Bill Brackman, the longtime assistant conductor for the Coastal Communities Concert Band, died [Feb 22, 2009] at his Escondido home after a seven-month battle with brain cancer. He was 68. His beloved wife of 36 years, Joyce, was by his side.I was proud to call Bill my friend. We met several years ago when he began doing publicity for the band (which he joined in 1997 as a trumpeter), and he and Joyce became like family. Every couple of months, they would stop by my office and we'd go out to lunch.
Bill loved good conversation, a well-made sandwich and a hearty slice of Snickers bar pie. He delighted in traveling the world with Joyce, he adored musical theater, he spoiled his 12-year-old Westie terrier, Mulligan, and he relished any opportunity to play with, conduct and promote the CCC Band. When he wasn't playing music, he was teaching it, volunteering with Jeff Beck's band program at Valley Center Middle School. Bill was kind, gracious, warm, selfless and he wore his heart on his sleeve. He was the kind of man who would thank you after he did you a favor. Bill taught band and orchestra for 30 years in St. Louis before he moved to Escondido. It's a tribute to the impact he made on others that after his cancer diagnosis last summer, he and Joyce entertained a near-continual stream of former students, friends and colleagues who flew and drove out from Missouri to visit him in his final months.
The last time I saw Bill in late January, a young St. Louis band conductor whom he had mentored as a young man was visiting their home. Bill couldn't talk much and his memory was compromised, but whenever the subject of music or musical theater came up, a wide smile would cross his face and his eyes would sparkle with recognition. Bill was a class act, and I will dearly miss him. [published in the North County Times on 25 Feb 2009]
