There’s this guy. Like many of my friends, he is a gifted musician. He is a bass-baritone with real pipes and can sing and act at an amazing professional level. He has done leading roles in regional opera, oratorio and community theatre productions across the country—I’ve seen him on stage and can testify to his skills. He has sung as a bass soloist with the late Robert Shaw in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a credit which would be the envy of many full-time singers, yet I only found out about it accidentally. Though I’ve known him for years, he never mentioned it.
As an academic his credentials are impeccable, beginning with a DMA and including years of service on the faculty of a prestigious university. He’s a proficient composer and arranger of hundreds of works, and has professionally edited the works of many other composers for a publishing firm which he founded and has run quite successfully for several decades.
His sense of humor is world class. That’s no exaggeration and no hyperbole—this is an individual who has written a Kyrie setting based on the tune of Polly Wolly Doodle—he is flat out funny! He has also written and published a very successful series of sixteen mystery novels based on a police chief in the fictional small town of St. Germaine, North Carolina, who also happens to be the organist-choirmaster of the local Episcopal parish. These books somehow manage to be both believable and hilarious, filled with humanity and goodwill. He even wrote me into one of them! It was a walk-on flashback, so to speak, but that may be my only real shot at immortality. Those of us who have had the good fortune to correspond with him can testify that simply exchanging emails is an experience to relish.
This guy is a family man—a husband, father and grandfather whose love for his wife, children and grandchildren is profound and displayed with pride. But his love extends beyond immediate family to a circle of friends and community which is impressive in its breadth.
His kindness and generosity are well known, and this in an era when such virtues are not seen as often as we might wish. My wife and I have been guests in his home and shared meals with him and his wife on numerous occasions. We cherish those moments.
I am going to miss my good friend, far more than these words can convey, but my faith reassures me that our separation will only be temporary.
Requiescat in Pace Mark G. Schweizer 1956-2019
All the flags in St. Germaine are permanently at half mast.
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Well said, Dan! We will miss you at the memorial.