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This essay is being written
at the request of John and Peggy Whited by way of
an article appearing online in The Daily
Jeffersonian, Cambridge, Ohio, January 31, 2008. I
am a doctor of music, residing in Stevens Point,
Wisconsin.. |
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My father, Clyde Henderson Larrick (1907-1978),
was executive head and principal of Cumberland
High School from 1953 to 1958. I attended
Cumberland elementary School on the hill for the
fifth grade, 1953-54, and the High School for
grades seven, eight and nine, 1955-58, before
moving to Cambridge where I graduated from the
high school in 1961. That spring, I played the
vibraharp as special music for the commencement of
my class at Cumberland, with classmate Darlene
Craigo giving the valedictory address. |
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Cumberland High School, during my father’s tenure,
was a leading academic school in Guernsey County
that also included other small schools at Buffalo,
Byesville, Madison, Old Washington, Lore city,
Quaker City and Senecaville as well as Pleasant
city where my father graduated form high school in
1927. He attended Muskingum College, the Ohio
state University, Noble county Normal School in
Caldwell, and graduated from Wittenberg University
in Springfield in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science
degree. |
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From 1953 to 1958, Cumberland
High School was active in the Prince of Peace
speaking contests. Norma Jean Hall, who in 2008
lives in Cumberland, competed at the state level.
I remember seeing her speak in Columbus at the
veterans Memorial Auditorium, where I later
performed percussion in the Columbus symphony
Orchestra while attending Ohio State. Other good
students during the era included Dee Ann Ford, her
younger sister Carolee Ford, Bob Myers and Ken
Swarts in my grade in which there were about
twenty-five students. |
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Other classmates included Ed Moore, tom McDaniel,
Jim Hollenbeck, Carol Frisbee and Larry Tom who
had leukemia. Our basketball team led by Myron
Rhinehart and others, even Richard Jordan before
he moved to Pleasant city, was always near the
bottom of the league. However, the physical
education experience was very good, even
excellent, with people like me getting to play,
exercise and learn. I am an avid sports fan to
this day because of those experiences with Coaches
Carpenter and Mert Conrad. Mr. Conrad was also
pastor at Cumberland United Methodist Church,
where I was confirmed at age fourteen, and played
vibraharp in the basement accompanied on piano by
Norma Jean. She was an amazing musician, and I
think attended the College-Conservatory of Music
at the University of Cincinnati, where several of
my books and compositions are in collection. |
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The great teachers were the
focus of the school, including Mrs. McNutt, Ellen
Hannon, Eileen Monroe, Robert Bird, Walter Reed
and my father who taught me general science. Miss
Hannon of Pleasant City was as good an English
teacher as one will ever find, and I give her
credit to this day for starting me out on the
career of writing ten scholarly books on
percussion music that are distributed worldwide in
Japan, Singapore, Australia, England, Hong Kong,
Europe and North America. Libraries that hold by
books include Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard,
Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Chicago and Oberlin. I
credit my good education at Cumberland High School
in junior high for my good fortune.. |
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