Centenarian dedicated career to music, education

H. Owen Reed is a centenarian. Yet despite being 100 years old, he and Mary, his wife of 28 years, are exploring Athens at least three times a week to sample the local restaurants.

"Every chance we get," Mary Reed remarked recently at their home in Arbor Terrace, an assisted-living facility in Athens. They moved here from a retirement village in Green Valley, Ariz.

This native Missourian settled in Athens after a life dedicated to music composition and music education.

Reed, who retired from Michigan State University in 1976 where he taught for 37 years, is highly regarded as a composer, especially of band music, as many college band directors recognize his piece "La Fiesta Mexicana." And during his early years, he studied with such nationally known composers as Leonard Bernstein and Bohuslav Martinu.

Reed's professional accomplishments and his musical compositions fill pages, and an Internet search reveals several websites containing his name.

"In a hundred years you can pack in a lot," said Reed, who remains sharp-witted and extends a handshake with vigor.

Going back 100 years, Reed was born and raised in the small town of Odessa, Mo., where he appeared to be genetically wired to the musical talents of his parents. Reed's father was a piano technician and played the fiddle. Reed took his first piano lessons from a woman he fondly calls "Mrs. Felts," and he played the trumpet in the high school band.

"We always had a piano in my home and the early recordings influenced me a lot, too," he said. "And I was only 30 miles from Kansas City and that was an important time for early jazz. I played with a jazz group in Columbia, when I was in school."

As a youngster, Reed would wander the music aisle at the Woolworth's store looking for sheet music, where they hired a woman to play the music that customers were interested in buying. But Reed said he noticed a woman playing the music differently than what he read on the sheet.

"I'd say 'I liked that very well, but what's interesting is you didn't play the music the way it is on the sheet music. You weren't playing the same exact melody and harmony' and she said 'No I was improvising.' S

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