Tom Roe
Longtime Drum Corps International judge Tom Roe, passed away early Monday, Dec. 12 after a prolonged battle with leukemia. He was 65 years old.
A music educator in the elementary, high school and university levels since 1965, Roe also served as an adjudicator for Winter Guard International and was the former assistant director of bands at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
When drum corps marching techniques started sweeping the high school marching band community, Roe is noted for having developed and marketed a set of interval training mats with raised contours at specific step sizes to help train marchers to "feel" the various step sizes. He was a staple at major music educator conventions, exhibiting the interval mats and other products to help marching band directors train their students.
Roe lived most of his life in Minnesota and then moved to Las Vegas, where he worked to develop a program called
"Uncle Harlow's Farm" that he delivered across the country. The free program taught teachers and students how to let go of negative influences to achieve better results in their life and their work.
One of Roe's joys was using music to work with special needs children, helping them to greater enjoy life. This assisted him in developing his methods of outreach to teach others to communicate their thoughts. He particularly focused on how to counteract the harmful effects of stress in daily life, which became the basis of his Uncle Harlow's Farm presentations, combining music, visualization and humor.
A memorial service for Roe is planned for Saturday, Dec. 17 at
Davis Mortuary (6200 South Eastern Ave.) in Las Vegas, Nev.
Memorials are requested to be made to the Children's Cancer Research Fund, P.O. Box 7006, Albert Lea, MN, 56007.
