Two days in a row I have something nice to talk about. A couple of weeks ago I put up this post with a couple of happy freshmen at the RMC piano in early fall, 1962. In the comments Grungy correctly pointed out that it had been donated in memory of Lee Chatham, long serving Rice band director. This afternoon I was reading the December 1958 issue of the Sallyport, which was largely devoted to the opening of the brand new Rice Memorial Center, and I came upon this:

Here’s a wonderful image of Lee as band director in 1926. Unless you’re a bishop it’s not easy to pull off a hat like that but I think he does it:

Rice Institute band director Lee Chatham

And even better, here’s a shot of the dance band, Lee’s Owls, at about the same time. We had a discussion of the range of instruments in this picture back in 2017:

Bonus: This great shot of the Blue Angels flyover today was taken by by loyal reader owlcop. Thanks a million!