Thomas L. Weidick

Thomas L. Weidick Jackson
Thomas Lawrence Weid-ick, 75, died Thursday, April 3, 2007, at VA Hospital of Jackson. Funeral services are 11 a.m. Saturday, April 7, 2007 at Baldwin-Lee Funeral Home in Pearl.
Thomas Lawrence Weidick was born August 15, 1931, in West Hazleton, PA, in the Pocono Mountain region not far from Philadelphia and New York City. The 8th of 9 children, he was the son of Slovak- and Greek-American parents, Anna Holodick and Joseph Richard Weidick. His father was a coal miner and professional musician
Tom attended Catholic Schools in West Hazleton and began playing flute in the high school band when he was in the 5th grade. He did regular duty as altar boy at the Slovak Catholic Church. He joined the Army when he graduated from high school in 1949. He had been in service only a short time when the Korean War began and he was sent to Korea for 14 months. When he returned to the U.S., while still in the Army, he was selected to study at the U.S. Naval School of Music in Washington, DC. Tom played all instruments but specialized in flute, piccolo, and oboe.
His hobbies were photography, ice-skating, swimming, and diving. After leaving the service in 1954 Tom received a flute scholarship to Sherwood Music School in Chicago. There, he met his future wife and mother of his six children Olva Elizabeth Yates who was attending Sherwood as a pianist. He studied with Emil Eck of the Chicago Symphony and Northwestern University. He played first chair flute in the Sherwood Music School Orchestra and was soloist at his commencement concert in Orchestra Hall. He also performed the Hindemuth Flute and Piano Sonata with Sylvia Barbush Muller in her Masters-in-Piano concert in Chicago in 1959. He also played flute with the South Side Symphony and graduated in June 1958 with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education.
Beginning in September 1958, he taught band and choral music in all grades at Covert Consolidated School in Covert, MI, played in the South Haven Symphony, and studied speech therapy at the University of Western Michigan at Kalamazoo. He also taught music privately and did piano tuning. The following year he was accepted into a Master's degree program at Northwestern University but, instead, elected to accept a position near SpringfIeld, IL, teaching high school band, choral music and speech. He remained there for 3 years, where he also produced and directed the annual senior play and directed his church choir. From fall of 1962, through June 1967 he taught band and orchestra in the Monmouth, IL, public schools, was active in the Jaycees and Elks, directed the choir at Immaculate Conception Church and served as president of the school's Parents Club.
In 1967 he moved his family to Jackson, MS, where he was band director at Forest Hills Consolidated School for one year, then elected to leave the teaching field to do piano tuning full time, and lived in Jackson the remainder of his life.
Survivors include: his companion, Hope Maddox; brother, Don Weidick of Tampa, FL; children, Michael J. Weidick, Anne-Marie Newton, and Paul T. Weidick of the Jackson area, Laurie L. Cooper of Youngsville, LA, Robert W. Weidick of Charleston, SC, and Robin E. Hamilton of Missoula, MT; Ten grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Memorials may be sent to The Mississippi Community Symphonic Band; Mr. Baxter Brown, Treasurer; One Ashley Park, Suite B-374; Jackson, MS 39206.