A Retirement Event to Remember
One great thing about teaching at Arizona State is working with great colleagues. One of those, trombone professor Gail Wilson, is retiring this year, having joined the ASU faculty in 1972.
When my father retired from teaching college he retired quietly with no event. This was not the case for Gail Wilson! For last night a near-surprise event was pulled off in his honor. This image is from the super-secret Evite invitation, and this was the text:
After almost 4 decades of being the Trombone Professor at Arizona State University, my father Gail Eugene Wilson is retiring. We are holding a SURPRISE concert (shhh, it’s a secret) in his honor in which former and current trombone students will perform solo and ensemble music. Also we have commissioned a trombone solo with band from Doug Akey, a former ASU Horn student and well know composer. Charlie Vernon, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will premiere the composition that night.
It was quite the event!! Soloists, mass trombone choirs—it really was an amazing night. I performed in the band for the commissioned work which is a great new work for alto and bass trombone (both instruments played by the same player, but not at the same time). There were so many highlights. If I were to pick highlight one out for me, besides pondering how many lives we touch with a career of teaching, it would hearing the mass trombone choir. Every teacher leaves a “mark” from his playing and teaching style on his students, and practically every player had earned a degree studying with professor Wilson. Thus, there was a way that everything lined up that was quite striking. I have seen this myself playing from time to time as a player when I play with others who studied with Verne Reynolds (he left perhaps the deepest mark on my playing) and it seemed to require last night no effort for the group to match articulations and dynamics beautifully.
Also it was pulled off as a near surprise. He thought he was going to a junior high band concert conducted by his son, but he had figured out that there was at the least a large trombone choir work being performed with over 50 of his former students. This event will be long remembered.
No long-time professor can ever really be replaced, but the ASU trombone studio will be in the capable hands of Ralph Sauer next year. Bravo to Gail Wilson and many thanks to Brian Wilson for organizing this great event.
Be a 
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