Story compiled by Kim McDarison
Attendees of the Fort Atkinson Band Boosters pancake breakfast fundraiser, slated for Saturday, Nov. 6, will have an opportunity to visit with University of Wisconsin-Madison Emeritus Band Director Michael Leckrone.
Leckrone is expected to join fundraiser attendees at the Fort Atkinson Middle School at 9 a.m.
A celebrated UW educator and band director, Leckrone, then 82, retired in 2019 after serving at UW-Madison for 50 years.
According to a story written by Jay Rath and shared as a biographical resource with Fort Atkinson Online by UW-Madison, Leckrone made the announcement that he would step down following a band rehearsal. The announcement, according to the story, left his students “visibly moved, linking arms and joining with him to sing ‘Varsity.’”
According to the story: Leckrone had a “remarkable career” as both an educator and conductor. He was the recipient of “myriad awards,” the story notes, and was inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.
Some 200 of his marching and concert band arrangements and compositions have been published. He is also the author of two text books, the story continued.
According to the story: “His impact on campus has been legendary.”
Within the story, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who will be leaving that position at the end of this year, was quoted as saying: “We are immensely grateful to Mike for the joy he’s brought to generations of Badgers on the football field and in the concert hall. Every time I watch them perform at a football game, I think we have the best band in the country.”
Leckrone was hired as the director of the UW marching band in 1969. The son of a high school band teacher, Leckrone grew up in North Manchester, Indiana. Before choosing to follow in his father’s footsteps, online information states, Leckrone considered becoming a basketball coach and a chemical engineer.
He was a music major, receiving both his bachelor and masters degrees at Butler University, a private school in Indiana, where he also played basketball in his freshman year. He also studied at a doctoral level at the University of Indiana. Before joining the UW-Madison staff, he served as a band director at Butler University.
According to Rath’s story, early in Leckrone’s career, he “found a partner in athletic director Elroy Hirsch,” who, Leckrone was quoted as saying in the story, “inspired me to do so many crazy things,” listing among them riding a camel and an elephant onto the field at Camp Randall.
In 1985, as noted in Rath’s story, “on the event of the band’s 100th anniversary, President Ronald Reagan wrote to congratulate Leckrone and the band,” citing his “good fortune of enjoying yourselves as you’ve entertained others.”
Rath’s full story, citing many more of Leckrone’s accomplishments, and memories and anecdotes as recounted by Leckrone and others from his 50-year career, is here: https://news.wisc.edu/uw-band-director-leckrone-announces-50th-season-will-be-his-grand-finale/.
Those interested in meeting the emeritus director can do so by attending the Fort Atkinson Band Booster’s pancake breakfast.
A story about the breakfast, which is planned to take place between 7:30 and 11 a.m. on Saturday, and an opportunity to buy tickets, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/fort-schools-band-boosters-pancake-breakfast-set-for-saturday/.
Sporting a sequin jacket with embroidered roses, band director Mike Leckrone smiles at the end of the 39th annual UW Varsity Band Spring Concert at the Kohl Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on April 18, 2013. (Photo by Jeff Miller/UW-Madison).
Photo and caption reproduced with permission and courtesy of UW-Madison.
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