In Memoriam

FRED SANFORD
June 22, 1947 - January 23, 2000
By Lauren Vogel Weiss
Fred Sanford, one of the pioneers of contemporary marching percussion, lost his brief battle with cancer in Denver, Colorado on January 23, 2000. His family reports that "surrounded by his wife and other family members, he died as he lived - with courage and good humor, and the 'Freddy smile' to the end." PASIC '99 marked the first PAS Marching Percussion Festival that Sanford missed since its inception in 1982 and those in attendance in Columbus felt his loss even then.

Raised in Casper, Wyoming, Sanford followed his older brother Ken, also a drummer, into the Casper Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps at the age of 12 in 1959. He was a proud member of the Troopers for ten years until he aged out following his 21st birthday. He attended school at California State University in Fullerton and taught the newly organized Anaheim Kingsmen from 1965-1967, but each summer he would return to teach and perform with his hometown corps.

In 1968, Sanford moved to northern California where he attended San Jose State and studied percussion with Tony Cirone. During this time he also began to instruct and write for another new drum corps, the Santa Clara Vanguard, with whom he would work for 12 seasons. During his tenure there, the Vanguard drum line won an unprecedented five national "high drum" titles (1973, 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979).

Following his graduation from SJSU in 1970, Sanford taught high school music programs in Bergenfield, New Jersey where he met Dennis DeLucia. "Fred Sanford made his mark on the world of percussion with his extraordinary arrangements for the Santa Clara Vanguard," recalls DeLucia. "For the first time in drum corps, percussion charts were magnificent orchestrations that beautifully captured the style and elegance of the music and made the horn line sound much better than it would have sounded by itself! My personal favorite - Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1974) - was a landmark in voicing, rhythmic interest and accompaniment that featured the drum line in the most musical way imaginable."

The 1970s also saw Sanford begin his association with the Slingerland Drum Company, where he was instrumental in designing the TDR snare, Cut-a-way timp-toms and Tonal bass drums. He also began another important aspect of his career, teaching educational clinics on marching percussion around the country and eventually around the world. During that decade, Sanford also worked with the Madison Scouts and the Alberta All-Girls Drum & Bugle Band.

During the early 1980s, Sanford joined the Ludwig Drum Company as a Product Development Manager and Staff Clinician. In addition to his drum & bugle corps experiences, he was the percussion coordinator for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and also worked with the McDonald's All-American Band at various national parades. In 1991, Sanford was inducted into the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame. For the past 15 years he served as a marching percussion consultant for the Yamaha Corporation of America.

Fred Sanford was active in the Percussive Arts Society, serving on the PAS Marching Percussion Committee as well as being the "voice" of the Marching Percussion Festival for almost two decades.

"Thanks for everything, Fred," DeLucia says. "Your legacy will live on through your music, your disciples and your presence."

Friends and family established the Fred Sanford Scholarship Fund (P.O. Box 300166, Denver, CO 80203-0166). They hope that Fred's friends will assist in creating this educational memorial in his honor.