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By Dale Wilkerson
For Hometown News
Editor’s Note: Longtime Chapman and Riverside High School band director John Bolt passed away last week. The following is a tribute to Bolt by one of his former students.
There is a line in the Billy Joel song, “Piano Man”, where one of the patrons at the establishment in which the Piano Man was performing questions just what he was doing there because of his talent. As a member of the Chapman High School and Mabry Junior High Bands, I thought the same about our band director, the late Mr. John Hampton Bolt.
Mr. Bolt passed away Thursday August 18th. He was the Band Director at Chapman High School from 1973 to 1989. He was a graduate of Clinton High School, Newberry College, and the University of South Carolina. Along with his time at Chapman, Mr. Bolt also served as Band Director for Riverside High School for a teaching career that spanned 28 years.
As a seventh grader in beginner band, it was very impressive to watch Mr. Bolt pick up any instrument and play it with relative ease. Then as I progressed into the high school band, I really got to see and hear just how talented Mr. Bolt really was as a musician and as a teacher.
He could play a saxophone like Kenny G, then pick up a trumpet and play high notes that would have had trumpet legend Doc Severinsen giving him a big thumbs up of approval.
For the rest of the story, read this week’s Inman Times.
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