This obituary was forwarded to a mailing list I'm on by Wally Macnow of Camsco Music; it's a nice tribute to Mel Bay.Paul Stamler in St. Louis sent this and I thought I'd pass it along. Wally ___________________________ > >This is to note the passing of one of the lesser-known gents of the world >of music, Mel Bay, who died yesterday. Mel Bay instruction books taught >an awful lot of people their first guitar technique, and a lot of people >learned songs from his songbooks. The company tended for many years to >cater to entry-level players, but in the last few years they've begun >doing more advanced books for players, and they've put out some excellent >books of songs as well. Mel Bay has also run a music store here in St. >Louis for many years, which co-sponsored concerts by the likes of John >Renbourn with our local folk venue, Focal Point. My informant, Gene >Bertram, adds that although Mel has always enjoyed the reputation of a >"crusty old coot", he'd always been friendly and helpful when Gene was in >the store. > >Peace. >Paul > >
Threads combined. Note the 2002 obituary, and the 1997 death of Mel messages. Go figure. The obituary from melbay.com is below.
-Joe Offer-Mel Bay, founder and first president of Mel Bay Publications, Inc., died at age 84 on May 14, 1997. Mel Bay was born in the Missouri town of Bunker and raised in DeSoto where as a teenager he taught himself how to play the guitar and performed regularly with various Ozark region bands. His plans to study engineering in college were brought to a halt by the Depression.
Upon moving to St. Louis, Mel took up the tenor banjo and became a highly sought after musician and teacher. He began writing guitar methods in 1947. His method books grew in popularity worldwide and laid the foundation for most of today's guitar pedagogy. Guitar Player magazine referred to him as "the George Washington of the guitar." It is difficult to find a guitarist worldwide who has not, at some point, studied one of Mel's method books. Sales of his Modern Guitar Method series are estimated to be well in excess of 20 million copies.
Mr. Bay received many awards during his career which include the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Guitar Foundation of America, "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Retail Print Music Dealers Association, the "Owen Miller Lifetime Achievement Award" from the American Federation of Musicians, "Certificate of Merit" from the St. Louis Music Educators Association, a resolution from the Missouri House of Representatives honoring his achievements, a proclamation by mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. making October 25, 1996 "Mel Bay Day" in the city of St. Louis and a letter of commendation from President Clinton.
Mel Bay established the structure for modern guitar education and by so doing, laid the foundation for the continued growth and advancement of the instrument.
See also the biography of Mel Bay elsewhere on this site. A full biography of Mel Bay in book form is also available, entitled The Mel Bay Story, by Ray Dankenbring.