Another Visit with Dr. Ted

The year 2012 contained many fulfilling moments relating to the My Musical Family project, but the most exciting development for me was finding and meeting Dr. Theodore Papermaster, a 98-year-old retired pediatrician who knew both G. Oliver and Islea Riggs, my great-grandparents. In 1923, Ted joined the first boys band G. Oliver organized in St. Cloud, and he also took piano lessons from Islea for many years [I first wrote about Ted in this Nov. 25 blog post, A House Call with Dr. Ted].

I couldn’t let the year end without squeezing in another visit to Ted, especially after hearing that he had a photo and a letter of recommendation to show me. So I went to see him last week at his nursing home in St. Louis Park, Minn. 

The photo was of Ted and his younger brother Ralph in front of their house in 1927, wearing their St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band uniforms. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but Ted said the uniforms were a light blue with a red stripe down the side of the pants.

The Papermaster brothers: Ralph, on left, and Ted

The letter, dated Oct. 7, 1941, was written by G. Oliver and is addressed to the Adjutant General of the United States Army. Here’s what it said:

Dear Sir:

I have known Theodore Papermaster since April 1923. I have known his father since 1909 and his mother a great many years and can truthfully say that I know of no family that I would place on a higher level. I also knew his grandfather, who was a Rabbi, and certainly I never knew a finer man.

I am called on to give recommendations to young men very often on account, I presume, of the fact that I have worked among boys and young men for over fifty years. Some young men do not receive as good recommendations as Theodore Papermaster is entitled to.

I consider him one of the finest young men I have ever known, in every respect.

Yours truly,

G. Oliver Riggs

My first reaction to reading this was: Wow. Sincere, glowing praise from G. Oliver – this is no ordinary letter. Then my brain began to focus on something else: the year 1909. I was surprised to read that G. Oliver had known Ted’s father since 1909, and had also known his grandfather. How was this possible? Ted was born and raised in St. Cloud, and G. Oliver didn’t move to St. Cloud until April 1923, when he was hired to direct the municipal band and form a boys band.

But then it all began to make sense. I remembered what Ted had mentioned in our first visit: his grandfather Benjamin Papermaster was a rabbi who had immigrated to the United States from Lithuania. He ended up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and that’s where he and his family – including Ted’s father, Herman (Bert) Papermaster – were living in 1909, the year G. Oliver moved to Grand Forks.

G. Oliver had been a band director in nearby Crookston, Minn., for about a decade when he decided to take a job in the larger city of Grand Forks, directing an adult municipal band known as the Grand Forks Military Band (called that because of the style of music played; it had no military affiliation). He stayed in the job for a year, then moved on to other directing opportunities, including a stint in Havre, Montana from 1911-1914.

I knew that Ted’s dad had taught himself to play clarinet, and that he had played in the adult municipal band in St. Cloud for many years after moving there in 1912 – had he also played in the Grand Forks Military Band under G. Oliver’s direction? Was that how the two men met?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a list of Grand Forks band members from 1909-10, or a photo of that band, so I couldn’t confirm my hunch that way. But when I went through my files this morning, I found proof in a June 24, 1909 Grand Forks Herald newspaper article I’d copied a few years ago. It previewed that evening’s scheduled band concert, which included a clarinet duet called “Polka de Concert” played by Carl Lukkason and Burt Papermaister (sic). Aha. Mystery solved.

The band concert preview from June 24, 1909

During our visit last week, Ted told me that he felt God had a hand in our meeting; I’m not about to dispute that idea. The musical connections between the Riggs and Papermaster families go back even further than I had imagined. And for me to meet Ted and untangle these connections 103 years later – well, it gives a person goosebumps.

You can look forward to more writing on this topic, and maybe more goosebumps, too, in the year ahead. Happy 2013!