A husband and wife teaching pair beloved for their work in Pittsfield in the past is being honored with a way to help students in the present and the future.

The Dr. Paul and Doris Rosene Band Fund provides a permanent source of annual funds to help support Pittsfield High School band students with financial need.

“Paul and Doris Rosene were the heart of band programs in Pittsfield from 1957 to 1967,” said John Borrowman, a cornet player who graduated from PHS in 1967. “We were honoring them, but the reason we did it really was to help make funds available to help individual students continue in band activities.”

Borrowman served on a steering committee of PHS band alums working to establish the endowment fund, held at the Community Foundation Serving West Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri.

A “celebratory announcement” about the new fund, with Paul Rosene present, and a presentation of the initial funding will take place at 8 p.m. Tuesday as part of the PHS Spring Concert.

Rosene also will be the guest at a public reception planned 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday in the lobby of the William Watson Hotel in Pittsfield. Former students, friends and acquaintances are invited to attend, and masks are required to protect Rosene’s health.

The fund’s creation speaks highly of Rosene’s students and “definitely says a lot about Mr. Rosene,” PHS band teacher Justin Bangert said. “I’ve been stopped by people in the community who say I was never in band and never had him as a teacher, but he was always such a nice guy. Even people he didn’t have directly in class have been very supportive of this.”

The steering committee approached Bangert last year about possibly establishing a scholarship fund. Instead of a music scholarship, and the frequent challenges of finding eligible students, Bangert suggested a fund to support current students with band instruments and activities.

“They put it together and put it together very quickly. In December, they said we’re almost to our goal where we have enough to set up the fund, and they met that goal,” Bangert said. “This is going to be (something) that helps individual students. It’s really amazing.”

The fundraising brought together former classmates in the steering committee and in supporting the effort to honor Rosene who was the high school band director 1957 to 1967 and his wife who was band director at Higbee, the junior high, from 1959 to 1967.

The Rosenes left Pittsfield when he accepted a position at Illinois State University where he taught and created a music therapy program. They retired in 2000 and moved to Orlando, Fla., where he became known for his work with bell choirs across the country.

“We all have the same warm and genuine love for Paul and Doris. They were just wonderful people. They really were,” Borrowman said. “He gave us all a lifetime of the joy of music.”

Bangert and his wife Chardy, the junior high band director in Pittsfield, hope they have the same sort of impact on their students as the Rosenes.

“We have a unique spot as music teachers. I get to see students from fifth grade all the way to 12th, seeing all those kids grow up in front of you,” he said.

Bangert and Rosene have corresponded, but will meet for the first time next week.

The PHS band was scheduled to perform in June 2020 in Disney World and Rosene, who lives in Orlando, planned to attend. “We had it all planned out, but the pandemic hit. We didn’t go to Disney. We didn’t get to meet,” Bangert said. “That summer his wife passed away. I didn’t get to meet her either.”