BY LINDSAY FIORI
lindsay.fiori@journaltimes.com | Posted: Saturday, July 4, 2009 12:00 am
RACINE - Emil Pavlik pushed himself up from his wheelchair, eager to see the crowd gathered before him.
The 89-year-old pumped his fist and tapped his foot, looking down from the front porch as The Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps stopped during the Fourth of July parade to serenade him.
"Whoo hoo," Pavlik said. "I never expected it."
Pavlik, who will be 90 in August, directed and arranged music for The Kilties from 1948 to 1970. He led the group to three national championships and will be inducted into the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame this year. To honor Pavlik, his accomplishments and his dedication, The Kilties stopped in front of him during the parade to play two of the pieces he arranged for the group so many years ago.
The Kilties, a nonprofit all-age co-ed drum and bugle corps, played Pavlik's versions of "Auld Lang Syne" and "Scotland, the Brave."
Pavlik watched the parade from the home of his daughter, Barb Riegelman, at 1518 N. Main St. Pavlik sat on the front porch wearing a plaid Kilties hat and a Kilties pin reading, "The mad plaid." He was joined on the porch and in the yard by about 50 family and friends who rose and applauded The Kilties as they came near the house.
"The Kilties are coming! The Kilties are coming!" Riegelman, 56, yelled, running into the street.
A ball of excitement during the parade, Riegelman, who had a USA sticker on her cheek, danced in the street and pointed at her father, letting parade groups know it was almost his 90th birthday. Many groups waved and some people gave him beads or ran from floats to shake his hand.
Pavlik enjoyed the excitement but nothing got him out of his seat like The Kilties' arrival.
Although Pavlik has not worked with The Kilties for nearly 40 years, he is still a director at heart. As the band played for him, he moved his hands to the music and mouthed the drum beats he arranged for the group in 1952.
"I couldn't have been with a finer bunch of kids," Pavlik said of his time with the group.
One of those kids was George Fennell, 57, of Kansasville. Fennell was on hand Saturday to watch the parade with Pavlik.
"He was a father figure to everybody," Fennell said. "He was an ideal mentor."
Fennell said Pavlik helped teach him and others about good behavior and responsibility, which is why Fennell organized the nomination letters and forms for Pavlik's hall of fame honor.
"He was the one constant The Kilties had from the 1950s to 70s," said Fennell, who attributes the groups national awards and continued success to Pavlik.
Pavlik said he was excited by the hall of fame induction but, from his seat on the porch, modestly added "there's a lot of others it could happen to."