Charles H. Holmes

1929 - 2011

(News article)

LAMBERTVILLE -- A musician and educator credited with launching the Bedford High School band program and building the marching band into a renowned performance group, Charles H. Holmes died Friday of a heart attack in Mercy St. Anne Hospital.

He was 82.

A native of Toledo and a graduate of DeVilbiss High School, Mr. Holmes played music all his life and thrived on developing a love of music in his students.

Mr. Holmes started playing professionally when he was 14 and was invited to join the dance band on the Boblo Island boat near Detroit, according to Connie Holmes, his wife of 61 years.

The couple met in the high school marching band; Mr. Holmes played clarinet and saxophone and Mrs. Holmes was a majorette.

Mr. Holmes taught himself virtually all the instruments, including violin, drums, and bassoon to be a better teacher and better able to repair damaged instruments, Mrs. Holmes said.

He especially loved big-band music and played in dance bands throughout the region from the mid-1940s until the mid-1970s.

The venues ranged from prestigious ballrooms such as the Trianon in downtown Toledo to small-town dance halls and urban night clubs.

"I used to say that I spent our entire courtship in the back room of a night club waiting for him to finish playing with the band," Mrs. Holmes said.

Mr. Holmes was proud to have performed several times with legendary band leader Tommy Dorsey, who traveled the country with a core group and hired musicians from local unions to complete his concert ensembles.

After earning a degree in music from the University of Toledo, Mr. Holmes taught music for one year in Bloomingdale, Mich., before he was hired at Bedford.

He remained Bedford's band director for 25 years, and for most of that time had no assistants, even when he was directing 150 or more students in the marching band, according to Dave Snouffer of Toledo, a 1964 Bedford High graduate.

"He was one of the hardest-working teachers that I ever had in my life," Mr. Snouffer said.

"And he always had a smile and a unique chuckle. He was totally dedicated to helping us to do the best that we can do."

Mr. Snouffer recalled a time when the band did not have an oboe to play a lead part on Gioachino Rossini's composition, An Italian Girl in Algiers, and Mr. Holmes tapped him to play the part on clarinet.

"It was a tough piece of music and he said, 'Dave, you can do it, just practice and practice and practice.' He was a friendly, down-to-earth person who basically dedicated his whole life for 20-plus years to the marching band at Bedford."

He said some students thought Mr. Holmes was a mathematical genius to choreograph the band's complex marching routines, coming up with new and intricate patterns every week.

Mrs. Holmes said the marching band performed several halftime shows for the Detroit Lions NFL football team.

It also performed at Cedar Point and the Boblo Island amusement parks.

"The kids just had an awful lot of fun with him and learned to love music. That was his main interest -- not so much teaching them to play but to instill the love of music in them. That was his passion."

She said the youngest of their four children, Sandy Sherlock, is carrying on the family legacy by teaching music at a school in North Dakota.

While at Bedford, Mr. Holmes enrolled at Eastern Michigan University, where he received a master's degree in school administration.

He concluded his tenure as band director after the 1970-71 school year, then was an administrator in the Bedford system until his retirement in 1985.

Mr. Holmes also bought a Temperance music store in 1975 and operated it until 2007.

"He loved it, just loved it," his wife said of the music store. "And he did all his own repairs. He never sent any of the instruments out. That's why he learned to play them all. He said you can't fix them until you learn to play them."

Mr. Holmes was inducted into the Bedford High School Hall of Fame in 2003.

Music and family were his only hobbies, Mrs. Holmes said.

"One of the gals that used to work for him said when his grandkids walked into the store, Charlie's feet were 10 feet off the ground," Mrs. Holmes said.

Surviving are his wife, Connie, son, Rob, daughters Cheri Cornprobst, Debbie Vobbe, and Sandy Sherlock, eight grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance, where services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The family suggests tributes to a charity of the donor's choice.

Contact Blade staff writer David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.