Clarence Otis Trubey
1895
- 1979
Although Clarence Trubey spent the first eighteen years of his career as a
principal, he spent the remaining 23 years teaching a number of subjects,
including directing the band at two Adventist colleges.
Clarence was born in Jewel
City, Kansas, one of seven children and the oldest of four sons of David Cyrenus and Lulie Adell Pratt Trubey. He married
Helen Richert in 1919, and they had one child,
Orville. After Helen’s death in 1921, he
married Elizabeth Elvira Voth in 1923, and they would
have two sons, Merlin and Norman, and a daughter, Betty.
One of his first appointments
was as principal at Shafter Academy in the San Joaquin
Valley in California. While there he started a small band which became very popular.
Because of his success with that group he was invited to start a band at
Glendale Academy. He again was successful in this venture and in 1945 was
invited to serve as band director at La Sierra College, now La Sierra
University. Three years later he accepted an offer from Walla Walla College,
now University, to direct their band program.
Upon his arrival at WWC, he
immediately began a campaign to purchase uniforms for the band and by February
had reached his goal. After a brief performance for a student assembly when the
uniforms came, he took the band on a tour to complete the fundraising. A
student writing in the school paper in March of that first year expressed his
appreciation and that of fellow students for the dramatic change in the band:
Commendations
and felicitations to the 65-piece Walla Walla Concert Band, and a big orchid to
its conductor, Clarence O. Trubey! This past weekend
they went on a concert tour, presenting programs in four different cities. Two
sacred programs were given at Columbia Academy on Friday evening and at the
high school auditorium in Hilisboro, Oregon, on
Sabbath afternoon. Unusually large audiences received these numbers
enthusiastically.
A
large and friendly audience in the Benson Auditorium in Portland greeted Professor
Trubey and the band as they began the secular concert
with the Walla Walla College song. The applause that grew more profuse from the
audience as the concert progressed would indicate that the college band is a
great success....
In the next six years,
participation in the college band increased to over sixty members, and his
concerts, which were crowd-pleasing events, were well attended. While he was
noted for his showmanship and his programming was generally light, he always
managed to present at least one significant work for band at each concert.
The 1952 yearbook referred to
the band as "one of the college's best features." This high regard
was undoubtedly enhanced by a February concert that year that had featured
Leonard B. Smith, known nationally as "America's premier cornet
soloist."
Although Trubey
had a reputation for running a well-organized program and productive
rehearsals, a student writing in the college paper in 1955 imaginatively
described the chaos in a rehearsal prior to a concert:
Walking
across the campus Tuesday or Thursday noon one hears the air suddenly rent by a
sound not unlike all the animals in the jungle screaming in unison. Curious
souls that we are, we investigate and find it coming from the music annex. As
we open the door and peer in, our ears are rocked by a terrible, bleating,
split tone.... One of the lads in the first horn section (better known as the
sewer-pipe section) has once again lost his instrument....
There
is silence. A voice full of authority rings out, "When
can we have a special practice session?" Again deathly silence
descends as a cloak upon the room. Again a voice is heard:
"In
that case, it will be at 8:30 tomorrow night." As a peel of thunder, many
voices cry forth, "No! No! Labs, study, previous engagements,
etc."....
Out
of the jumble of off-key playing, split tones, sickening vibrato by the
trombones, and miscellaneous bits of mad confusion, comes at last the beautiful
music that we were privileged to hear last Saturday night in Columbia
Auditorium.
The WWC experience was the
apex of Trubey's musical career. Although he was
sixty when he left, he continued to teach music as well as other subjects for
several more years before retiring.
In addition to his band work, he also started the first music education degree program at WWC. A Clarence O. Trubey Scholarship award was established at WWC in 2004 primarily through the efforts of Sydney Stewart, one of the first graduates from that program, who would subsequently teach music for 36 years. It provides assistance for students like Trubey and Stewart, who love the sound of a band and aspire to work with young people.
The Trubeys
were living in Loma Linda, California, when he died at age 84.
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