By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun
Richard Lyle Daniel, a retired Baltimore County public
school music instructor who played with and led several jazz bands,
died Monday of heart failure at
Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, Pa.
The longtime Finksburg resident was 79.
The son of a paper mill worker and a homemaker, Mr.
Daniel was born and raised in West Point, Va., and graduated in 1950 from West Point High School.
He served in the Air Force until 1951, when he was
given an honorable medical discharge.
Mr. Daniel, who began music lessons when he was 12 and
played with big bands in high school, entered Shenandoah Conservatory in
Winchester, Va., where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1956 in music education
and majored in the saxophone.
He later earned a master's degree in 1964 in music
from the University of Maryland, College Park, and took additional classes at
Loyola College.
An instrumental music teacher, Mr. Daniel began
teaching at the old Pikesville Elementary
School and later joined the faculty of Franklin High School, where he taught
for more than 20 years.
Called "Mr. D." by his students, Mr. Daniel
spent a decade teaching music at Owings Mills High School before retiring in
1986.
Larry Leeds, who now owns and operates Leeds' Band
Instrument Repair in Finksburg, studied music with Mr. Daniel at Pikesville
Elementary School.
"That was around 1956, and I was studying
clarinet," recalled Mr. Leeds. "As a teacher, he was wonderful and
one heck of a guy. I never saw him get mad or frustrated, and he always had
positive suggestions for his students."
He added: "Dick Daniel was one of those guys back
in the day who were super people when it came to teaching music. They were
dedicated and made the experience both fun and fine."
His professional memberships included the Music
Teachers Association and Band Directors of Maryland.
In addition to his teaching, during the 1970s, Mr. Daniel
taught music at what is now McDaniel College, and for years played in numerous
jazz bands.
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