Local music teacher remembered
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Ron Brough was best known in the community for his contribution to music education. JOURNAL PHOTO/VIRGINIA METEVIA

He founded Wachusett Winds.

He was one of the first music teachers in the Westminster school system.

He was a teacher at the Thayer Symphony Community School in Leominster.

Ron Brough, a long-time Westminster resident, will now be remember for his contribution to local music and his effect on the musical talents of many local children. Brough died at 65 on Thursday, Feb. 7.

Brough played the piano and the trombone since he was in grade school. He played for both John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy while they were running for office, he said. But his private lessons, his classroom style and his leadership of Wachusett Winds will be what is remember throughout the Westminster and Ashburnham communities.

"The students absolutely loved the guy," said Charlie Powderly, the executive director of the Thayer Symphony Community School. "He's been teaching students locall and in the area for years."

FILE PHOTO

In a June 2, 2006, Community Journal article Brough said, "I really love working with those kids. They are great kids with wonderful attitudes. We have a good time together."

The Wind Ensemble was a select group of musicians from middle and high schools.

He taught as part of the Ashburnham- Westminster School District for 41years, first as an employee teaching in grades kindergarten through sixth, and then directing the ensemble.

Most recently he was teaching at the Thayer Symphony Community School.

"It gave the youth the opportunity to go beyond the school program," Powderly said.

Brough was a 1960 graduate of Fitchburg High School; he then earned his Bachelor's Degree of Music Education from Lowell State College and his Master of Music degree from the University of Lowell with graduate studies at Harvard University, Hartt College of Music in Connecticut and Boston University. Brough also studied with the New York Brass Ensemble and privately with members of the Boston Pops.

Powderly didn't just work with Brough at the school but Brough taught Powderly's son how to play the clarinet and saxophone.

"He's been in my house every week for the last four years," Powderly said. "Ron was always surprising you. There was so much more to Ron then music thought that's what we'll remember him for."

In a June 2, 2006, Community Journal article Brough was featured for his hobby in building model ships. At that time he said, "I've always felt a magnetism to the ocean and anything connected to it."

The article said his fascination with the sea began as a child during a family trip to Hampton Beach on the New Hampshire coast.

Brough was a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and was part of the crew that escorted the tall Ships in 2000 and escorted the USS Constitution during her sail in 1997.

"Ron was a fabulous guy," Powderly said. "A real institution in the community."