In Memoriam|

Garrett Swasey (1971 – 27 November 2015) was an American police officer and ice skater. As an ice dancer, he won a gold medal in the US junior national championships. Swasey was shot and killed in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Swasey was born in Melrose, Massachusetts and graduated from Melrose High School in 1989 in the same class as future Melrose mayor Robert J. Dolan.

Ice skating
Swasey began skating competitively as a youngster. With his partner, Christine Fowler, he won the junior ice dance title at the 1992 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Their coach was Sandy Hess, a prominent coach from Colorado Springs.

In February 1995, Swasey and Hillary Tompkins competed as seniors at the 1995 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed 13th. On March 11, the pair worked two Musical on Ice shows at the Forum in Presque Isle, Maine.

Law enforcement
Following his skating days, Swasey became a University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer. Swasey was killed in the line of duty on November 27, 2015 during a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic. He was 44 years old.

At the time of his death, Swasey was married to Rachel (née Aguilar) and was the father of two young children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Swasey

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Other articles on Officer Swasey:

Garrett Swasey, killed in Planned Parenthood shooting, was Mass. native
WCVB. November 28, 2015.

Schneider Farris, Jo Ann (January 21, 2015). My Skating Life: Fifty Plus Years of Skating. Lulu Press. Retrieved November 29, 2015. “Kristine [sic] Fowler and Garrett Swasey were a prominent ice dance team training under Sandy Hess in 1992. They won the 1992 U.S. Junior Dance title.”

Blakinger, Keri; McShane, Larry (November 28, 2015). “Garrett Swasey, cop killed in Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting and dad of two, was once an Olympic ice dancing hopeful”. Daily News (New York). Retrieved November 29, 2015.

“Nice on Ice”, from The Bangor Daily News, February 14, 1995

Lois Elfman. “Slain police officer remembered by skating world”. icenetwork.com.

Barb Reichert. “Skating Family Mourns the Loss of and Remembers Officer Garrett Swasey”. usfsa.org.

“Officer killed in Colorado Springs leaves behind wife, two kids”. 9News. November 28, 2015.

Elisha Fieldstadt. “Slain Colorado Springs Officer Garrett Swasey Remembered by Family, At Church”. NBC News.

Victor, Daniel; Healy, Jack (November 28, 2015). “Garrett Swasey, Officer Killed in Colorado, Is Recalled for Courage and Faith”. nytimes.com.

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Garrett Swasey, Officer Killed in Colorado, Is Recalled for Courage and Faith

Garrett Swasey, 44, the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, police officer who was shot and killed while responding to a shooting at a Planned Parenthood office, was described by his fellow church members and friends as a courageous man and loving father who drew strength and inspiration from his Christian faith.

He was married, with two young children, and had been on the campus police force for six years. He also spent seven years as a co-pastor at Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. “Here’s a guy who worked full time as a police officer, and then gave a great amount of time to his local church and didn’t get a dime for it,” said Scott Dontanville, a co-pastor who knew Officer Swasey for 15 years. “He did it because it was the thing that he felt he needed to do.”

Kurt Aichele, a co-pastor at the church and a close friend, said Officer Swasey was once a nationally ranked figure skater and ice dancer and moved to Colorado Springs years ago to train.

Mr. Aichele said Officer Swasey frequently responded to dangerous calls off campus. One of his bedrock beliefs was putting other people’s lives before his own, Mr. Aichele said.

“It’s not the first time that he’s been placed in harm’s way,” he said. “He’s an absolute man of courage.”

Mr. Dontanville noted that although Officer Swasey would “disagree with the abortion industry,” it would not have been a factor in his actions on Friday.

“I don’t think that was on his mind,” he said. “He was there to save lives. That’s the kind of guy he is.”

On Friday, Mr. Aichele and other members of the church got the news that Officer Swasey had been shot, and they were asked to pray. When it became clear he had not survived, Mr. Aichele said, they gathered at his home, where his wife broke the news to their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.

“She had to tell her kids that their daddy wasn’t coming home,” Mr. Aichele said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/garrett-swasey-officer-killed-in-colorado-is-recalled-for-courage-and-faith.html

[It was mentioned on the newscasts that Mr. Swasey also taught guitar lessons to the young people of his church. Words are lost…]

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CYNTHIA ROBINSON, TRUMPETER FOR SLY & THE FAMILY STONE, DIES

Cynthia Robinson (January 12, 1944 – November 23, 2015) was an American musician, best known for being the trumpeter and vocalist in Sly and the Family Stone. Her voice and presence were featured in the hit “Dance To The Music”.

Robinson was among the first female trumpeters in a major American band, and the first such player in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She was the only member of the original Family Stone clan to continue working with Sly Stone after the band fell apart in 1975. She played in the funk band Graham Central Station with Family Stone bandmate Larry Graham, starting in 1974.

She was the mother of two daughters: Laura Marie and Sylvyette Phunne Stone (with Sly Stone).

Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Sly and the Family Stone. In 2006, she reunited with the original band members of Family Stone.

On November 23, 2015 Robinson died of cancer in Carmichael, California at the age of 71.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Robinson

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WAYNE BICKERTON, PRINCIPLE IN SESAC AND SONGWRITER, DIES

Wayne Bickerton (born Arthur Ronald Bickerton, 11 July 1941 – 28 November 2015) was a British songwriter, record producer and music business executive. He became well known, with Tony Waddington, as writer and producer of a series of UK chart hits in the 1970s for The Rubettes, and as a leading figure in SESAC – one of the three major American performing rights organizations.

Born in Rhyl, North Wales, and named after his father, Bickerton grew up in Kirkdale, Liverpool. He first came to prominence in 1963 when, after spells with the Bobby Bell Rockers, Steve & the Syndicate, Lee Curtis & the All Stars and The Remo Four, he became bassist and singer with the Pete Best Four (later the Pete Best Combo), at the same time as childhood friend Tony Waddington became the group’s guitarist. As well as sharing most of the singing, Bickerton and Waddington became songwriters for the group, which toured mainly in Germany and the US, before they left in 1966.

Bickerton then became a record producer at Deram Records, responsible for albums by Giles, Giles & Fripp (the forerunner to King Crimson) and World of Oz; he also worked with Petula Clark and Tom Jones. He later joined Polydor Records, becoming A&R chief and producing the band Mongrel. At the same time, he and Waddington continued writing songs together. One of the most successful was “Nothing But A Heartache”, recorded by American girl singing group The Flirtations, which reached No. 34 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, No. 31 on the Canadian RPM Magazine charts, and is now regarded as a northern soul classic. It was later covered by Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.

During this period, he and Waddington also came up with the idea for a rock ‘n’ roll musical. They co-wrote and produced a demonstration recording of a song, “Sugar Baby Love”, originally intending to submit it for the Eurovision Song Contest but instead offering it to Showaddywaddy, who turned it down. Bickerton and Waddington then offered it to the demo musicians, provided that they would become an actual group. The musicians agreed, became The Rubettes, and “Sugar Baby Love” became a UK #1 hit in 1974, also reaching No. 37 in the US charts and No. 25 in Canada. They wrote and produced all of the Rubettes’ subsequent UK hits – nine Top 50 hits in all between 1974 and 1977 – winning an Ivor Novello Award as Songwriters of the Year, and also reached the UK Top 10 with “Sugar Candy Kisses” by Mac and Katie Kissoon. They set up their own record label, State Records, which diversified in 1979 into owning Odyssey Studios and a new office building at Marble Arch in central London, later sold to the radio station Jazz FM.

Bickerton moved into the upper reaches of the wider music industry, initially as an executive of the Performing Right Society in England, where he worked from the late 1970s, eventually as Chairman and acting Chief Executive. He also became Deputy Chairman of The University of Liverpool Institute of Popular Music. In 1997, he became an executive at SESAC, as Chairman of SESAC International, and was also awarded an honorary doctorate (LL.D.) by the University of Liverpool.

He died on 28 November 2015, aged 74.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Bickerton

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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…

December 2015

1: Alex Cooley, 74, American music promoter (Atlanta International Pop Festival and Music Midtown).

November 2015

30: Jean Deplace, 71, French cellist; Sabri Khan, 88, Indian * sarangi [see below] player.

29: Wayne Bickerton, 74, British songwriter (“Nothing but a Heartache”, “Sugar Baby Love”), record producer, and music executive; George Hadjinikos, 92, Greek musician; Buddy Moreno, 103, American musician and radio personality.

27: Garrett Swasey, 44, American police officer and junior ice dancing champion (1992), shot.

26: Ronnie Bright, 77, American bass singer (The Cadillacs, The Coasters, The Valentines).

25: Jean Corti, 86, French accordionist; Svein Christiansen, 74, Norwegian jazz drummer.

24: Eli Avramov, 61, Israeli rock and new wave musician (HaClique).

23: Jouni Kaipainen, 58, Finnish composer; Beatriz Lockhart, 71, Uruguayan pianist and composer; Cynthia Robinson, 71, American trumpeter and vocalist (Sly and the Family Stone), cancer; Bengt-Arne Wallin (sv), 89, Swedish jazz trumpeter.

From http://www.wikipedia.com

* The sarangi is a bowed, short-necked string instrument from India which is used in Hindustani classical music. It is said to most resemble the sound of the human voice – able to imitate vocal ornaments such as gamaks (shakes) and meends (sliding movements).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangi

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