still be somewhat near Macomb, the visitation is today, Monday the 19th, from 4 to 8PM at Dodsworth-Piper-Wallen Funeral Home in Macomb. Funeral services will be at 11 AM, Tuesday the 20th, at Wesley United Methodist Church in Macomb.
For those of you who didn’t know him, here’s the official press release from WIU that will give you a little explanation. This is the article from the front page of the Sunday’s Macomb Journal.