Jack L. Tongring

1920 - 2022

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Jack L. Tongring, a retired music teacher and high school band director, who was a working musician into his 70s and led music groups at his retirement community into his 90s, died July 5 at Ohio Living Swan Creek. He was 102.

He was in declining health after a recent fall, his son, James Tongring, said.

His wife, Irene, died in 2004, and he moved from their Sylvania Township condominium to Swan Creek Retirement Village, as the community was then known.

"He was a very social person, so he enjoyed it," his son said. "He directed their choir and played in a combo and delivered the Sunday newspaper."

Mr. Tongring was playing clarinet with that combo in the lobby until about six years ago. He had given private music lessons into his 80s.

"He loved music, and so it was never a job," his daughter, Jane Cox, said.

Mr. Tongring, formerly of West Toledo, retired in 1981 from Whitmer High School, where he directed the jazz and stage bands and taught in elementary schools. He was at DeVilbiss High School from 1953 into the 1970s, directing the school's bands and orchestra and teaching music at nearby West Toledo elementary schools.

In a 1961 letter to the editor published in The Blade, DeVilbiss band members wrote of their admiration for Mr. Tongring and to thank him publicly.

"Under his capable leadership, the band has won a superior rating three times at district contests and an excellent rating in the state contest," they wrote. "Even though we have played some mean tricks on him, we really appreciate Mr. Tongring. It is because of this that we made the week of May 14 'Be Kind to Mr. Tongring Week.'"

"He was friendly and honest, and children picked up on it," said the younger Mr. Tongring, a musician who became a school band director and retired as a Chandler, Ariz., school administrator. "He wasn't a taskmaster or a bully or a screamer. He was just a generally nice person you wanted to please. His style was, 'Let's do a good job.'"

And he worked hard with student musicians, said former student Jim Riggs, 81, recalling Mr. Tongring's efforts in advance of an orchestra performance.

"He didn't let a stone go unturned in preparing the music," said Mr. Riggs, a saxophonist who retired as a professor in the renowned jazz studies program at North Texas State University, where he directed the Two O'Clock Lab Band.

Mr. Riggs and his wife, Joanne, who also was in the DeVilbiss band, came back to see Mr. Tongring twice a year until the coronavirus pandemic.

"He was my first teacher, and I taught with him as a student and faculty member," Mr. Riggs said. "He was an outstanding example, as a family man and as a musician. He was a great clarinetist and saxophonist."

The pair, teacher and onetime student turned friend and colleague, played together in the Zenobia Shrine Circus band. Mr. Tongring played with the Toledo Concert Band for years at summertime Toledo Zoo concerts. A member of the Toledo Federation of Musicians, he played in local bands put together when touring ice shows or big names - Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis, Jr. - came to town.

He also played in the dance bands led by Jack Runyan and Johnny Knorr.

"He liked the guys he was playing with. They became lifelong friends," the younger Mr. Tongring said.

Mrs. Cox added: "He always had family time. He found the time to be at home."

Mr. Tongring was a former assistant director of the All-Ohio State Fair Band, in which he'd played as a youth, and was an Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame Inductee. He also was an inductee to the DeVilbiss hall of fame.

He was born Feb. 15, 1920, in East Cleveland, Ohio, to Catherine and Algot Tongring, Swedish immigrants who met in Cleveland. His mother encouraged him to join the junior high band.

"She was concerned that he be regarded as an American kid, not an immigrant kid," his son said. He also met his wife in that junior high band.

He was a 1938 graduate of Shaw High School and went to Ohio State University, where he played in the marching band. His education was interrupted by Army service in World War II. He was in Army bands that played in the European Theater and later toured military bases stateside. He and his wife, the former Irene Wood, married in 1946.

Afterward, he completed his studies, graduated from Ohio State, and started his career as band director in Hicksville, Ohio. He was band director of the Defiance schools before arriving at DeVilbiss.

He was a 68-year member of Collingwood Presbyterian Church and a member for more than 70 years of Hicksville Lodge, F&AM.

Surviving are his son, James Tongring; daughter, Jane Cox; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; four step-grandsons, and seven step-great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. July 29 at the Sujkowski-Walker Funeral Home, Rossford. Memorial services will begin at 11:30 a.m. July 30 at the chapel of Ohio Living Swan Creek, with visitation after 10 a.m.

The family suggests tributes to TBDBITL Scholarship Fund in care of the Ohio State University Foundation in Columbus or the foundation at Ohio Living Foundation Swan Creek.