INTRODUCING KEYNOTE SPEAKER Mrs. JODEEN POPP Today we will have the privilege of being addressed by Mrs. Jodeen Popp, author of "Competitive Drum Corps ... There and Then to Here and Now". For seasoned veterans who research the activity, and for many trivia buffs, Popp's academic standing requires little introduction. For all intents and purposes, Jodeen is drum corps' foremost author. Her knowledge of the activity is unrivaled by any other researcher or author, past or present. It will take the many authors of the upcoming drum corps history book to rival the feat of that publication which accompanies Popp's high regard as drum corps' first scholar. Even then, I am sure this new work will not likely provide and author equal to that of the depth of social, political, and creative, data within Popp's 1979 publication. Jodeen Popp was born and raised in Aurora, IL . She started as a baton twirler and joined the Aurora Moose Minutemen in 1946, at age 12. She stayed in, got her husband in, and marched until she was 5 months pregnant in 1954. During that tenure: first baton, color guard (rifle, American flag, misc. flags), and cymbals. She learned and practiced tenor and snare drums as well. She also chaperoned after her daughter Paula was born in '55. Jodeen's sister Cheryl joined the corps as well and met her husband, Hank Grana - of Norwood Park. Jodeen and Paula moved to California (then a no-mans-land for drum corps) in Nov. of 1960. Jodeen made a few trips to the Midwest to see her sister (and drum corps), including a particularly memorable 1965 VFW held indoors at McCormick Place in Chicago. Popp found a corps connection in California and got her daughter Paula, age 12, into the Velvet Knights in 1967. Wherever Paula went, Jodeen came along (hence the seemingly misplaced biographical information) - cooking, chaperoning, souvies, or just watching. They took every trip, in part, and made every DCI but 1974 until 1980. Since then it's been sporadic. "Paula was, and is, a perfectionist and detail is critical," according to Jodeen. Thus she moved on to the Anaheim Kingsmen in the fall of 1970, and was part of the grand first DCI crown. In order to learn flag (she was a rifle) she moved to the Troopers in 1974. Grana also met her husband in the corps, whose support and remembrances Popp acknowledges in her book "Competitive Drum Corps" (1979, with 1980 and 1981 Supplements). Popp describes this groundbreaking work as a labor of love written in 1977 and '78. "I had just about every paper and magazine ever printed on drum corps, and knew hundreds of people over the years that I could interview. I consider that it was something I was meant to do," says Popp. Paula and Steve Beard marched together for years and taught (Seattle Imperials, San Diego Golden Statesmen). Jodeen's son-in-law Steve Beard marched his 21st year in the Blue Devils of 1975, while Paula was still in Seattle. She marched and taught BD in her 21st year, 1976, while Steve just taught. Then they both stayed teaching the Blue Devils, through 1980 - for four championships. What a run! Jodeen and her daughter left California in 1994 and now live in Rhinelander, WI. She attended the two-day shows in Whitewater in 1996 and 1997, and hopes to get to Madison next year, as she looks to be able to move there about that same time. Jodeen took an early retirement from Lockheed in 1991 and has had several health problems since then ... but just taped 1998 DCI last Sunday and am raring to go again. At her request, this Address on this year's theme of Education In Drum Corps (her first to RAMD) will be posted on her behalf. For those fortunate enough to be here to see her first (and possibly only) essay here at this politically unfettered and open academic forum, I say this in all seriousness: you will not find a more qualified address on the face of the earth. Please welcome the Keynote Speaker for the Fourth Annual RAMD Virtual Symposium 1998.