Belleville History Alive!

Salvation Army pays tribute to bandleader Jack Green, page 1

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8-THE INTELLIGENCER, Wednesday, Oct. 4,1978 ( Over his many years of musicianship, veteran and community Salvation Army bandmaster Jack Green has received tributes for his contribution to the city's talent. Now he's won the proudest ac- colade of his life--the Salvationist Order of the Founder, its top world tribute. uiuuica iui mo UUIILI luuuuii tu uie uuy a Salvation Army pays tribute to bandleader Jack Green by HARRY MULHALL Staff Reporter Jack Green is a small, puckish man who has been making his talent heard in a big, big way for years. As Belleville division Salvation Army bandleader, teacher and conductor of city musicians, he's been the com- munity's patriarchal music- man. It hasn't gone without tribute. But what happened to him this past weekend is for Jack Green a crowning tribute to decades of talented involve- ment. He received the • Sava- tionists' highest world recognition, the Order of the Founder. It was presented in Toronto at a congress of thousands of Salvation Army members by General Arnold Brown, now world com- mander of the Army-but once a years-ago graduate in Belleville of Jack's musical tutoring. For Jack, modesty goes w i t h h i s m u s i c a l ac- complishments. ."I was just stunned," was mostly all he could say back in town Monday. Jack's specialty is the cor- net, although he teaches every band insturment. The cornet is a smaller, brazen version of the trumpet and when he begins to play it's not not hard to hear. But, it is not only the volume and control he produces. Everybody" just stops to listen expectant- ly to a master who himself has won many an award. It's also a talent and feel for music he's tried to perpetuate through countless pupils he's taken in the cottmmuncom- munity over 40 years or more. For that contribution-and his work across the country at music camps-he was given the city's civic cultural award in 1975 But , Jack is also a Salyationist-his first contact dating from his youth in his native Wales. That's why Sunday's presentation had added emotion for him. As a Salvationist he went to the crowded Army congress at Toronto's Harbor Castle Hotel. In the midst of the throng of events he heard his name hailed. "I nearly fell off my seat. I never thought I'd be entitled to anything like that," he recalls. The order was first in- stituted in 1917. And, reckons Jack, there are only 128 in the world-awarded for outstan- ding service. The presenta t ion by General Brown put the topp- ing touch on the event. General Brown came to Belleville as a youngster- some time after Green-spent his earlier years here before going onto the Army's staff college and eventually, in 1977. world commander of the Army. Jack still has a momento from those early years of his commanding officer's stu- dent days: The manuscript of the general's first musical ex- ercise sent for examination. Jack says ne intends to be a lively figure in the com- munity's musical life for many a day yet. But, one thing is certain indication from his near-reluctance to talk about himself. When he blows that cornet it'll be strictly to make music-not to trumpet his own latest pres t ig ious ac- complishment.

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