VICTOR HERBERT (baritone sax) — Victor was the band’s lead clarinet and baritone sax player for much of its long history. Having joined the band in 1988, Vic’s strong clarinet lead and big baritone sax sound helped to establish the band’s sax section as one of the region’s best. Vic contributed to the band on many other levels as well, including maintaining a database of the hundreds of tunes the band owns, keeping an up-to-date list of band members to distribute to the band so we all knew how to contact each other, and occasionally bringing in new tunes that he’d gotten from friends in Ohio where he was from originally.

Vic studied piano with St. Louis jazz great Herb Drury for most of his years with the band, but we never heard him play. Professionally, he was a chemical engineer at Monsanto. Personally, he had a beautiful wife, Lue, loving children, and was a good friend to us all.

Vic retired from the band in 2009 and passed away in 2010.

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