Ever wonder what the Okemos High School Band program was like in the early years? Now we can all take a glimpse back into the history of the band program in the Okemos School District courtesy of David Steed, 2008 OHS graduate. This retrospective was David’s Eagle Scout project. Many thanks to David for sharing this with the OHS Band families!
Through researching the district’s library, yearbooks, and scrapbooks of community members closest to the OHS Band program, this project has been put together and now shared with all the OHS Band families.
Note: These PDFs are large files and may take several seconds to load on your screen. Your patience will be rewarded:
Rediscovery of Okemos High School Fight Song and Alma Mater April 2012 – courtesy of Bob Braxler ’64
It is great to see the Okemos Band continue to achieve excellence. Good luck this fall.
I see no reference to Tom Harris who was there in the early 70s. NOT Mr. Welch. The history shows a photo incorrectly identified as 1974 (which it is not) with Mr. Welch. Harris was there during my years 1971-1975 and and raised money for the first big band trip to England by raffling off a real London taxi. He was an incredible director. The history should be corrected.
Jan
The History of the Band was an Eagle Scout project of an OHS band student who graduated a few years ago. It was not an all inclusive history of the band program; however, it is a wonderful start to such a long and successful program. It was hoped that former and current band members would submit additional historical content to this project to help full in the gaps. If you have images or content you would like to share with the OHS Band Family, please feel welcomed to forward to okemosbandboosters@gmail.com
I very much enjoyed the band history pdfs! Well done. I would like to have audio recordings of all of the school songs: America’s Sweethearts, On, You Indians, Proud Chieftains, Okemos Fight! Do you know where I could find them? I was a member of the band from 1960-1964. We had 125 members which was fully 25% of the enrollment of the high school!
I’m not sure, to tell you the truth. We could check if there are any media archives that would allow such a share. Let me check on that.