Page 2 - Memories of the Maestro 9.11.21

They say things happen for a reason, or you could call it fate. Most of
you don’t know how this search for 1977 Stage Band members began and
how it grew into a search for all of Ray’s kids, so here goes…

This all started last year around World Series time. I was in the lounge at
the Iliani Casino in Ridge�eld when I started talking to another baseball
fan, (secretly hoping he wasn’t a Dodger fan! I lucked out there!) We
started talking baseball and the conversation went to where we were
from and I found out he’d gone to the old Fort Vancouver High School in
Downtown Vancouver. He told me he’d retired from the Vancouver
School District where he had been one of the districts �rst computer
nerds, responsible for sending out everyone’s report cards!

He started asking me about teachers I knew and we went thru about 10
or 15 names I hadn’t heard in years—Mr. Ramsey from Mac Hi for
example. That’s when I told him that there was one teacher who had
been such an impact on my life, and I asked him if he knew Ray Johnson.
He got this crazy grin on his face and said, “He’s married to my sister!” I
said, “The red head?” He immediately said, “Yes,” and I told him how I
remembered Ray, that green MG convertible, and how I would see them
driving around town.
I went on to tell him how much Ray in�uenced my life and the lives of
those he taught. Stage band went on to be a large part of high school
and college for me. Ray taught us all a love for jazz—from modern to the
standards and his own compositions (The River Styx!) A lot of it was very
dif�cult material, but our sections were tight and in tune; and the
rhythm section precise, always holding great tempo. I started to tell my
son and daughter, “This is music OCD: You don’t listen to a song like a
normal person—you hear things: Details, chord progressions, different
rhythms...” This is what Ray exposed us to.

I think we also remember towards the end of the ‘77 school year, Ray
announced he was not coming back the next year and I’m pretty sure
this shocked us all. His reason was about the politics in the district and
more importantly, that it was going to be hard to have a band with the
talent that we’d had in the previous years—in short, it was time to move
on. I’ve asked Ray about this again, and his answer after 40-plus years is
still the same.

Call what he taught us ‘perfection’, ‘con�dence’, ‘visionary’, ‘cool’,
‘inspiring’ - I think we can all agree that Ray had a huge impact on our
lives.

So Ray, thank you for everything

Tim Zieman