Old News

From now on, any news and updates that are old and have been moved off the main page, will be found here.

Sunday, December 30th, 2007 - I know I haven't been doing great with updates lately, but my wife and I had our first child in early October, and it's been a little nuts around here. Anyway, I just received an email from the Neuleibs with this attachment:

OBITUARY

Brian Alexander McCain entered into eternal rest on Tuesday December 25, 2007 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Effingham, Illinois. His loving wife was by his side.

Brian was born May 1, 1968 at the U.S. Army Hospital, Ft. Campbell, Ky. He was the first born of Gary and Myrtle McCain. He attended Primary School in Todd County Ky., Montgomery County TN, and Ft. Campbell, Ky. He was a graduate of Northeast High School and Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN where he was a mass communication major. For a short period of time, he worked as a photographer for TV 43 News in Hopkinsville, Ky.-then advanced to WTHI Television Station in Terre Haute, Indiana where be became a weekend producer.

Brian decided to pursue a degree in Elementary Education and attended Lakeland College in Matoon, Illinois and Eastern University in Charleston ,Illinois. He was employed at Washington Elementary School in Robinson, Illinois and thoroughly enjoyed working with children.

Brian was quite musically inclined and in 1985-1989, marched with a Drum and Bugle Corps, traveling extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada. He marched in the Fiesta Bowl and was chosen an all-star member. Brian also taught Drum and Bugle Corps sessions as well as local high school bands in both Tennessee and Illinois-most recently with the Robinson High School Band in Robinson, Illinois.

Brian was an avid youth bowler, having won numerous local and state titles. He also enjoyed playing golf in his leisure time.

He was a member of the Methodist faith and spent his early years in Lane Chapel C.M.E. Church, Guthrie, Ky.

Brian was preceeded in death by his loving father, Gary McCain, Jr. He is survived by his wife Candy of Wheeler, Illinois, his mother Myrtle McCain of Clarksville, TN, Brother Daryl McCain of San Antonio, Texas,

Sister Janet McCain Fowler of Charlotte, N.C., devoted aunt Mary Long of Atlanta, Ga., three step-children, Hollie and Barney Bloemer and Julie Golden of Shumway, Illinois. Brian also leaves to cherish his memory several aunts and a host of other family members and friends.

We all loved Brian dearly but God saw a need to call him home. Although he left us way too soon, we humbly give thanks to the Almighty God for his life among us and the gentle nature that endeared him to all the lives he touched. How “Special” he must be – to be called home on the Day that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Please keep the McCain family in your thoughts and prayers during this holiday season.

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 - I completely forgot to mention on here (but was reminded by three drum corps friends) that this year's DCI championships will be on ESPN2 this evening at 10 PM Eastern / 9 PM Central / 7 PM Pacific. For more info, you can go here: http://www.dci.org/tv/

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007 - I have just posted some audio recordings from '82-'86 (warmups, etc.) courtesy of Tom Whitman. Recordings were done by him and Pat Linton (with a little help from friends). They are available on the Sounds page under the section titled "Other Corps Recordings". If I have mislabeled anything, let me know. Enjoy.

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 - So, I was reading one of the local newspapers here in Macomb, and on the front page was an article about a new marching percussion organization in Macomb called KnightFire Percussion. According to the article, they were "formed in 2006 to provide continuing education in indoor marching and ensemble percussion to students in the surrounding area".

To read a copy of the article, you can click here - knightfire.jpg
Also, in the photo in the article, there is a man helping out by the name of Brian Irons. I don't know if he's the same Brian Irons who marched in the '80s, but I'm sure someone out there can let me know.

The point of the article is that they are looking for donations and sponsorships so they can purchase equipment for the organization. If anyone would like to offer assistance, you can find out more information at the group's website: http://knightfirepercussion.org/.

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 - My email is now working again (for those of you who had tried to contact me in the past few weeks). This should also fix the issue with the spam showing up in the guestbook (as in, I recieve an email whenever a post is made to the guestbook, so now that my email is working again, I know when something is posted, and I can delete it if it's spam).

In other news, the remaining funds from the reunion were donated to the website account. As of this posting, we have $403.07 in the account, which, with the new hosting service, will cover us for about 6 years of hosting. With the next reunion planned in 5 years, we should be just fine. That being said, donations are still always welcome so that if something should happen to me, or if the reunions stop becoming regular 5 year occurrences, then we'll have backup funds to keep it running for a while.

Also, the new hosting service apparently has a pretty nice easy way of setting up a RSS feed for postings. For those of you who know what those are, I'll see if I can get it working for news updates for the site. I'll post something if I can get it working correctly.

Thank you to everyone for your support, and be sure to keep me up to date with changes in email addresses and other info.

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 - Just so everyone knows, within the next few days, the website will be moved to another hosting service (more storage, more features, cheaper price). So, if there's a short time where the website is inaccessable, I apologize, but it will return shortly, and at that point will be accessable at both knightscorps.org and knightscorps.com. I'll make another posting once the site has been moved.

Thursday, July 6th, 2006 - First off, I hope everyone had a great time at the reunion (it seemed like most people did) seeing people that they hadn't seen for years (in some cases, decades). I'd like to thank everyone involved in the reunion committee for getting it all organized and keeping the whole thing running smoothly. I also would like to thank everyone who came up to me during the reunion for your support.

Second, I've got a couple of notes that need to be passed along. The message about taking memorabilia was somewhat misunderstood by some people and there were a few items that were taken before the people could get their stuff. There was a 1980-1981 album that looks like this (click on the photo for a larger view):

It was supposed to make it back to Jill (Standard) Doak. If you happened to have picked up this item, please contact Jill at jjsdoak@mchsi.com or Gregg Neuleib at neul@qconline.com. Also Tom Whitman's (t_whitman@pkfamily.com) red uniform was picked up by mistake, so if you know who has the uniform, please let either Tom or Gregg know. We would like to get these items returned to their rightful owners.

I have received quite a few updates from people for email changes, I should be able to get to those before I leave on Sunday, but if not, I'll get them taken care of the week after next. I'm heading up to the Rockford show on Sunday, then Stillwater, MN on Monday, and Mankato, MN on Tuesday (I've then got a week long business conference in Minneapolis). If anyone is going to be at those shows, look for me, I'll be wearing some combination of Knights and Colts stuff.

Financially, the website is doing ok, we've got about $125 in the website's account, which is enough to cover us for at least another year. Donations are always welcome. We have paypal set up (I've received a couple of donations through that recently, thanks to those people who have donated) or you can mail checks to me. The information is all on the donations page. I'm thinking about moving the website to a different hosting service. I've heard good things, and people I know use it, plus it's more storage for cheaper ($60 per year vs about $90 per year).

Finally, a request to everyone who was at the reunion. I would like to put together a whole gallery of reunion photos, and I'm sure that many people had much better photos than I did, so if you have a few photos, you can email them to me, if you've got a bunch, there's a few other options, including burning a CD and mailing that to me. If you have any questions about getting photos to me, just ask, I know photos, I run a camera store.

I must say, I was very impressed by job done by the reunion committee, as well as the amount of people who showed up that I marched with. The time period that I marched with the Knights was not really a high point in the history of the corps, so considering everything, the '90s group had a pretty decent turnout. Anyway, I hope we can do it all again in a few years.

Thursday, June 22nd, 2006 - 10 DAYS UNTIL THE REUNION!!!

News from Gregg Neulieb: "If you know someone who hasn't gotten in their reunion registration please let them know that we can still add a limited number. The Holiday Inn is giving us some leeway on reservations so that we can take some late ones. Hope to see you there."

Also an updated reunion schedule:

Saturday, July 1, 2006

12:00 PM Golf at Indian Bluff Golf Course, Moline, IL
email neul@qconline.com for reservations and any preference of 4-some

3:00 PM – whenever. Shelter reserved at Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo. We’ll probably eat about 5 PM. This is a bring your own picnic. (Grocery stores and fast food places are very close.) Richmond Hill is a municipal park so no alcohol is allowed.

There are also many options for entertainment around the Quad-Cities for Saturday and they are listed further down this page (see posting from June 2nd).

Sunday, July 2, 2006

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Memorabilia Displays at the Moline Holiday Inn Convention Center. Wow, great stuff from members and DJ.

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM Cocktails - Soft drinks free, Cash Bar, Music of the Knights selected from many years.

7:00 PM Banquet – Full Buffet with salad, and dessert

7:45 PM (approx.) Banquet Program hosted by former Knights Drum Major and DCI Announcer Dan Potter. Featured speakers are Roman Blenski from DCM and David Kampschroer from DCI. 30 years of Knights Slideshow by John VanDeWoestyne and Steve Scherer.

After Program - music and general partying

Friday, June 2nd, 2006 - Reunion Updates!

Activities for Saturday July 1:

We have 6 reserved tee times starting at noon Sat. at Indian Bluff Golf Course 5 minutes from the Holiday Inn. Email Gregg at neul@qconline.com if you would like to play.

We have a covered shelter reserved at Richmond Hill Park for a picnic in Geneseo late afternoon/early evening on Saturday. It will be bring your own food but there are numerous stores, fast food places etc. (You ought to see Geneseo now if you haven’t been here for awhile.) If you are flying into Moline and need a ride out to Geneseo for the picnic please email Gregg neul@qconline.com.

Other options on Saturday include:

Col. Davenport House Tour noon-4pm Arsenal Island, $3, $1 students. $7 parents with children 309-388-9657.

John Deere Collectors Center Tractor Show And Auction 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 309-748-7944

Lock and Dam Tours, Mississippi River Visitor Center 11a.m. to 2 pm 309-794-5338

IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, LeClaire Park, riverfront, Downtown Davenport
563-322-5837, www.mvbs.org

Rock N Roll Party in the Streets, Starting 5 pm Racer’s Edge, East Moline, Quite Riot, Erra, Down 24, Bent, Smooth Kitty, $15 advance, $20 at door. 309-755-8131.

Genesius Guild presents Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, 8 pm Lincoln Park Classic Theater, Rock Island. Free, www.genesius.org

Also, the second speaker has been confirmed for the reunion: Dave Kampschroer from DCI.

As of this posting...ONLY 30 DAYS LEFT!!!!

Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 - Just received this information from Gregg Neuleib:

John Hamilton, a soprano player from the early '70s, member of the Round Table, and son of Ken Hamilton (corps director for many years) passed away Tuesday (4/25) morning. As of right now, I don't have any information about arrangements, however, more details can be found at http://www.caringbridge.org/il/hamildude/

Monday, April 3rd, 2006 - News from Gregg Neuleib:

"Reservations are going well. The committee is excited. We have Alumni coming from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Alabama, Tennesee and Missouri so far. A confirmation will be sent after we receive a reservation.

The local Kewanee newspaper has given us some great press and more Knights are being found daily.

ALSO please fill out the biography that is on the website. Even if you are not able to attend the reunion please fill out the bio as we would like to have a book with everyone's info. If you cannot remember some of the people or info that is asked for just leave it blank. Please get your reservation in soon."

Only 89 days until The Big One!

Monday, March 6th, 2006 - This is a posting from the guestbook by Mike Skiles:

Help us find our missing Knights!! Hi everyone. I am on the reunion committee and we are having some trouble finding some knights. If anyone has any information on a former corps member, staff, or volunteer, please send us an email at knightsreunion@yahoo.com. Even if you think we might already have it, please send it anyway.

Also the deadline date for reservations has been moved back to June 10th so send in your reservations.

There has been some comments on the price for the reunion. This price includes the meal plus helps us with the cost of everything else involved in putting this on. Display tables, postage, etc.

So please come to the reunion. It might be the only one we ever have of this magnitude.

Thanks for everything,
Michael C

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 - Quick update: added 1980 and 1981 galleries on the photo page, updated a bunch of email addresses that I hadn't had a chance to get to in a while, and added a thing of Google ads on the left side of the screen (it'll help pay for the site). I tried to make it unobtrusive so it wouldn't be annoying, but if anyone has a problem with it, let me know, and I'll get rid of it.

Friday, February 17th, 2006 - Couple of updates and things...I've started adding some of the photos that were sent to me by people over the course of last year (there's a ton of them). I've color corrected and posted two years worth of stuff that was sent to me by David Stollberg. He went through and digitized a bunch of photos that were Bob Kruse's. I've posted them as whole seperate photo galleries. They are linked to from the photos page, or you can click here to see them: 1978 Gallery, 1979 Gallery. Enjoy!

If you haven't sent in your info for the reunion, you should get it sent in ASAP! The reunion committee needs to get the info to Holiday Inn by April 1st, so make your plans, book your flights, whatever you need to do.

Also, I've recently gotten a copy of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 (a new web editing program). Previously, I had been using Dreamweaver 4, so this is a big step up. I'm in the process of teaching myself CSS, along with a lot of other cool things I can do with it. Keep checking back now and then for updates and changes to the site.

Thursday, February 9th, 2006 - I've received news from the Neuleibs. Here's the email:

"Wanted to let people know that Paul Hoogerwerf "Hoogie" just received a liver transplant last week. He is doing well. His address for cards is Paul Hoogerwerf, 1707 Ravine Park Lane, Aurora, IL 60504"

"Also, we are having another Reunion Committee meeting on March 4th. Reservations are arriving but we need to pick up the pace as we have to give the Holiday Inn an approximate number by APRIL 1. (no fooling) We have been doing internet searches and sending out info like crazy. Many alums are still not on our list. We are thinking of people everyday, some even in Geneseo, who are not listed. If everyone thinks of a couple people they marched with or traveled with (support staff) they should email us with names and we'll do out best to find them. Wow, are we getting some good memorabilia. Bob Kruse just gave us 4 boxes of stuff including scrapbooks from many years between the late 70's to early 90's. Of course we have his slides for the audio/visual show. (We still need more pics from the Kewanee years for that too) We have an old Kewanee bass drum head and we have the Round Table Scroll. And of course DJ has a bunch of good stuff."

Sounds good to me....by the way, it's 143 days until the reunion (from the time of posting), so if you haven't made travel plans and hotel arrangements, better get on that.

I hope to see you all there.

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 - I have created a new discussion forum for people to talk about news, memories, stories, plans, etc. It's located at http://groups.google.com/group/knightscorps. I'll see about getting the link posted on the left side of the page with the other stuff, keep an eye out for it. I have started a couple of topics for people to discuss, one if which is memories and stories about Dave Benson. Feel free to post, discuss, and remember.

On another note, our Frappr Map is up to 51 members in 19 different states. If you haven't posted your location, sign up and let us know where you are. Go here to check it out - http://www.frappr.com/theknights

Saturday, January 21st, 2006 - From Keith Johnson:

"Funeral arrangements for Dave have been made.

The wake will be this Sunday (1/22) at Sunset Hill Funeral Home (www.sunsethillcemetery.com) in Glen Carbon, IL from 5:00-8:00 PM. Burial will be on the following Monday at 10:30.

Dave is survived by his wife Julie, his 4 yr old daughter and 1 yr old son. I'm sorry but I can't remember the children's names right now.

Several people have asked about an address to send condolensces. Their address is 1904 Butler Blvd, Edwardsville, IL 62025.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made for the childrens education fund.

I can't adequately express my sorrow and can only hope that Dave's family finds a way to overcome this tragedy.

Julie didn't meet Dave until after his years in drum corps were behind him. I think it would be wonderful if those of us who knew him could drop her a note so she could have some small comfort in knowing how he touched our lives.

Please keep the family in your prayers!"

And then later:

"The childrens's names are Jackie and Daniel.

There is a very nice obituary at the following link http://www.legacy.com/Belleville/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=16402369"

Thursday, January 19th, 2006 - Real quick posting, I just got word (throught the guestbook) that Dave Benson (aka Abe) was killed in a traffic accident this morning (1/19) about 7:00 AM on Hwy I-270 near St. Louis. I'll post more information as soon as it is received.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Friday, December 23rd, 2005 - I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far. I just recieved some new information from the Reunion planning committee. They sent out a mailing to all the addresses that they had with all the info about the reunion. If you didn't receive your info yet, click here to download the mailing in MS Word format or Adobe PDF format. Fill it out and send it in as soon as you can. All this information can also be found at the official Reunion page. And as always, keep checking the website for Reunion news and updates.

The Knights Frappr Map is up to 38 people now, mostly in the central and northern Illinois area and eastern Iowa, but there seems to be a pattern lining up along the US border with Mexico. Are the Knights secretly forming their own border patrol?

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmahanakwanzaka. Don't go eatin' too many cookies, we got a reuinion coming up.

Tuesday, November 29th, 2005 - And the Knights Frappr Map increases to 34 people as of this posting. Got some news for you all, first off, minor update to the Repertoires page, updated info from the 1990 season. Got an email from Gregg Neuleib saying that most of you should be receiveing a mailing about the reunion shortly. Dan Potter has agreed to MC the banquet and Roman Blenski has agreed to be a speaker. They are currently finalizing another potential speaker. Everyone make plans for it and keep an eye on the Reunion page for more info when I recieve it.

Also, as some of you may be aware, blogs have recently taken off pretty popularly. For those of you who don't know, blog is short for weblog, essentially a way of posting regular updates on a website, but also being able to distribute them through something called an RSS feed. Please let me know if this is of any interest to you guys by submitting your answer to this poll.

Thank you for your input.

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 - Hey, we're getting a good amount of people on the Knights Frappr Map. We're up to 20 now. For those of you who don't know, Frappr uses Google maps to put pins where the people are who submit their info. It lets you see where Knights are currently located. Obviously, Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois are the most popular locations for Knights, but we've got a couple in California, a couple in Colorado, and a few scattered elsewhere (I'm hoping Val Ebel will register sometime so we'll have one in Azerbaijan). If you're not on the map, go to the above link and scroll down till you get to the "Add Yourself" section, then put in your info. Add a photo if you like as well.

I hope everyone is having a good beginning of the holiday season. As most of us in Iowa and Illinois know, it just got cold in the last day, and most of us got our first round of snow yesterday or today.

I'm looking at moving the website over to a new hosting service, but I can't decide if I should yet. My reason is that the new host gives me an easy way to do a sortable, searchable database for the email list, so it'll be much easier to look through if you're looking for a specific group of people. The down side is that it's a bit more expensive. If anyone has any input or better ideas, please email me.

Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 - Three things for you all this time around.

Item 1: Anyone heard of Frappr. It's a website where you can put in your location and it'll put in points where you are. You can see where other people are. Anyway, I've created a group for Knights alumni at http://www.frappr.com/theknights. Just go there, scroll down below the map to the add yourself section, put in your name, zip code, a shoutout (I put when I marched and what I do), and if you want to attach a current photo of yourself. Just kinda a fun thing to look at and be able to see where all the Knights are.

Item 2: I don't know what the problem is with the Forum. I think it's been down for a while now, but I just noticed it. I'll have to figure something else out, but for now, I've removed the link because it doesn't work anyway.

Item 3: Tom Huntley asked me to mention this:
"Also if you could mention the Gulf Coast Sound in your next update. We are a senior corps from Texas and looking at our 3rd field season. We plan on marching 36 horns this year and picking up where the Knights left off, we are doing Rock Music. Last year we played Evenessence and Kansas. This year is The Bangles, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Cindy Laupers version of Unchained Melody. Show should rock." There ya go folks, if you're in the Texas area, and want to relive the old days, check it out.

Also, I've heard rumors of a senior corps starting in the Quad Cities. If I find out anything else, I'll let you know. At this point, just rumors.

Friday, October 21st, 2005 - Just updated a bunch of email addresses, locations and other information on the email page, so everyone can keep an eye out for that.

Another reminder for those who might not have done this yet, everyone needs to go to the reunion page for info about next year's big reunion and to submit your information to the reunion committee.

I also created an Old News page, to put all the info from this page once it's outgrown the front page. The official link to this will be at the bottom of the page. If you haven't stopped by in a while, or it's your first time at the site, stop by Old News to find out what's happened while you were away. I know that a lot of posts have been missed, but I'm finding what I can to put up there.

Thursday, October 13th, 2005 - I just recieved this information from Gregg Neuleib:

"Don Croegaert, "UNCLE DON", passed away Tuesday, Oct. 11. The funeral is Friday at 10:30 am at St Malachy's Church in Geneseo. Visitation 6-8 Thurs. at Vandemore Funeral Home Geneseo. Memorials to the Donald Croegaert Memorial Fund. Condolences to family at www.vandemorefuneralhome.com. I wish I knew more and could have let people know sooner but according to the paper he died at the emergency room on Tues. I saw him about 3 weeks ago and he was fine. Another sad loss to the Knights family."

Monday, September 19th, 2005 - 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.

Thursday, September 1st, 2005 - Just a quick mention, in case some of you haven't heard, but DCI will be on ESPN2 next week. It will be on Tuesday, September 6th at 9 PM Central time. Tell your friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested. For more info, visit http://www.dci.org/2npse/

Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 - Just got an email from Christian Fauchald, and he had a great idea. Now on the email list page, you will find a column that lists Location, where you are currently living. This is so if a Knight happens to be living 5 miles away from you, and you might not know it, you can get together. Or if a bunch of Knights in an area want to get together, you can find each other more easily. I've put in my location, along with a link to the Google Maps page for it, so you can see an example of what it'll look like.

Of course, this is entirely optional, if you don't want that information on the site, don't email me the info, however, if you want to find other Knights more easily, and have Knights be able to find you, it would greatly help.

If you want that information posted, send an email with your name, city and state to scott@knightscorps.org, and if there's other info on the email page that I don't have for you, or that might be wrong (years marched, what you played/did, or email address), let me know.

One more thing, any female members who have different last names, I'm going to try to organize the list alphabetically by last name when you marched. The problem is, I didn't march with most of you, so I don't know which is your married name, and which is your maiden name. For anyone on the list who has a different last name from when you marched, please email me and let me know which name is which. Thanks in advance for your help.

Monday, August 22nd, 2005 - Back from Geno's visitation. I saw a few Knights there, and met some of Geno's family that I hadn't had a chance to meet before. I saw DJ (Dorothy Johnson), Bill and Phyllis Neulieb, Steve and Jane Scherer, the Chamberlain brothers (Tony, Matt, and Dan), and I met JP Herring and Charles St. Clair for the first time. I'm sure I saw some more Knights there that I didn't recognize or get a chance to talk to.

I talked to DJ for a while, and she gave me her address to post on the website. You can reach her through the email listed, but that actually goes to Jeannie and then makes it's way to DJ. She doesn't have her own email address, but if anyone would like to write to her, her mailing address is posted on the email page.

Saturday, August 20th, 2005 - Just a quick update, here's a link to Geno's obituary on the Fulton County Daily Ledger's website - http://www.cantondailyledger.com/articles/2005/08/20/obits/obits14.txt

Friday, August 19th, 2005 - I apologize for not getting this info up here sooner, but for those of you who haven't heard, Gene "Geno" Herring passed away last Tuesday (the 16th). JP posted this information in the guestbook on the 17th...

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that my dad, GENO, passed away on Tuesday (8-16-05) @ 11:00 p.m. He had is entire family with him and died at peace.

We are having a visitation for him this Saturday in Canton @ Oaks-Hines Memorial Home. I don't have the times yet, but will post another message when I have them.

A BIG THANKS to Mike Ochs who sent me DVDs of the shows and old pictures. It was a huge help taking a walk down memory lane. My brothers were able to see the "drum corps" side of dad.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING.

J.P. Herring

followed by this information about the service...

Hello Everyone,

Thank you very much for the love and support we have received.

My dad's visitation is going to be held Saturday, 8-20-05, from 4-6 p.m. at the Oaks - Hines Funeral Home, 1601 East Chestnut, Canton, Il.

Since there will no viewing it is going to be informal. Just some pictures, drum corps songs, and lots of "Geno" stories.

If anyone would like to read it, DCI has a nice little article about my dad on their website.

THANKS.

Here's the link to that DCI article he mentioned...
http://www.dci.org/news/news.cfm?news_id=fa088909-a889-47fd-b180-fd16637b31ad

I never knew Geno as well as many of you did, since he was already working for DCI when I started marching, but I do remember him stopping by a lot and checking up on us now and then. For me, Geno was the guy who kept the DCI shows running smoothly. At many shows, especially the big ones, he always seemed to be there on the sidelines, making sure everyhing was in order and on time.

Later, when I was in WIU's marching band, we marched in a parade in Canton for a few years in a row....Geno was always there, helping Canton's marching band, keeping an eye on things, and making sure everything ran smoothly.

I was able to see Geno earlier this summer at the Lisle, IL show and that's when I found out about his condition. He told me he was going to be at some of the other large regional shows this summer too. I wished I would have had more time to talk to him, but he was busy keeping the show in order, and I was just heading back to the stands with two hot dogs in my hands.

From what I know, and from what I've heard from everyone else, Geno spent the last few months of his life doing what he really loved doing, taking care of the kids, and making sure everything was just right for the corps staff, judges, fans, and most importantly, the corps members.

Please, keep the Herring family in your hearts and your thoughts, just as Geno kept all of us in his.

Update...

A thread on drum corps planet about Geno, with other people's memories and thoughts...
http://www.drumcorpsplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=69081

7/26/2004 - 8/19/2005

There's a big gap in what was saved from the main page in this time period, I apologize for the missing stuff. If I ever find more of it, it'll be here.

Monday, July 26th, 2004 - A few more updates, some email addresses and I have a couple of pictures. I went to the Rockford show on July 8th, and for probably about the 7th or 8th year in a row, Bob and Mary DeShepper are on tour with the Colts. So I stopped by and said hi and got a couple pictures. Here's Mary with me at the Colts Souvie stand (I'm wearing the Knights shirt I got through cafepress...see the souvies link on the left for info), and here's Bob back at the busses. I'll be going to the Indy show this coming weekend (July 31st), so if anyone's going to be there, I'll be wearing that same shirt, look for me, and I'll see about getting your picture for the website.

Tuesday, May 11th, 2004 - Been doing some updates to the email list, fixing some things, adding some people, and catching up on emails from people. Got some news for you all, the BIG Reunion will be July 2-3, 2006. Mark it on your calendars and BE THERE!!! More updates will come later, pay attention.

Saturday, January 17th, 2004 - We're up to 9 registered members on the forum. Good so far, thank you to those who have, and for those who haven't, sign up and lets get some discussions going. The idea of a big reunion in a few years is being discussed, and it looks like we should probably do it sometime during the summer of 2006. That would be the 60th Anniversary of the creation of the Kewanee Black Knights Senior Corps, and the 50th anniversary of recreation of the corps as a junior corps.

So, any ideas on where it should be held? We would like to have some sort of banquet/meeting hall that we can have it at, but I don't know enough about Geneseo to know what would be a good place. If anyone knows of good places, or if anyone might be friends with anyone out at the chamber of commerce, or anything like that, let me know. I have a contact at the Geneseo Republic newspaper if we want to put something in the paper about it.

We've got 2 1/2 years to plan for this, so let's get started and see if we can make it a big-ol' shindig. If you have any ideas, comments, or questions, you can email me at scott@knightscorps.org.

On a side note, anyone who might be in the Kewanee area this coming summer might want to stop by the Kewanee Sesquicentennial Celebration (that's 150 years). It's going to be July 1st-4th, and one of the things they are going to be doing is honoring former members of the Black Knights. For more information, go to http://www.starcourier.com/articles/2004/01/15/city/city3.txt

Thursday, December 4th, 2003 - Well, it looks like the forum is starting to take shape, we've got 4 members now (that's like 1 per day). In case you haven't noticed, I put an ad banner at the top of the page. It's just there to promote the Knights Souvie Stand. I know the website used to have ads, but those were because we used to be hosted for free on Geocities. If you look, the banner ad I have is just to help earn money for the website. If you don't like it, email me and let me know. If I get more than a couple complaints, then I'll take it down.

Saturday, November 29th, 2003 - You're probably not going to believe it, so you should just see it....check out the Sounds page...I'll wait. Go ahead...when you're done, just click you're back button and I'll explain.........
As you can see, we have enough space on our current web server to have all the music files that I have from Knights Shows. All the shows that I have copies of are there for you, free for downloading. Now, I know this is pretty much going to kill the CD sales aspect of fundraising for the website fund, but just so you all know, I will still be making CDs for anyone who wants them. The instructions are still in the same place (the sounds page). As always, any donations are accepted and greatly appreciated. Instructions for donations can be found at the Donations Page.

In Other News...

I'd like to thank everyone who purchased a Drum Corps History Book. The commissions from the books sold ($50) were donated to the Knights Website Fund. For anyone who hasn't picked one up yet, and still would like to, you can purchase them through the newly designed Drum Corps World website. Go there, then click on Store. The website fund doesn't get commission for these sales, but they make great christmas presents for yourself or any other drum corps fans. There are also a lot of new historic CDs for sale.

Thursday, November 27th, 2003 - For a short time (until the end of the month), Cafepress is offering $4 off orders of $50 or more. If you want to take advantage of this offer, you can click on the banner below this update. You'll need to enter the coupon code of HLIDAYSHP4.
Click here to buy Knights stuff

Thursday, November 20th, 2003 - Looking for a christmas present for a Knights fan? Check out the new Knightscorps.org Souvie Stand at http://www.cafeshops.com/knightscorps
It's through Cafepress, and so far I have a christmas ornament, t-shirts, a baseball jersey, and a mousepad listed. All profits from the Souvie Stand go to keeping the website up and running, and if we do really well, proceeds will go towards the reunion planning and organization. If you have any requests (they've got a lot of stuff, calendars, lunch boxes, other apparel, etc.) let me know, and I'll see about getting it set up.

Monday, October 20th, 2003 - In case you haven't noticed, the website has pretty much stalled out over the past few months. I won't go into all the details, but I'd like to apologize. I've just now been able to start catching up on all the email updates and CD orders, so hopefully over the next few weeks, you will be seeing more changes, especially to the email page. As for the CD orders, I think I have a record of everyone who's sent in orders, but just to be sure, anyone who has ordered a CD, but hasn't recieved it, email me at ST_Lawson78@hotmail.com and I'll get those out as soon as I can. I appreciate your patience, and as always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to email me.

Thursday, June 26th, 2003 - You can now download a copy of the submission form for the Drum Corps History Book Part 2 using this link. What you'll want to do is download the image (right-click and select save as or save target as) then open it up and print it. If your computer tries to print it very large, then you can insert the image into a document in MS Word, or any good word processing program, resize it to fit on one page, then print it. You can then fill it out and send it and a check to Bill Neuleib's address below. THE ORDER MUST ARRIVE AT DCW BY JULY 7th. IF YOU WANT A BOOK, YOU MUST SEND IN YOUR ORDER ASAP!!!

In other news, Bob Barker (85-87) and Brian Irons (86,88) have this to say "Hello everyone. We are planning an informal, unofficial reuinion in Dekalb on Saturday, July 12th at 2:00. It will be held at Fatty's Pub at 1312 W. Lincoln Hwy. You can call them at 815-758-7737 if you need directions." If you need more info, you can email Bob at Bobdrmr68@hotmail.com or Brian at B_Irons@hotmail.com.

I attended the show in Normal, IL last night, unfortunately weather turned it into an indoor standstill after about 3 corps. But I did see a lot of Knights there, Geno, Big Al, Jon Anderson and his wife. I got to chat with them a bit, and was able to see DJ (still touring with Madison) and John Pohner and Brad Palmer (brass staff w/ Glassmen).

Since this is the Drum Corps season, updates should be much more often, keep checking back here for more news and info.

Wednesday, June 18th, 2003 - ATTENTION!!! The Knights will be a part of the 2nd Edition of the Drum Corps History Book, and Steve Vickers (the publisher) is offering it to us at a reduced price. Normally, the book would be $85, but we can get it for $65. I'll be getting an ordering form and cover letter on the website ASAP, but in the meantime, if you want to get your order sent in, you can mail a check for $65, made out to Drum Corps World, and mail it with your information to...
This is for a limited time only. So if you want one, better get your stuff mailed out as quickly as possible.

Thursday, May 29th, 2003 - Calling all artists! If there are any of you out there that are artistically inclined and would like to, I am requesting graphics for the Knights website and other things (i.e. Logos, Titles, Images, etc.). These images are going to be used on the website, and on t-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, etc. I have found a website that makes this kind of memorabilia easy to create and order. Let me know if you are willing to draw, paint, computer generate, or create logos and images to improve the overall knights presence.

Monday, May 19th, 2003 - Amazingly enough, more than one update in a month. I just wanted to mention that since we now have a lot more space, I can start putting MP3s of the Knights shows online for you to download. I'm going to start with a popular year, 1982, and every once in a while, I'll post a new one. Once we get nearer to filling up the 100 MB we have, I'll start rotating them....I'll post a new one, and take down an old one. You can keep an eye on these at the Sounds Page.

Saturday, May 17th, 2003 - Wouldn't you know it, one month later, and I finally have time for another update. It's time to start thinking about the reunion again. So, I'm going to be updating the reunion page soon, and I'm going to have everyone who can be there sign up on that page. I can say right now, plan on Saturday, August 16th, at 1:00 PM in Geneseo. More details will be worked out later, however, I can tell you, that this time around, there will be a few more pictures (seeing as how I'm now the manager of a camera store), and I'll probably be making CDs for people of pictures and music. There's also a possibility of getting DVDs of our shows in the future as well. As I said, more details will follow. Keep an eye out!

Wednesday, April 16th, 2003 - Well, in case you haven't noticed, updates have been somewhat sparce. Work has been crazy lately, but I found time last night to put 25 pictures and articles up on the photo page. There are 9 there that I don't know what year they are from, so if you all could stop by and see if you recognize any of them, then email me with what year they might be from, it would be much appreciated.

Sunday, February 2nd, 2003 - Good news everyone, Knightscorps.org is back up and running in full force. The website works, the domain name works, everything is working great, and we have 4 times as much storage for the same price.

Tuesday, January 14th, 2003 - I've got the website transferred over to our new hosting service, WestHost. We're still working on the domain name and everything, but the nice thing about this hosting service, is that it's the same price as Geocities, but we get 100 MB of storage instead of 25 MB. It also gives me options for more advanced things, like a message board, CGI Scripts (little bits of programming that you can do really cool things with), a small-scale shopping form (maybe so you can order CDs and stuff online through and order form), etc. Anyway, things are looking good, and until we get the domain name worked out, you can access the new site at http://65.18.163.174 , which is the actual IP address of the new location.

Monday, December 23rd, 2002 - Happy Holidays! As a song (by an A Capella group called The Bobs) says "It's the Night Before the Night Before Christmas". As you might have noticed, the updates are hopefully going to be about once a month. I finally got a whole bunch of the CDs out, hopefully everyone will recieve them before Christmas. As for the couple more recent orders, I'll probably get them done and out in the next week or two, after the holiday season and the mail system calms down a bit. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and I'll talk to you all next year.

Wednesday, October 9th, 2002 - So, it's been a while since the last update. I apologize, but it's tough for me to remember to update it when not much is going on in the drum corps world these days. Anyway, I just got some email addresses updated, and I'm still at work making CDs for people (I really didn't expect as many CD requests as I recieved during August), so I'll get them out as soon as I can.

In other news, Macomb (where I live) is finally getting DSL, so maybe by this time next year, I can have a server set up here that you will all be able to download more pictures, music, and maybe even video of the corps straight off the website. We can only hope.

Tuesday, August 13th, 2002 - I don't know about anyone else, but I had a great time in Madison, it's too bad Colts didn't make it into Finals. I can see why they didn't though, good show, but nothing really stood out. Anyway, it was good to see a lot of Knights at Madison. Thanks to Kathy Murray, Donette Phillips, and Greg Young for the donations. I'll be getting another batch of CDs done and shipped out later this week for those who have emailed me. Don't know what I'm talking about?...check out the Sounds page. The Geneseo Reunion is coming up fast (this Saturday). I hope to see a lot of you there...check out the Reunion page for details.

Monday, July 29th, 2002 - Just a quick note of thanks to everyone who's donated to help keep the Knights Website up and running. Thanks to Kerry Fisher, J.P. Herring, Bob Walters, and everyone who threw money into the pile at last year's reunion. If I forgot anyone, I sincerely apoligize. I've finally gotten around to making a spreadsheet to keep track of donations and expenses for the website, so I'll be able to thank everyone from now on.

In other news, it's 12 days till DCI Finals, and 19 days until the reunion in Geneseo (if I'm counting correctly), I hope to see a lot of you in both places.