Joe Maxwell:
CLASS OF 1965
Pacific High SchoolClass of 1965
Pacific, MO
Indiana University - MusicClass of 1969
Bloomington, IN
Edison Junior High SchoolClass of 1962
Dearborn, MI
Joe's Story
Life
After graduating from Pacific (MO) High School, I attended Indiana U. Majoring in Music (French Horn) & Radio-TV. I've lived in the Detroit area since '69. In my former life, I spent about 30 yrs. in broadcasting, but I've been in sales for the past 10 years.
Ironically, I was always an instrumentalist through high school & college, but since then nearly everything I have done musically has been choral or vocal.
I've been married since '73 to Kay (I met her when she was a member of the Metropolitan Detroit Youth Chorus--I was the director). We have 2 sons, Dan recently married (you should have seen it...kilts, bagpiper, the whole 9 yards...but no haggis!!!) He & Amy just moved into a new house between Detroit & Lansing. Jonathan is a Bible major at Harding U. in Arkansas preparing for the ministry. He's getting ready to spend the next fall semester at the university's foreign studies program based in Athens, Greece.
Kay & I both sing in barbershop choruses, both of which were international competitors last year. Kay also sings bass in a ladies' quartet. We enjoy camping, especially with family or with our barbershopper "family", and we love to travel in general. In the last few years I've competed with my chorus (the Guardians of Harmony) in Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, & Denver at the Barbershop Harmony Society's Internationals. Kay has competed in Atlanta and Las Vegas with her (Shoreline Sound) chorus when they went to the Sweet Adelines International Competitions.
There are about 250 competing choruses in our Society (BHS) so to be among those 30 who get to go to international is exciting. We're definitely not "big shooters" in that group, but we sure are having fun trying. It's a lot of hard work...I've grown tremendously as a musician as part of this group...the constant striving for musical perfection, vocal production, and overall showmanship is exhilarating. We went to 5 consecutive international competitions. It's fun to trot out our little shows in front of 10,000 of our peers.
In the past...Expand for more
, I've been to most of the country and to Europe twice. The first time was a 17-day concert tour with the youth chorus, and the second time I went to Moscow (while on the engineering staff for WJR Radio in Detroit) when it was still the USSR, during the Reagan-Gorbachev summit. While at WJR, I also moonlighted on the air, doing an overnight telephone talk show on "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes". WJR (760) is one of only a handful of AM stations that are 50,000 watts, omni-directional, 24 hours a day. I got calls from all over the eastern 2/3 of the continent. But, like so many other things in life, the business has changed and I discovered that there really can be life after radio. I am now doing inside sales for a company in Royal Oak, MI that sells equipment to metal working shops, etc. Kay has been with Wm. Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak going on 20 years, registering patients in their outpatient lab.
In addition to the Guardians, and my tenure as director of the youth chorus, I was a member of the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra while still in high school. Being fortunate enough to be chosen to attend I.U, I performed with many of the university's orchestras, wind ensembles, and chamber groups, plus the Marching Hundred, the big Jazz Band, and the world-famous I.U. German Band under the direction of the living legend, Herr Prof. Wilhelm Von Klingel (Bill Bell).
I've directed the Sunday morning song services (all a cappella congregational singing) for the Church of Christ in Royal Oak, MI, for over 25 years, and I've founded--directed--participated in numerous groups for special events. I also was a board member for the Mt. Clemens (MI) Symphony Orchestra.
I still wear my Pacific H.S. class ring and my I.U. jacket. It's been many moons since I was in either Pacific or Bloomington. We're dyed-in-the-wool Michiganders, but we do have a wanderlust. Our ideal retirement would be to hitch up a nice travel trailer and ride off into the sunset together, looking for the adventure we'd find "around the next corner".
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