Good Bye To A Friend and Mentor

I found out on Wednesday that a friend and mentor passed away on Feb. 15th. He was an amazing man and friend. I wrote this blog post almost four years ago when he had a book launch of a book about his career that was published. In tribute to him, here is that post:

From the Teachers Closet Book Launch

This is a completely personal post by me. Wayne Siligo has been the music teacher at the California School for the Blind (CSB) for almost forty years. I have been working there for almost 22 years. Wayne was one of the first people to befriend me when I started there and we have remained good friends since then. Wayne is an amazing person. He is a very talented musician who can play 23 instruments, he arranges and writes music, he is a great businessman and one of the best music teachers around. Oh, I forgot that Wayne is totally blind. He started to lose his vision when he was a child and by the time he was an adult he was totally blind.

Anyway, Wayne wrote an inspirational book about his years of teaching blind students how to play different instruments and had a book launch party at the Fremont library where he and the Wayward Trio (Wayne, David and Marcus (who was a student of mine)) played music and Wayne talked about the book:

The Wayward Trio (from left to right-David, Marcus and Wayne)

Marcus playing

Marcus and Wayne

David on the beat

David and Marcus

Wayne Siligo playingIt was a beautiful afternoon of music and story telling. I am so glad that I was able to attend and even happier that I have been honored with the privilege of calling Wayne Siligo a friend for over 20 years.

The large print version of the book. Shameless plug-The book is available on Amazon

Wayne, I love you and miss you as a friend. You made this earth just a little better.