Rodney William Pocock

Rodney William Pocock was born to Dallas (Schettler) Pocock and Rodney Pocock in Alameda, Calif.

He graduated from Alameda High School in 1959 and went to Brigham Young University. He interrupted his college career to serve an LDS mission, then graduated from BYU with a degree in performance piano and music education in 1963.

Rod was a wonderfully gifted music teacher and performer, building a successful elementary/middle school music program in Spanish Fork, Utah, after graduation from BYU. After five years in Spanish Fork, he was offered the opportunity to team teach with his best friend, Emil Geddes, at Edna Hill School in Brentwood, Calif. After 10 of the best years of his teaching career at Edna Hill, Rod decided to start a piano repair and tuning business.

He married his life-mate, Joslyn Stephens, a CPA from Antioch, Calif., in 1976, retired from teaching and began an exciting future that included building a successful piano tuning and repair business in northern Utah; owning and managing piano and organ stores in Utah, California and Mississippi; concertizing all over the United States for Wurlitzer Organ Co.; returning to school to earn a master's degree in education at Mississippi State University in Starkville and working as a school administrator for many years in Idaho, Texas, Alaska and California.

Of all his accomplishments, Rod was proudest of his U.S. patent earned while developing the state-wide homeschool support program in Alaska named Interior Distance Education of Alaska. He utilized the concepts of IDEA in a charter school he began and operated for five years in the Knightsen School District named HomeSmartKids, which he used to earn his education doctorate.

He and Joslyn bought and remodeled old homes in every place they lived, including his last home in Gilmanton, N.H. After retiring in 2005, he and Joslyn embarked on an exciting future of big game hunting, with safaris in North America, South America and South Africa, and cruises all over the world.

They decided to return to the work force in 2009. Rod was the assessment coordinator for John Tyler High School in Tyler, Texas. Because of their daughter's (Danielle Forsyth) health, they resigned and returned to New Hampshire at Christmas.

Rod loved life and all it had to offer. His "unfinished business" centered around teaching his grandson "Bucky" to play chess and giving a concert recital. Grandpa of six, "uncle" to many and brother of Wanda Johnson and Jerry Wilcox, Rod was best known for his big smile and jolly humor, which were forever dimmed following a sudden and unexpected heart attack in Concord, N.H., on Feb. 4, 2010.

Rod's parents, brother, niece (Sherry Johnson) and adored brother-in-law (Wayne Johnson) preceded him in death and are lovingly waiting to see him again.

A funeral will be held at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 17, at the Chapel at Holy Cross Cemetery in Antioch, Calif.

Our dearly beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle would have appreciated donations in his name to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Tribute Program, P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38148-0142.

Arrangements were by Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Laconia, N.H. For more information and to view an online memorial go to wwwiIkinsonbeane.com.