Author Description

Here is a tribute to Don R. Marcouiller, professor of music and director emeritus of Drake University Bands, written by Drake alumnus Thompson Brandt. It captures the spirit, musicianship, and leadership employed by Marcouiller in a career that took "Chief" (as he was respectfully and affectionately known by thousands of his students) from Edgewood High School and the University of Wisconsin in Madison to Des Moines, Iowa, where he championed the cause for instrumental music at Drake University for over thirty years. Hail to the Chief! "The value of music education seems explicit in the term itself... music is unavoidably a part of every life, be it the life of a consumer, a student or a professional musician... and education... the process of sharing one's love of music with others. Music is the value and education is the process. We conductors and teachers of music rejoice that we have the opportunity to be a small part of that process!" -- Don R. Marcouiller