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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part two of a two-part historical look at the Warren G. Harding Band under the guidance of Robert E. Fleming. It was coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society as part of its weekly series focusing on our region's history.
In 1966, the burgeoning student population of nearly 900 students per graduating class at the only public high school in Warren required that it be split into two schools -- East (Warren G. Harding) and West (Warren Western Reserve).
Each high school would now teach for four class years, instead of three. Lost to Warren G. Harding High School band director Robert E. Fleming was his right-hand man, assistant director Clinton. E. Foster, who left to direct the new high school's band -- and presumably, a cadre of talented west side students.
In came totally green freshmen and sophomores, meaning that three-quarters of the Harding band, probably with an overall four-year combined average age of 15, had no more than one year of experience. It was a recipe for a decline from greatness, a rebuilding year -- that is, unless you had a director like Fleming, who would not accept any retreat from his tradition of excellence.
That 1966-67 Harding marching band, still with an important battle-tested contingent of talented veteran juniors and seniors, did live up to the legacy of its predecessors. Joined by the experienced and highly regarded band director John Kobasiar Jr., Fleming found a good counterpart, a director possessing similar "softer" Foster-style attributes, yet with a firm focus on excellence. Harding's unbroken string of seven Level One concert competition performances continued -- a remarkable achievement for such a young band.
The following year, 1967-68, the band was invited to make a second trip to the All-Star game in Chicago. Their nationally televised performance was hailed as flat-out superb. The same level of outstanding achievement was sustained admirably with spectacular marching halftime shows and yet another Level One earned at state competition. It was all because of Fleming, the cornerstone, the necessary element, the single essential reason for the success of ours and all the bands that had come before.
Prior to the end of the 1968 school year, Fleming was finally offered the opportunity to fulfill his long-held original career goal of directing college concert and marching bands. After proving he could achieve at a high school the same type of bands that many colleges with experienced student marchers and musicians could produce, he attracted wide attention and was offered a university position, which he readily accepted.
"The man who in the past decade has built the Warren G. Harding High School band into a musical powerhouse praised throughout the land for its performance and perfection is leaving (for YSU),"declared a news article in the Warren Tribune Chronicle."Under the aegis of Fleming … the Harding band has reached the pinnacle of local, state and national acclaim," the article continued. "Highpoints in nationwide TV appearances have been those in 1964 and 1967 at the College All-Star games in Chicago," and stated that at the conclusion of the 1967-68 school year, from 1961-62 through 1967-68, the WGH bands had appeared eight times at Cleveland Browns home games, and made 14 national television appearances.
Thus, in the fall 1968, after a phenomenal 10 years with WGH, Fleming left the high school for Youngstown State University to join their faculty at the Dana School of Music, teaching and conducting its bands as director, and later to Hiram College as professor of music and director of bands, in a career that spanned the next 36 years.
In 2010, in a fitting permanent tribute to his lasting contributions to music education in Warren, the Harding band's famous architectural protective covering at Mollenkopf Stadium was formally dedicated to and inscribed as the Robert E. Fleming band shell. For WGH, as an additional legacy, Fleming left behind several star pupils, disciples if you will, Rick Bartunek, Rich Rollo, Tom Hodgson and Lynn Green Marlin, who successfully carried on his tradition of excellent bands as directors in Warren throughout the following decades.
Visit www.wghbandfleminglegacy.com for more information on the Robert E. Fleming alumni group. The founding officers are Jim Brodell, WGH '70, president; Rick Bartunek, WGH '64, vice president; Jean Neidhart Hood, WGH '69, director of communications and collections; Joyce Ormsby Meyer, WGH '69, director of communications and collections; Mike Ognibene, WGH '71, treasurer; and John Kobasiar Jr. WGH '51, ex officio.
The Trumbull County Historical Society can be reached at 330-394-4653 or info@trumbullcountyhistory.org.