Son of a Music Man: the Ronald edition

My great-grandfather G. Oliver Riggs has been called “St. Cloud’s Music Man,” and I sometimes use that phrase as a way of explaining his career (with the caveat that, unlike the fictional Prof. Harold Hill, G. Oliver really was a talented musician and director). But the “music man” description also fits my grandfather Ronald.

Ronald Graham Riggs, 1901-1968

After Ronald graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1924 with a bachelor of arts degree (he had an economics major and a political science minor), he spent several years working for the Holton instrument company as a traveling salesman, organizing school bands in other states.

Ronald was, according to the Holton literature, the youngster on the sales force. But he knew what he was doing. He and his younger brother Percy had grown up in the band business. From an early age, they accompanied G. Oliver to band rehearsals until they were old enough to play in the bands themselves.

Ronald’s photo is at the bottom left.

What Ronald did for Holton was this: he’d travel to a town, meet with school officials and parents about organizing a band, then return to sell instruments and offer the students free instruction for three months – implementing Holton’s guaranteed plan for “A Playing Band in 12 weeks.”

I don’t know how many bands Ronald organized, or exactly when he started the job and when he quit. But evidence in the family files indicates that he started sometime in 1926 and spent a lot of time in Ohio in 1928, forming bands in Oak Hill, Gallipolis, Jackson, Wellston, Middleport and Pomeroy.

Photos of Ohio school bands Ronald organized.

Other bands he organized included one in Shelby, Michigan in 1929. In 1930, the job took him to schools in Freehold and Newark, New Jersey; Martinsville, Virginia; and Leepertown Township, Bureau, Illinois.

By the fall of 1933 Ronald was no longer working for Holton; he was back in Minnesota, where he had taken a permanent job at Farmington High School, directing the band and teaching history.

I will expand on his career as a high school band director in a future post!