William J. Sweeney, 1940-2008

We announce with deep sadness that Bill Sweeney passed away on Saturday, December 20, 2008, surrounded by the love of his family.  We gain comfort in knowing that he is at peace after a very long, hard-fought battle. 

Service

A service was held on Sunday, December 28, 2008 in Canandaigua, NY.  We are deeply appreciative of the many friends, family, and students who came from near and far to help us celebrate Bill's life. We're gathering some of the remarks from the service now, and will post those that are appropriate when they are available.

Memorial Donations

Bill and Linda were thankful for the extraordinary care and support they received over the last five years. They have suggested memorial donations be made to Serenity House of Victor, Inc., 1278 Brace Rd. Victor, NY 14564 or the Wilmot Cancer Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Ave., Box 704, Rochester, NY 14642. 

In addition, a few have asked if they could direct a memorial contribution to the Arlington Music Program, and that would be most appreciated as well: Arlington Band Boosters, Inc., PO Box 66, LaGrangeville, NY 12540.

 

Comments

[Alan Mangelsdorf]

My thoughts and prayers to the entire Sweeney family. Like so many others who have posted here, I cannot begin to measure the impact that Mr. Sweeney (even at 40 yrs old I cannot imagine calling him Bill) had -- and continues to have on my life.

Most of us could not name who won the Nobel prize this year or perhaps last year, but everyone remembers the one or two teachers that impacted their life, that helped to shape who they have become. Mr. Sweeney had that impact on hundreds, if not thousands of students. I am blessed to count myself as one of them.

[Laura Beazley Foody '90]

Dear Sweeney Family,

I am so sorry for your loss. Mr. Sweeney touched so many lives, and I am so thankful to have been one of the many he influenced. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

[Diana (Quist) Morse '85]

To the Sweeney Family,
My prayers and thoughts to all of you at this very difficult time. Mr. Sweeney had a huge influence on my life also. My heart goes out to you.

[Michele Kolarik Hayes AHS '88]

My heart goes out to Mr. Sweeney's entire family! I'm so very sorry for your loss. He influenced mine and so many other lives in wonderful ways, and he will never be forgotten! He lives on in our hearts always! Prayers are with you all.

[Cary Klimczak]

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Sweeney family. Mr Sweeney touched so many lives and the world was better for him being in it. I'm sure that where he is right now, there is music!

[Barbara Kimber Harrington]

Mr. Sweeney, you were well loved. Our thoughts and prayers go out to your whole family.

[Alfred Montegari]

To the Sweeney Family,
My thoughts and prayers will be with your family.

[Peter Engel]

My thoughts and prayers are with you all at this very difficult time. He touched so many people in his life, he will forever be remembered in all of our hearts.

[Steve Kieley]

My heart and thoughts go out to all of Bill's family and loved ones.

[Chris Santomassimo]

Mr. Sweeney taught us, his students, how to be champions, and how to do more and better than we ever thought possible. He demonstrated, each and every day, his love of and dedication to his calling, especially through the patience he showed us. His positive impact on me is profound and indescribable, and I am proud to have been part of Mr. Sweeney's Admiral Band.

[Brian Cook class 1975]

I too am very saddened by the passing of Mr Sweeney, he was a tremendous infuleunce on me (even though I was probably his biggest pain in the butt ever)from my 8th grade straight thru my senior year, I was a part of almost every musical endeavor he was involved in. Rest in peace Mr Sweeney, I know heaven has a helluva band---go show 'em how its done

[Keith Teller]

My prayers and condolences to your entire family. Bill Sweeney was an inspiration to me and every Arlington band member I knew. The void he leaves will never be filled.

[Noel Todd Dillon]

My thoughts and prayers go out to your family. I am deeply saddened to learn of Mr. Sweeneys passing. He was such an inspiration to me in High School, and had such a wonderful influence on myself and those who I marched with and played music with in band. He was both a personal and professional leader, and he taught many of us what it meant to work hard and achieve success, both in music and in life. I count myself amoung those who were fortunate enough to have known Mr. Sweeney, and will always look back on my Arlington High School years, after school band practice, jazz band, bus trips, Governor Livingston, the music, lights, crowds, and the friends, and think of the man who made those years great. God Bless.

Noel Todd Dillon
AHS 1981-1985

[Kathi (Engel) Skellan '75]

I was so sorry to hear such sad news. With fond memories, my thoughts and prayers are with the entire Sweeney family. His legacy lives on in us all. May peace be with you all.

[pgillin]

Mr. Sweeney was my band leader for three years and my private music teacher for five years. He constantly drove and inspired me to be the best I could be and his values of hard work, honesty and concern for others inspire me to this day. I'm so sorry to hear the news, but I know that his spirit lives on in the hundreds of students he touched over his many years of dedicated service. I will always remember him as one of the people who made a difference in my life. He was a great man.

[Gayle Campbell]

Our thoughts and prayers will be with you in this time of mourning, but season of hope, love and peace.Here's a poem I wrote for you all, honoring your dad.

Knowing Mr. Sweeney

From Joel’s Facebook
To Alan’s phonecall
I heard the news.
Then on I typed
Sue’s email
and contacted Kay.

Each link a fermata
in which we paused
and remembered,
reaching the point
of personalization.

He was our fathers’ age.
He was our most remembered
teacher. He impacted instrument
selection, college choices, how we can
recognize the lilt of Percy Grainger.

Crescendo the cadence
of our own
Mr. Sweeney memories,
we share stories of how
we hear his interpretations
of music and perspective,
of magic and perseverance,
in a rhythm which carries
the melody of generations passing on
to our own children a need to be musical,
to practice through a difficult passage,
to honor the “Admiral” in our collective band.

Gayle (Siebert) Campbell ‘91
22 December 2008

[George Kieley]

I am sorry to hear of your loss. He was a wonderful human being. Though I have not seen him in almost 30 years, he will be missed.

[Michael Arrick]

I worked for the High School For 12 years, and everytime I went down to his room to see what was wrong with his MUSIC AREA... He always had a smile and end up talking about everything. He was a great person to talk to and I know every student that had him as a teacher ...says he was the best ..

I know he will be missed by me and many other people good bless his soul
THANKS FOR THE MANY MEMORIES

He will never be forgotten !!

My heart and prayers are with the entire Sweeney Family

[Beth Bodendorf Maier]

As a former student at AHS, and short-time colleague, I am very sorry to hear of the loss of Mr. Sweeney. His music will always be heard at Arlington....

[Eric Hung]

To the Sweeney family,
I am incredibly saddened to hear of your loss, and I wish you my heartfelt condolence. He was my favorite teacher while I was at Arlington, and I will never forget him. His passing is a great loss to the Arlington music community as a whole, because he touched the lives of countless students/musicians in ways he may not have known and in which we cannot repay.

I would like to leave you with a quote from Abraham Lincoln that I feel is appropriate for such a great man as Mr. Sweeney was: "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours" to be the family of the legendary Mr. Bill Sweeney, the founder of the Arlington High School music program. My thoughts and prayers are with you as you mourn your loss.

[darren motise]

The memory of this great musician has profoundly remained with me on an almost daily basis since my graduation from Arlington High School in 1981. The reason is because he imparted upon me and many other professional musicians the essentials of what it means to be a fine performer.

I have always maintained since I began studying music seriously that this man, Bill Sweeney, was the most influential teacher I had come to know, even to this day, and that includes many teachers from the world's top conservatories. I suppose it has something to do with being a young impressionable student, but mostly it is because he was unrelenting in his pursuit of true excellence, and that is what I took with me since I first met him in 1979.

I had already been to four different public schools in three years and had no interest in anything outside of my private piano lessons, but when I met "Mr. Sweeney," things began to change, so much so I dumped my saxophone studies in order to learn the bassoon solely on the urging of Bill. Thanks to his daily instruction in wind ensemble and in private, I was able to get into four top conservatories, including Juilliard, within a two year period on the bassoon. I always told all my friends that could never have happened if it weren't for my high school music director. And my younger brother made similar progress on the horn under Bill's leadership, and entered the Curtis Institute after only 3 years of playing the horn. MANY students of Bill's went directly into Juilliard, Eastman, and other renowned schools directly out of high school, and have highly successful performing and teaching careers.

Just listen to those wind ensemble selections on this site and the youtube videos of the marching band in the 80s. (I had discovered those videos months ago.) That is all his doing and AHS has never been the same since his retirement. Under his guidance, the music department truly became one of the very strongest in the entire country.

Bill Sweeney was a rare man. I'm not sure how he did it, but I marvel at all he taught me and the supreme quality of his ensembles. And he knew I felt this way because I told him several times after graduating, but he seemed too humble and uninterested in praise, which made him even greater in my eyes.

This past Saturday evening, Dec 20th, I was playing the piano part to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. As I was listening to the bassoon solo and the horn solo I could not help but strongly think of "Mr. Sweeney." Piano is now my main instrument, but on Saturday night --unbeknownst to me, the day of his passing-- I was thinking of how Bill encouraged me to take up bassoon and how much I learned from him through that instrument, and how I was able to take those great lessons into any field of music. He was that unique teacher who consistently taught students how to be musicians, not merely instrumentalists.

Bravo Bill! Your extraordinary mark has been made, and this world is a far better place because of it. Much more than just a memory will live on.

Darren Motise

AHS 1981

[Rich Guillen]

Although I knew Bill for a much shorter time than so many others, I feel so profoundly affected by him.

I knew of Bill when I was a kid in high school who competed against and coveted all that was the Arlington music program between 1981 - 1985. So many of us as kids LOVED to watch (and quite frankly get beaten a lot by) the Arlington Admirals. It was an honor just to compete in the same class as them. A class they OWNED for so many years, whether the judges thought so or not!

When Bill, "THE" Bill Sweeney, called me about working at Arlington, I honestly had to pinch myself. I had been teaching for 8 years in NJ when Bill called me. When I met him, it was, in my mind, like meeting a living legend. When Bill hired me, I thought it was one of the greatest honors of my life. I have been blessed to have been at Arlington since 1997 carrying on the legacy and the labor of love he started there so many years ago.

Bill taught me more in the two years I worked under him than almost anyone, anywhere, ever. He would never admit to that or ever own up to the fact that he influenced so many of us. He trusted me with the Arlington Admiral Marching Band and his beloved Jazz Machine. I hope in some small way we made Bill proud. His legacy will always live on in our work that so many of us do at Arlington. He changed my life and the lives of so many others without any intention of doing so at all. Bill gave so many of us all that we have and we are truly lucky to have it.

Our lives would not be anywhere near as wonderful had we not been fortunate enough to have Bill in it. So many of us are better teachers, musicians, and human being for having known Bill. If I could just be a fraction of what he was as a teacher and musician, I would be a lucky man.

A great mentor and although briefly for me, a great friend.

He is the best....simply the best.

My Mom passed away in my first year teaching at Arlington, and she never got to see me teach there, but she knew I was going to be teaching at "THE" Arlington HS with "THE" Bill Sweeney. She knew - she still knows...and I think this verse that was chosen for her memory is also very appropriate for Bill...

Do Not Cry

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there; I did not die.

WIth heart felt sympathy and condolences to the entire Sweeney Family.

Rich & Robyn Guillen & Family
Jacqueline, Kayla, Alexa & Halle

[Bob Giovanniello]

To the Family and Friends of Bill Sweney:

I learned just yesterday about Bill’s passing and I cannot begin to explain to anyone how much it hit me. I do not understand why as when I look back on my own high school musical past, there wasn’t really anything outstanding about it…I mean I did not even make Wind Ensemble as a clarinetist and got Bill’s signature on a withdrawal slip as a senior, effectively ending my affiliation with the band program. I still remember clearly that he did not put up any fuss as I awaited his reaction and scrawled signature on that notice. He just looked up, smiled, and wished me good luck. Any other person would have lectured me about the benefits of staying in music and how disappointed they were about my dropping the class, but not Bill. He understood that music had served its purpose for me and that perhaps I really was in search of something else in my life that I had been more in need of.
But I had been a “band” person and remained one, still hanging out in the Arlington High Auditorium during a free period or two, and listening to him teach his students the ins and outs of a particular piece of music. I can still clearly hear him vocalizing how he wanted his wood winds to execute a huge crescendo or singing for his trumpets that familiar refrain in Bugler’s Hoilday ; you all know the one….dut, dut dut, duh, digga digga digga digga…amazing how we all know these things, especially after 30 + years.
As my plane slowly circles to land in Atlanta this morning, the tears have been pouring from my eyes, and I am sure people are wondering what the man in 27A is so sad about. I think more than anything else from my high school years, my involvement in band, in the marching band as a bass drummer, in the numerous festivals, parades, band camps and marching band competitions, all of these have come to define my struggling years as a teenager.
And so today I fondly recall almost all of those little events, even ones like Mr. Dalton captured in his written memories of time with Uncle Bill. Although I didn’t have the talent of the Dalton’s, the Dobie’s and the Kieley’s and Fiorie’s it didn’t matter one sniff to Bill. He treated every one with kindness, a great degree of fairness, and as only he could, an appreciation for the lighter moments we all created at times while still maintaining his love of music and his great ability to instill that in all of the students he touched.
How does a tribute from a man who after school, turned and ran away to the Navy, then to college and a new life mostly spent in the South, matter that much? Well that is very easy…you see Bill Sweeney is in all of us: Talent or no talent, musical ambition or no musical ambition. It didn’t matter at all to Uncle Bill. And I now understand why I cried so hard whenever I had the opportunity to watch the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus. As has already been written by a journalist who also happened to be one of his former students, Bill Sweeney was our Mr. Holland.
Bill is now probably conducting the angels in a chorus of Hallelujahs and occasionally pausing to sing back the musical passages he felt needed the appropriate emphasis the composer had intended and getting them to reach deeper to perfect the music.
I still have that Buffet Clarinet and on occasion pull it out to play a few passages from some old music books. More importantly my IPOD is full of over 2000 songs from a variety of different genres which allows me to finally recognize that although I did not go on to career in music, my Music Appreciation is insatiable and my voice in church has never been fuller and louder as I now sing with strong determination to convey the passion the composer had intended.
Happy Holidays to the Sweeney Family and all of my former classmates and friends from those days at Arlington in the late 70’s. Although it is sad that we have lost such a great man, he did what I only aspire to which is make an impact on thousands of people’s lives. And I have no doubt that his funeral service will also be attended by the local police department as he will definitely have had the impact of stopping traffic with those thousands of mourners who have the opportunity to come and pay tribute to the Leader of the Band.
“The Leader of the Band is tired, and his eyes are growing old, but his blood runs through my instrument, and his song is in my soul. I like to make a poor attempt, to imitate the man. I’m just a living legacy to the leader of the band. I am living legacy to the leader of the band.”
Dan Fogelberg
Peace to All.

Bob Giovanniello – Class of 1978
Former Member of the Arlington Admirals High School Marching Band
Bob.m.gio@gmail.com

[Darren Motise]

You all might like to see a little video tribute to Bill I posted on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQonthA2a7U

Enjoy...

Darren Motise '81

[Fred Boak]

I am so sorry to hear about the passing of Mr Sweeney ... another great Arlington High School light extinguished.

I was class of 1980 at Arlington - at the time, Misters Sweeney, Rubinowitz, and McCartney had built the AHS music system into quite probably the best in the region.

While I was never directly involved in band activities at Arlington (I was a chorus kid), I had an overwhelming respect for Mr Sweeney.