John M. "Jack" Bass

2018 Jack Bass was a proud native of the Bronx and was educated at Townsend Harris and DeWitt Clinton High Schools and at Julliard, where he studied trumpet under Bill Vacchiano. After high school, he played in the orchestra of one of the first national tours of Porgy and Bess. One of his most vivid memories was when the show arrived in Montgomery, Alabama, and a police officer beat up Todd Duncan, the show's star, for trying to enter the theater through the front door. The Montgomery show was cancelled and the entire company packed up and left on the next train. In 1944, he became the youngest member of the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra) under Dimitri Mitropolous. There he met his future wife, Valerie Vitale, the orchestra's first harp. They married and, in 1951, moved to Cleveland. There, Jack helped run Pioneer Paving, a construction company, with his in-laws, all former musicians. In the following decades, as Pioneer became a major contracting firm, Jack served as president of the Cleveland Chapter of the Ohio Contractors Association, chair of the Mayor's Labor Advisory Committee on Public Works for the City of Cleveland, and as a construction labor negotiator for northeastern Ohio. During these years he developed an interest in Chinese language and culture and began studying Mandarin Chinese in 1967. In 1988, Jack moved to Sacramento to be closer to his children and grandchildren. He served on the boards of: The Jinan-Sacra-mento Sister City Corporation, U.S. China Peoples' Friendship Association (President), Sacra-mento-Chinese Cultural Foundation (Vice President), CSUS Asian Studies Advisory Committee, Pacific Rim Street Fest, Chinese New Year Culture Association, and the Sacramento Chapter of the United Nations Association. He made multiple trips to Asia. When Valerie's health declined, he cared for her devotedly. After her death in 2014, he rejoined the world of the living, acting as a patron of the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, attending musical events in Sacramento and out of town, exercising at Sutter and later Mercy General Hospitals three times a week, and participating in a weekly New Yorker Magazine discussion group. Jack will be missed for his intelligence, quick wit, and wicked sense of humor, as well as for the deep love and loyalty he extended to family and friends. Jack was predeceased by his wife Valerie and son Charles. He is survived by daughter Barbera (Gary Marshall); grandchildren Julian (Sara), Jacob, Faith (Nathan Sargent), Lily Marshall-Bass (Elliott Farren), and Bronwen Marshall-Bass; seven great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. Donations in his memory may be made to The Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, P.O.Box 162508, Sacramento, CA 95816.