Leon Tabb is truly a one-man band. He plays the trumpet, baritone horn, baritone sax, Sousaphone, guitar and piano, and his instrument of choice is the bassoon.

“I’ve been a school music teacher ever since I graduated from UD in 1950 until I retired after 42 years, so I had to learn how to play several instruments so I could teach them,” Tabb says.

A music and education major at Delaware, Tabb, with the exception of one year, has returned each Homecoming to play in UD’s Alumni Band. Every fall, he gets out his trumpet to start practicing for the big event and contacts Heidi Sarver, band director and associate professor of music, to find out what is on the program. As the years have progressed, he is the sole remaining marcher of his era.

“I love Leon!” Sarver says. “Alumni Band is about Leon Tabb—someone who keeps coming back year after year, doesn’t mind changes, doesn’t care about politics, doesn’t care if it rains (which it tends to do at Homecoming for some reason). Leon just loves to play his trumpet, and that’s what it’s all about!”

This year was special for Tabb as his daughter, Wendy Wands, and son, Bruce, flew in from the state of Washington, and his other son, Keith (Kip), came up from North Carolina for Homecoming and a family reunion. A graduate of Hofstra University, Bruce and his father were cheering for opposing teams at the Homecoming football game.  

Having served in the Navy in the Aleutian Islands in World War II, Tabb came to UD about the same time as the late J. Robert King, a professor of music who was the founding director of the Marching Band and whose teaching career at UD spanned 40 years.

“Dr. King and I were ‘freshmen’ together, both starting out at UD,” Tabb says. “In those days, there were six music majors, and about 35 students in the Marching Band. The band had one majorette, Roberta Carothers [Martin], and we followed her everywhere. We played the fight song and the alma mater, and our only formation was forming a UD on the field.”

Today, according to Sarver, there are 350 band members, four drum majors who conduct the band, 42 color guard members who carry flags, rifles and sabers and one to five “Golden Girls,” or majorettes. As far as the band performance, Sarver says, it is art in motion. The field is considered a stage. The speed at which the performers move, the colors of the flags and the presentation are visual representations of the music.  

Dr. King also was responsible for Tabb becoming a bassoonist. “One day, the two of us came across a big, dusty old box and opened it up, and there was a bassoon. We had to buy some reeds for it from Lou Knowles, who had a music shop in Wilmington. Lou said he needed a bassoonist for a band he played in and that he would pay for bassoon lessons for me,” Tabb says. Another important event at UD for Tabb was meeting his wife, Muriel Rogasky, UD ’46, on a blind date. A retired teacher, Muriel Tabb died in 2001.  

Although Tabb has retired after teaching in West Virginia, Smyrna, Del., and Pennsville, N. J., where he now lives, he is still making music with the Brandywine Pops and with a group from the Adas Kodesch Synagogue in Wilmington, which plays Jewish and Hebrew music.

How else does an 81-year-old spend his time when not making music? Tabb says he is involved in some volunteer activities—like spending time at the Quaker Wilderness Center in upper New York state, clearing trails and helping to maintain the site; assisting in building schools with a Catholic organization in Belize in Central America; and, through Elder Hostel, volunteering with Hereford International in Arkansas, learning to milk goats and perform other chores as needed.

  —Sue Moncure