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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

MEN WHOM I HA VE ADMIRED

Speaking of men who have had an influence on my life I would like to list just a few of them, and hope 1
have not left some person out of being mentioned here, who should have perhaps been included. There
is no particular order in the naming of men 1 consider to have been outstanding, and good influences on
my life, but I will have to start of course with my father the Reverend John Dicks. Then there is Doc
Melton, Gordon Granger, Herbert Darby, Josef Gustat, Joe Ferguson, Alfonso Levy, Clarence Brown,
Reverend Otis Page (who was tobacco sales floor manager during the years I worked at the tobacco
warehouse), Professor Dick Feasel who was Band Director during my years at Stetson University and
for many years thereafter, and Dr. Daniel Sternberg who was the Dean of the School of Music at Baylor
University where I obtained my Masters Degree in the Summer of 1952, and Carl Roberts, my High
School Band Director.

Since it was my desire and intent to become a Band Director at an early age, perhaps Dick Feasel and
Dr. Sternberg had more to do with my success and interest in that fiefd than anyone else.

Dick Feasel was a man of great intellect and musical talent, and was extremely well educated in a
number of different fields. I suppose the thing that J picked up most from Dick Feasel was his sense of
perfection and top quality in everything he undertook, and I hope some of that rubbed off on me.

Dean Sternberg at Baylor was perhaps the most brilliant and talented man that I have known in my life.
He was of Jewish descent, was born and raised in pre-war Russia, and apparently learned to speak
English from a German teacher since he had a decided German accent when he spoke English, which of
course he did during all the time 1 knew him.

He was the absolute pinnacle of perfection in performing on the piano. I have never before nor since,
either live or by recording, heard another pianist that could play as well as Dr. Sternberg. In addition to
that, he was a very sympathetic man to the needs of his students in the School of Music, and he was the
Conductor of the Baylor University Symphony Orchestra. One of the unbelievable things about Dr.
Sternberg was that he would, prior to ever beginning to rehearse a number with the Orchestra, memorize
every instrument’s part in the entire composition, even full symphonies which could last as much as 15
or 20 minutes. He knew every note by heart in everybody’s part from the trumpet players and tubas to
the clarinets, oboes, and violins. He would stop rehearsal and point out to the player who had just
misplayed something that he had made a mistake and tell him exactly what he had misread, and describe
note for note how the part should go. I never stopped being amazed at his ability to do that.

I was playing first trumpet in the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, as I had received a graduate assistant
fellowship in the School of Music within 2 or 3 days after I arrived at Baylor, and Dean Sternberg and I
had a good relationship and understanding of each other.

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