Morris Durham, the Redlands school district's Pied Piper who encouraged thousands of children to make music, died Sept. 11 at his home in Redlands. Durham, who was known as Morrie, had been battling Alzheimer's disease for a few years. He was 90.
A violinist and violist, Durham taught music in the Redlands Unified School District's elementary schools from the late 1940s until he retired from full-time teaching in 1976 and retired again in the late 1980s.
He taught all orchestra and band instruments and, more than anything, he encouraged children.
"He was perfect in encouraging young people to do something with their interest in music," said Victoria Shapiro, a Redlands violist who worked with Durham as a volunteer in the schools and later as a fellow teacher, in addition to her private teaching and performing.
"I never heard him discourage anyone," she said. "There were lots of kids that played just because he didn't discourage anyone.
"He would take the most impossible child," she said. "He had a lot of tolerance and understanding."
Shapiro said Durham had a gentle, cheerful personality and did a tremendous amount of work in a low-key way.
"He just liked children and wanted to let them play," she said.
"He encouraged many students, quite a few of whom went on to major in music."
One of those students was Margaret Vroman Sacht, daughter of Laura and Wilbur Vroman, who grew up in Redlands
and now is a music teacher in Germany.
"I am a professional violin teacher because of Morrie Durham," Sacht said.
She started group music lessons with Durham in 1956 when she was in the fourth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School. At that time, she said, everyone had lessons in groups in fourth and fifth grade and played in a school orchestra in sixth grade.
"Just about everyone played an instrument," she said.
Hundreds and hundreds of children started music instruction with Durham, she said, and "many, many of us kept going."
"He taught every single instrument, everything" she said. "He made it fun, and he made us feel really good about what we did.
"He managed to control huge groups of young people with loud, noisy instruments without ever becoming angry and without losing his cool," she said.
"He was great."
Morris George Durham was born July 2, 1918, in Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada, to James Carroll Durham and Alice Arabella Read Durham. The family moved to Laurel, Montana in 1920.
His father's cousin was an official of the Northern Pacific Railroad and gave James Durham a job as a welder in Laurel's railroad workshop. Morrie and his brother Oliver earned extra money icing the refrigeration cars that came through during the summer.
His dad was a good friend of the mayor and they built a bandstand in the park where his dad played alto horn. He was also a good singer and boasted of singing with Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, a well-known opera singer, in a chorus.
Morrie wanted to play violin, so his dad told him that he could have violin lessons when he could read. He got his first violin (half size) when he was 8.
When he was in his teens, he played on a Saturday morning radio broadcast from Billings and organized a dance band.
He spent his summers at his Grandma Read's farm near Ladner, British Columbia. His uncle Jim was a salmon fisherman, so they had lots of salmon to eat for the appetite he built up from working on his Aunt Etta's large fruit farm nearby.
His violin teacher recommended Northwestern University Music School, where he earned his bachelor of music education degree. There he met Ruth Siegel, who was studying piano. After he taught two years in the high school at New Troy, Mich., he married Ruth on April 23, 1942, in Fort Wayne, Ind., Ruth's home town.
Soon after they married, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent three years in the Pacific campaign during World War II. After spending 37 days aboard ship to Australia he was assigned to the 632 Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 32nd "Red Arrow" Infantry Division, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's favorite group. He was proud to have shaken hands with MacArthur's wife after a Sunday morning church service in Brisbane.
The battalion was shipped to New Guinea and took part in a campaign. From there they joined the huge armada to retake the Philippines. They landed in the Gulf of Leyte and later on Red Beach. Later they landed on main island of Luzon in Lingayean Gulf and set up camp in San Carlos.
Durham attended the Methodist church in San Carlos, Philippines, and was asked to be a choir director. He helped raise money to buy an organ, which was dedicated to him.
After the war ended, he and his fellow soldiers were instructed to turn in all artillery. When loading the tank shells into a truck, one rolled forward and struck another causing eight hours of explosions, during which the men hid behind rocks. No one was hurt, but many tents were destroyed.
After Durham was discharged from the Army in December 1945, he went back to Northwestern University in January 1946 to earn a master's degree in music education.
In June he was interviewed by John Branigan, the superintendent of schools in Redlands, and was hired.
He and his wife drove out to California in his Chevy Coupe in August, taking two weeks to see things along the way. That was one of their many cross-country U.S. and overseas road trips, which included a nine-week camping trip in Europe.
Durham was assigned to direct the Redlands High School Band. After one year, he took over the instrumental music in the elementary schools and became the Music Man or Pied Piper of the Redlands elementary school children.
He recruited as many as 500 children in the instrumental music program each year and taught in two schools each day, teaching all band and orchestra instruments.
He organized and directed the elementary-age All City Orchestra and directed the American Legion Band in 1947.
In September 1950, as an inactive reservist, he was ordered to report for duty in the Korean War. He was assigned to the 342 General Hospital and shipped to Japan where he served until his discharge in July 1951.
Upon his return to Redlands, he started the instrumental program in the elementary schools in Yucaipa and Calimesa, which were then part of the Redlands district.
He also played for square dances for Ed Gillmore every night of the week during the 1950s.
Curtiss Allen Sr., director of the Redlands Fourth of July Band, said there was a square dance craze right after World War II and Redlands built a dance slab at Sylvan Park. Allen remembers that popular caller Al Lockabey "always wanted Morrie to be his fiddler."
"Morrie loved to do it," Allen said. "He was the most wonderful violinist."
Allen described Durham as a very colorful and suave man. "He had the most genteel manner."
In addition to his elementary music classes, Durham was director and instructor of the Adult Education Night School Orchestra from 1956 to 1957, and he taught sixth grade at Lugonia Elementary School from 1958 to 1959, until until music and art were reinstated into the curriculum in January 1960.
When the first Redlands Symphony was organized and directed by Ed Tritt in 1950, Durham was recruited as first chair of the second violin section and also played viola when needed. He played in the pit orchestra for the San Bernardino musicals and was also a regular in the Loma Linda University Orchestra.
"He was a wonderful violinist, a spectacularly good violinist," his former student Margaret Sacht said.
Liz Zeller, another of his former students, is now teaching strings in the district's 15 elementary schools. She was in Durham's music classes when she was in sixth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School in 1965 and began teaching music in the Redlands schools in 1980.
Over the years, Zeller has taught strings some years, band other years and sometimes both, as Durham did.
"Whoever showed up was welcome to come," she said of Durham's musical groups. "Proper instrumentation was what you had.
"I modeled my teaching on the fact that saxophones play in the orchestra, violins are not second-rate citizens and little kids can play classical music," Zeller said.
She said she learned that "perseverance is the main thing, if you're a music teacher."
In her early years teaching in the schools, she said Durham was working part time for the district.
"When he finally retired for the last time, he gave me his old plastic briefcase, which had a collection of things like ligature screws, peg dope (to keep the pegs that tighten strings from loosening), handwritten parts for `It's a Small World," she said.
"In that sense, I felt like he passed the `golden briefcase' on to me."
In later years, whenever she saw him, she said Durham was always supportive and encouraging about keeping school music going.
Durham also encouraged music as an active member of the Spinet music club in Redlands, serving as president from 1960 to 1962 and serving many years as treasurer.
He was a member of the Masons for more than 50 years.
As a volunteer, he delivered Meals on Wheels for many years.
He was an avid bridge player and fisherman and for 30 years he and his wife spent their summers at the Lighthouse Trailer Resort at Big Bear Lake.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Redlands for 62 years and sang in the choir for 40 years.
Roger Duffer, director of the choir at First United Methodist Church, said Durham was a really good bass. His influence with the church choir, though, will continue beyond his singing.
Duffer said Durham kept track of every anthem the choir sang, writing on his copy of the music the date the choir sang it and notes about the church service that day. As the choir sings those anthems again, they come across Durham's notes.
Duffer also was the choir director at Redlands High School for a number of years and said that practically every student he had who came through Redlands schools started music with Durham.
"His influence was immense. He started so many kids," Duffer said.
"I think none of us who had lessons with him will ever forget him," Margaret Sacht said.
"He was a treasure for the community," fellow teacher Victoria Shapiro said.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Ruth Durham; daughters Connie Hislop and husband John of Redlands and Nancy Rhew and husband Randy of San Diego; son Jay Durham of Yucaipa; sister Virginia Johnson of Avon Lake, Ohio; grandchildren Sarah and Jessica Dacus of San Diego, Angie Staughton of Rancho Bernardo and Jenna Mendoza of Redlands; and great-grandchildren Kyle Staughton and Ashley and Trisha Mendoza.
A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at First United Methodist Church, 1 E. Olive Ave., Redlands.
Memorial donations, designated for the purchase of instruments for the Redlands district's elementary music programs, may be sent to the Durham family.
The Durham family contributed to this obituary.
******************************************************
Morris George Durham
in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001
Name: Morris George Durham
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 24
Event Type: Marriage Registration (Marriage)
Birth Date: 2 Jul 1918
Birth Place: Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada
Marriage Licence Date: 18 Apr 1942
Marriage Licence Place: Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Residence Place: New Troy, Michigan
Father: James Carroll Durham
Mother: Alice Arabella Read
Spouse: Della Ruth Seigel
A violinist and violist, Durham taught music in the Redlands Unified School District's elementary schools from the late 1940s until he retired from full-time teaching in 1976 and retired again in the late 1980s.
He taught all orchestra and band instruments and, more than anything, he encouraged children.
"He was perfect in encouraging young people to do something with their interest in music," said Victoria Shapiro, a Redlands violist who worked with Durham as a volunteer in the schools and later as a fellow teacher, in addition to her private teaching and performing.
"I never heard him discourage anyone," she said. "There were lots of kids that played just because he didn't discourage anyone.
"He would take the most impossible child," she said. "He had a lot of tolerance and understanding."
Shapiro said Durham had a gentle, cheerful personality and did a tremendous amount of work in a low-key way.
"He just liked children and wanted to let them play," she said.
"He encouraged many students, quite a few of whom went on to major in music."
One of those students was Margaret Vroman Sacht, daughter of Laura and Wilbur Vroman, who grew up in Redlands
and now is a music teacher in Germany.
"I am a professional violin teacher because of Morrie Durham," Sacht said.
She started group music lessons with Durham in 1956 when she was in the fourth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School. At that time, she said, everyone had lessons in groups in fourth and fifth grade and played in a school orchestra in sixth grade.
"Just about everyone played an instrument," she said.
Hundreds and hundreds of children started music instruction with Durham, she said, and "many, many of us kept going."
"He taught every single instrument, everything" she said. "He made it fun, and he made us feel really good about what we did.
"He managed to control huge groups of young people with loud, noisy instruments without ever becoming angry and without losing his cool," she said.
"He was great."
Morris George Durham was born July 2, 1918, in Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada, to James Carroll Durham and Alice Arabella Read Durham. The family moved to Laurel, Montana in 1920.
His father's cousin was an official of the Northern Pacific Railroad and gave James Durham a job as a welder in Laurel's railroad workshop. Morrie and his brother Oliver earned extra money icing the refrigeration cars that came through during the summer.
His dad was a good friend of the mayor and they built a bandstand in the park where his dad played alto horn. He was also a good singer and boasted of singing with Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, a well-known opera singer, in a chorus.
Morrie wanted to play violin, so his dad told him that he could have violin lessons when he could read. He got his first violin (half size) when he was 8.
When he was in his teens, he played on a Saturday morning radio broadcast from Billings and organized a dance band.
He spent his summers at his Grandma Read's farm near Ladner, British Columbia. His uncle Jim was a salmon fisherman, so they had lots of salmon to eat for the appetite he built up from working on his Aunt Etta's large fruit farm nearby.
His violin teacher recommended Northwestern University Music School, where he earned his bachelor of music education degree. There he met Ruth Siegel, who was studying piano. After he taught two years in the high school at New Troy, Mich., he married Ruth on April 23, 1942, in Fort Wayne, Ind., Ruth's home town.
Soon after they married, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent three years in the Pacific campaign during World War II. After spending 37 days aboard ship to Australia he was assigned to the 632 Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 32nd "Red Arrow" Infantry Division, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's favorite group. He was proud to have shaken hands with MacArthur's wife after a Sunday morning church service in Brisbane.
The battalion was shipped to New Guinea and took part in a campaign. From there they joined the huge armada to retake the Philippines. They landed in the Gulf of Leyte and later on Red Beach. Later they landed on main island of Luzon in Lingayean Gulf and set up camp in San Carlos.
Durham attended the Methodist church in San Carlos, Philippines, and was asked to be a choir director. He helped raise money to buy an organ, which was dedicated to him.
After the war ended, he and his fellow soldiers were instructed to turn in all artillery. When loading the tank shells into a truck, one rolled forward and struck another causing eight hours of explosions, during which the men hid behind rocks. No one was hurt, but many tents were destroyed.
After Durham was discharged from the Army in December 1945, he went back to Northwestern University in January 1946 to earn a master's degree in music education.
In June he was interviewed by John Branigan, the superintendent of schools in Redlands, and was hired.
He and his wife drove out to California in his Chevy Coupe in August, taking two weeks to see things along the way. That was one of their many cross-country U.S. and overseas road trips, which included a nine-week camping trip in Europe.
Durham was assigned to direct the Redlands High School Band. After one year, he took over the instrumental music in the elementary schools and became the Music Man or Pied Piper of the Redlands elementary school children.
He recruited as many as 500 children in the instrumental music program each year and taught in two schools each day, teaching all band and orchestra instruments.
He organized and directed the elementary-age All City Orchestra and directed the American Legion Band in 1947.
In September 1950, as an inactive reservist, he was ordered to report for duty in the Korean War. He was assigned to the 342 General Hospital and shipped to Japan where he served until his discharge in July 1951.
Upon his return to Redlands, he started the instrumental program in the elementary schools in Yucaipa and Calimesa, which were then part of the Redlands district.
He also played for square dances for Ed Gillmore every night of the week during the 1950s.
Curtiss Allen Sr., director of the Redlands Fourth of July Band, said there was a square dance craze right after World War II and Redlands built a dance slab at Sylvan Park. Allen remembers that popular caller Al Lockabey "always wanted Morrie to be his fiddler."
"Morrie loved to do it," Allen said. "He was the most wonderful violinist."
Allen described Durham as a very colorful and suave man. "He had the most genteel manner."
In addition to his elementary music classes, Durham was director and instructor of the Adult Education Night School Orchestra from 1956 to 1957, and he taught sixth grade at Lugonia Elementary School from 1958 to 1959, until until music and art were reinstated into the curriculum in January 1960.
When the first Redlands Symphony was organized and directed by Ed Tritt in 1950, Durham was recruited as first chair of the second violin section and also played viola when needed. He played in the pit orchestra for the San Bernardino musicals and was also a regular in the Loma Linda University Orchestra.
"He was a wonderful violinist, a spectacularly good violinist," his former student Margaret Sacht said.
Liz Zeller, another of his former students, is now teaching strings in the district's 15 elementary schools. She was in Durham's music classes when she was in sixth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School in 1965 and began teaching music in the Redlands schools in 1980.
Over the years, Zeller has taught strings some years, band other years and sometimes both, as Durham did.
"Whoever showed up was welcome to come," she said of Durham's musical groups. "Proper instrumentation was what you had.
"I modeled my teaching on the fact that saxophones play in the orchestra, violins are not second-rate citizens and little kids can play classical music," Zeller said.
She said she learned that "perseverance is the main thing, if you're a music teacher."
In her early years teaching in the schools, she said Durham was working part time for the district.
"When he finally retired for the last time, he gave me his old plastic briefcase, which had a collection of things like ligature screws, peg dope (to keep the pegs that tighten strings from loosening), handwritten parts for `It's a Small World," she said.
"In that sense, I felt like he passed the `golden briefcase' on to me."
In later years, whenever she saw him, she said Durham was always supportive and encouraging about keeping school music going.
Durham also encouraged music as an active member of the Spinet music club in Redlands, serving as president from 1960 to 1962 and serving many years as treasurer.
He was a member of the Masons for more than 50 years.
As a volunteer, he delivered Meals on Wheels for many years.
He was an avid bridge player and fisherman and for 30 years he and his wife spent their summers at the Lighthouse Trailer Resort at Big Bear Lake.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Redlands for 62 years and sang in the choir for 40 years.
Roger Duffer, director of the choir at First United Methodist Church, said Durham was a really good bass. His influence with the church choir, though, will continue beyond his singing.
Duffer said Durham kept track of every anthem the choir sang, writing on his copy of the music the date the choir sang it and notes about the church service that day. As the choir sings those anthems again, they come across Durham's notes.
Duffer also was the choir director at Redlands High School for a number of years and said that practically every student he had who came through Redlands schools started music with Durham.
"His influence was immense. He started so many kids," Duffer said.
"I think none of us who had lessons with him will ever forget him," Margaret Sacht said.
"He was a treasure for the community," fellow teacher Victoria Shapiro said.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Ruth Durham; daughters Connie Hislop and husband John of Redlands and Nancy Rhew and husband Randy of San Diego; son Jay Durham of Yucaipa; sister Virginia Johnson of Avon Lake, Ohio; grandchildren Sarah and Jessica Dacus of San Diego, Angie Staughton of Rancho Bernardo and Jenna Mendoza of Redlands; and great-grandchildren Kyle Staughton and Ashley and Trisha Mendoza.
A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at First United Methodist Church, 1 E. Olive Ave., Redlands.
Memorial donations, designated for the purchase of instruments for the Redlands district's elementary music programs, may be sent to the Durham family.
The Durham family contributed to this obituary.
******************************************************
Morris George Durham
in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001
Name: Morris George Durham
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 24
Event Type: Marriage Registration (Marriage)
Birth Date: 2 Jul 1918
Birth Place: Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada
Marriage Licence Date: 18 Apr 1942
Marriage Licence Place: Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Residence Place: New Troy, Michigan
Father: James Carroll Durham
Mother: Alice Arabella Read
Spouse: Della Ruth Seigel
Morris Durham, the Redlands school district's Pied Piper who encouraged thousands of children to make music, died Sept. 11 at his home in Redlands. Durham, who was known as Morrie, had been battling Alzheimer's disease for a few years. He was 90.
A violinist and violist, Durham taught music in the Redlands Unified School District's elementary schools from the late 1940s until he retired from full-time teaching in 1976 and retired again in the late 1980s.
He taught all orchestra and band instruments and, more than anything, he encouraged children.
"He was perfect in encouraging young people to do something with their interest in music," said Victoria Shapiro, a Redlands violist who worked with Durham as a volunteer in the schools and later as a fellow teacher, in addition to her private teaching and performing.
"I never heard him discourage anyone," she said. "There were lots of kids that played just because he didn't discourage anyone.
"He would take the most impossible child," she said. "He had a lot of tolerance and understanding."
Shapiro said Durham had a gentle, cheerful personality and did a tremendous amount of work in a low-key way.
"He just liked children and wanted to let them play," she said.
"He encouraged many students, quite a few of whom went on to major in music."
One of those students was Margaret Vroman Sacht, daughter of Laura and Wilbur Vroman, who grew up in Redlands
and now is a music teacher in Germany.
"I am a professional violin teacher because of Morrie Durham," Sacht said.
She started group music lessons with Durham in 1956 when she was in the fourth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School. At that time, she said, everyone had lessons in groups in fourth and fifth grade and played in a school orchestra in sixth grade.
"Just about everyone played an instrument," she said.
Hundreds and hundreds of children started music instruction with Durham, she said, and "many, many of us kept going."
"He taught every single instrument, everything" she said. "He made it fun, and he made us feel really good about what we did.
"He managed to control huge groups of young people with loud, noisy instruments without ever becoming angry and without losing his cool," she said.
"He was great."
Morris George Durham was born July 2, 1918, in Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada, to James Carroll Durham and Alice Arabella Read Durham. The family moved to Laurel, Montana in 1920.
His father's cousin was an official of the Northern Pacific Railroad and gave James Durham a job as a welder in Laurel's railroad workshop. Morrie and his brother Oliver earned extra money icing the refrigeration cars that came through during the summer.
His dad was a good friend of the mayor and they built a bandstand in the park where his dad played alto horn. He was also a good singer and boasted of singing with Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, a well-known opera singer, in a chorus.
Morrie wanted to play violin, so his dad told him that he could have violin lessons when he could read. He got his first violin (half size) when he was 8.
When he was in his teens, he played on a Saturday morning radio broadcast from Billings and organized a dance band.
He spent his summers at his Grandma Read's farm near Ladner, British Columbia. His uncle Jim was a salmon fisherman, so they had lots of salmon to eat for the appetite he built up from working on his Aunt Etta's large fruit farm nearby.
His violin teacher recommended Northwestern University Music School, where he earned his bachelor of music education degree. There he met Ruth Siegel, who was studying piano. After he taught two years in the high school at New Troy, Mich., he married Ruth on April 23, 1942, in Fort Wayne, Ind., Ruth's home town.
Soon after they married, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent three years in the Pacific campaign during World War II. After spending 37 days aboard ship to Australia he was assigned to the 632 Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 32nd "Red Arrow" Infantry Division, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's favorite group. He was proud to have shaken hands with MacArthur's wife after a Sunday morning church service in Brisbane.
The battalion was shipped to New Guinea and took part in a campaign. From there they joined the huge armada to retake the Philippines. They landed in the Gulf of Leyte and later on Red Beach. Later they landed on main island of Luzon in Lingayean Gulf and set up camp in San Carlos.
Durham attended the Methodist church in San Carlos, Philippines, and was asked to be a choir director. He helped raise money to buy an organ, which was dedicated to him.
After the war ended, he and his fellow soldiers were instructed to turn in all artillery. When loading the tank shells into a truck, one rolled forward and struck another causing eight hours of explosions, during which the men hid behind rocks. No one was hurt, but many tents were destroyed.
After Durham was discharged from the Army in December 1945, he went back to Northwestern University in January 1946 to earn a master's degree in music education.
In June he was interviewed by John Branigan, the superintendent of schools in Redlands, and was hired.
He and his wife drove out to California in his Chevy Coupe in August, taking two weeks to see things along the way. That was one of their many cross-country U.S. and overseas road trips, which included a nine-week camping trip in Europe.
Durham was assigned to direct the Redlands High School Band. After one year, he took over the instrumental music in the elementary schools and became the Music Man or Pied Piper of the Redlands elementary school children.
He recruited as many as 500 children in the instrumental music program each year and taught in two schools each day, teaching all band and orchestra instruments.
He organized and directed the elementary-age All City Orchestra and directed the American Legion Band in 1947.
In September 1950, as an inactive reservist, he was ordered to report for duty in the Korean War. He was assigned to the 342 General Hospital and shipped to Japan where he served until his discharge in July 1951.
Upon his return to Redlands, he started the instrumental program in the elementary schools in Yucaipa and Calimesa, which were then part of the Redlands district.
He also played for square dances for Ed Gillmore every night of the week during the 1950s.
Curtiss Allen Sr., director of the Redlands Fourth of July Band, said there was a square dance craze right after World War II and Redlands built a dance slab at Sylvan Park. Allen remembers that popular caller Al Lockabey "always wanted Morrie to be his fiddler."
"Morrie loved to do it," Allen said. "He was the most wonderful violinist."
Allen described Durham as a very colorful and suave man. "He had the most genteel manner."
In addition to his elementary music classes, Durham was director and instructor of the Adult Education Night School Orchestra from 1956 to 1957, and he taught sixth grade at Lugonia Elementary School from 1958 to 1959, until until music and art were reinstated into the curriculum in January 1960.
When the first Redlands Symphony was organized and directed by Ed Tritt in 1950, Durham was recruited as first chair of the second violin section and also played viola when needed. He played in the pit orchestra for the San Bernardino musicals and was also a regular in the Loma Linda University Orchestra.
"He was a wonderful violinist, a spectacularly good violinist," his former student Margaret Sacht said.
Liz Zeller, another of his former students, is now teaching strings in the district's 15 elementary schools. She was in Durham's music classes when she was in sixth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School in 1965 and began teaching music in the Redlands schools in 1980.
Over the years, Zeller has taught strings some years, band other years and sometimes both, as Durham did.
"Whoever showed up was welcome to come," she said of Durham's musical groups. "Proper instrumentation was what you had.
"I modeled my teaching on the fact that saxophones play in the orchestra, violins are not second-rate citizens and little kids can play classical music," Zeller said.
She said she learned that "perseverance is the main thing, if you're a music teacher."
In her early years teaching in the schools, she said Durham was working part time for the district.
"When he finally retired for the last time, he gave me his old plastic briefcase, which had a collection of things like ligature screws, peg dope (to keep the pegs that tighten strings from loosening), handwritten parts for `It's a Small World," she said.
"In that sense, I felt like he passed the `golden briefcase' on to me."
In later years, whenever she saw him, she said Durham was always supportive and encouraging about keeping school music going.
Durham also encouraged music as an active member of the Spinet music club in Redlands, serving as president from 1960 to 1962 and serving many years as treasurer.
He was a member of the Masons for more than 50 years.
As a volunteer, he delivered Meals on Wheels for many years.
He was an avid bridge player and fisherman and for 30 years he and his wife spent their summers at the Lighthouse Trailer Resort at Big Bear Lake.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Redlands for 62 years and sang in the choir for 40 years.
Roger Duffer, director of the choir at First United Methodist Church, said Durham was a really good bass. His influence with the church choir, though, will continue beyond his singing.
Duffer said Durham kept track of every anthem the choir sang, writing on his copy of the music the date the choir sang it and notes about the church service that day. As the choir sings those anthems again, they come across Durham's notes.
Duffer also was the choir director at Redlands High School for a number of years and said that practically every student he had who came through Redlands schools started music with Durham.
"His influence was immense. He started so many kids," Duffer said.
"I think none of us who had lessons with him will ever forget him," Margaret Sacht said.
"He was a treasure for the community," fellow teacher Victoria Shapiro said.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Ruth Durham; daughters Connie Hislop and husband John of Redlands and Nancy Rhew and husband Randy of San Diego; son Jay Durham of Yucaipa; sister Virginia Johnson of Avon Lake, Ohio; grandchildren Sarah and Jessica Dacus of San Diego, Angie Staughton of Rancho Bernardo and Jenna Mendoza of Redlands; and great-grandchildren Kyle Staughton and Ashley and Trisha Mendoza.
A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at First United Methodist Church, 1 E. Olive Ave., Redlands.
Memorial donations, designated for the purchase of instruments for the Redlands district's elementary music programs, may be sent to the Durham family.
The Durham family contributed to this obituary.
******************************************************
Morris George Durham
in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001
Name: Morris George Durham
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 24
Event Type: Marriage Registration (Marriage)
Birth Date: 2 Jul 1918
Birth Place: Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada
Marriage Licence Date: 18 Apr 1942
Marriage Licence Place: Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Residence Place: New Troy, Michigan
Father: James Carroll Durham
Mother: Alice Arabella Read
Spouse: Della Ruth Seigel
A violinist and violist, Durham taught music in the Redlands Unified School District's elementary schools from the late 1940s until he retired from full-time teaching in 1976 and retired again in the late 1980s.
He taught all orchestra and band instruments and, more than anything, he encouraged children.
"He was perfect in encouraging young people to do something with their interest in music," said Victoria Shapiro, a Redlands violist who worked with Durham as a volunteer in the schools and later as a fellow teacher, in addition to her private teaching and performing.
"I never heard him discourage anyone," she said. "There were lots of kids that played just because he didn't discourage anyone.
"He would take the most impossible child," she said. "He had a lot of tolerance and understanding."
Shapiro said Durham had a gentle, cheerful personality and did a tremendous amount of work in a low-key way.
"He just liked children and wanted to let them play," she said.
"He encouraged many students, quite a few of whom went on to major in music."
One of those students was Margaret Vroman Sacht, daughter of Laura and Wilbur Vroman, who grew up in Redlands
and now is a music teacher in Germany.
"I am a professional violin teacher because of Morrie Durham," Sacht said.
She started group music lessons with Durham in 1956 when she was in the fourth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School. At that time, she said, everyone had lessons in groups in fourth and fifth grade and played in a school orchestra in sixth grade.
"Just about everyone played an instrument," she said.
Hundreds and hundreds of children started music instruction with Durham, she said, and "many, many of us kept going."
"He taught every single instrument, everything" she said. "He made it fun, and he made us feel really good about what we did.
"He managed to control huge groups of young people with loud, noisy instruments without ever becoming angry and without losing his cool," she said.
"He was great."
Morris George Durham was born July 2, 1918, in Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada, to James Carroll Durham and Alice Arabella Read Durham. The family moved to Laurel, Montana in 1920.
His father's cousin was an official of the Northern Pacific Railroad and gave James Durham a job as a welder in Laurel's railroad workshop. Morrie and his brother Oliver earned extra money icing the refrigeration cars that came through during the summer.
His dad was a good friend of the mayor and they built a bandstand in the park where his dad played alto horn. He was also a good singer and boasted of singing with Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, a well-known opera singer, in a chorus.
Morrie wanted to play violin, so his dad told him that he could have violin lessons when he could read. He got his first violin (half size) when he was 8.
When he was in his teens, he played on a Saturday morning radio broadcast from Billings and organized a dance band.
He spent his summers at his Grandma Read's farm near Ladner, British Columbia. His uncle Jim was a salmon fisherman, so they had lots of salmon to eat for the appetite he built up from working on his Aunt Etta's large fruit farm nearby.
His violin teacher recommended Northwestern University Music School, where he earned his bachelor of music education degree. There he met Ruth Siegel, who was studying piano. After he taught two years in the high school at New Troy, Mich., he married Ruth on April 23, 1942, in Fort Wayne, Ind., Ruth's home town.
Soon after they married, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent three years in the Pacific campaign during World War II. After spending 37 days aboard ship to Australia he was assigned to the 632 Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 32nd "Red Arrow" Infantry Division, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's favorite group. He was proud to have shaken hands with MacArthur's wife after a Sunday morning church service in Brisbane.
The battalion was shipped to New Guinea and took part in a campaign. From there they joined the huge armada to retake the Philippines. They landed in the Gulf of Leyte and later on Red Beach. Later they landed on main island of Luzon in Lingayean Gulf and set up camp in San Carlos.
Durham attended the Methodist church in San Carlos, Philippines, and was asked to be a choir director. He helped raise money to buy an organ, which was dedicated to him.
After the war ended, he and his fellow soldiers were instructed to turn in all artillery. When loading the tank shells into a truck, one rolled forward and struck another causing eight hours of explosions, during which the men hid behind rocks. No one was hurt, but many tents were destroyed.
After Durham was discharged from the Army in December 1945, he went back to Northwestern University in January 1946 to earn a master's degree in music education.
In June he was interviewed by John Branigan, the superintendent of schools in Redlands, and was hired.
He and his wife drove out to California in his Chevy Coupe in August, taking two weeks to see things along the way. That was one of their many cross-country U.S. and overseas road trips, which included a nine-week camping trip in Europe.
Durham was assigned to direct the Redlands High School Band. After one year, he took over the instrumental music in the elementary schools and became the Music Man or Pied Piper of the Redlands elementary school children.
He recruited as many as 500 children in the instrumental music program each year and taught in two schools each day, teaching all band and orchestra instruments.
He organized and directed the elementary-age All City Orchestra and directed the American Legion Band in 1947.
In September 1950, as an inactive reservist, he was ordered to report for duty in the Korean War. He was assigned to the 342 General Hospital and shipped to Japan where he served until his discharge in July 1951.
Upon his return to Redlands, he started the instrumental program in the elementary schools in Yucaipa and Calimesa, which were then part of the Redlands district.
He also played for square dances for Ed Gillmore every night of the week during the 1950s.
Curtiss Allen Sr., director of the Redlands Fourth of July Band, said there was a square dance craze right after World War II and Redlands built a dance slab at Sylvan Park. Allen remembers that popular caller Al Lockabey "always wanted Morrie to be his fiddler."
"Morrie loved to do it," Allen said. "He was the most wonderful violinist."
Allen described Durham as a very colorful and suave man. "He had the most genteel manner."
In addition to his elementary music classes, Durham was director and instructor of the Adult Education Night School Orchestra from 1956 to 1957, and he taught sixth grade at Lugonia Elementary School from 1958 to 1959, until until music and art were reinstated into the curriculum in January 1960.
When the first Redlands Symphony was organized and directed by Ed Tritt in 1950, Durham was recruited as first chair of the second violin section and also played viola when needed. He played in the pit orchestra for the San Bernardino musicals and was also a regular in the Loma Linda University Orchestra.
"He was a wonderful violinist, a spectacularly good violinist," his former student Margaret Sacht said.
Liz Zeller, another of his former students, is now teaching strings in the district's 15 elementary schools. She was in Durham's music classes when she was in sixth grade at Kingsbury Elementary School in 1965 and began teaching music in the Redlands schools in 1980.
Over the years, Zeller has taught strings some years, band other years and sometimes both, as Durham did.
"Whoever showed up was welcome to come," she said of Durham's musical groups. "Proper instrumentation was what you had.
"I modeled my teaching on the fact that saxophones play in the orchestra, violins are not second-rate citizens and little kids can play classical music," Zeller said.
She said she learned that "perseverance is the main thing, if you're a music teacher."
In her early years teaching in the schools, she said Durham was working part time for the district.
"When he finally retired for the last time, he gave me his old plastic briefcase, which had a collection of things like ligature screws, peg dope (to keep the pegs that tighten strings from loosening), handwritten parts for `It's a Small World," she said.
"In that sense, I felt like he passed the `golden briefcase' on to me."
In later years, whenever she saw him, she said Durham was always supportive and encouraging about keeping school music going.
Durham also encouraged music as an active member of the Spinet music club in Redlands, serving as president from 1960 to 1962 and serving many years as treasurer.
He was a member of the Masons for more than 50 years.
As a volunteer, he delivered Meals on Wheels for many years.
He was an avid bridge player and fisherman and for 30 years he and his wife spent their summers at the Lighthouse Trailer Resort at Big Bear Lake.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Redlands for 62 years and sang in the choir for 40 years.
Roger Duffer, director of the choir at First United Methodist Church, said Durham was a really good bass. His influence with the church choir, though, will continue beyond his singing.
Duffer said Durham kept track of every anthem the choir sang, writing on his copy of the music the date the choir sang it and notes about the church service that day. As the choir sings those anthems again, they come across Durham's notes.
Duffer also was the choir director at Redlands High School for a number of years and said that practically every student he had who came through Redlands schools started music with Durham.
"His influence was immense. He started so many kids," Duffer said.
"I think none of us who had lessons with him will ever forget him," Margaret Sacht said.
"He was a treasure for the community," fellow teacher Victoria Shapiro said.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Ruth Durham; daughters Connie Hislop and husband John of Redlands and Nancy Rhew and husband Randy of San Diego; son Jay Durham of Yucaipa; sister Virginia Johnson of Avon Lake, Ohio; grandchildren Sarah and Jessica Dacus of San Diego, Angie Staughton of Rancho Bernardo and Jenna Mendoza of Redlands; and great-grandchildren Kyle Staughton and Ashley and Trisha Mendoza.
A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at First United Methodist Church, 1 E. Olive Ave., Redlands.
Memorial donations, designated for the purchase of instruments for the Redlands district's elementary music programs, may be sent to the Durham family.
The Durham family contributed to this obituary.
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Morris George Durham
in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001
Name: Morris George Durham
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 24
Event Type: Marriage Registration (Marriage)
Birth Date: 2 Jul 1918
Birth Place: Bridgeburg, Ontario, Canada
Marriage Licence Date: 18 Apr 1942
Marriage Licence Place: Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Residence Place: New Troy, Michigan
Father: James Carroll Durham
Mother: Alice Arabella Read
Spouse: Della Ruth Seigel
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