HUMONGOUS HORN PUTS OOM IN MAN'S PAH-PAH.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

Benny Goodman loved his clarinet, Harry James his trumpet and Gene Krupa his drums, but Bob Halasey has a passion for the tuba.

A tuba player since junior high school, he owns four - each with a different purpose - and plays regularly with the Antelope Valley College band, the Symphony of the Canyons and the Antelope Valley Brass Quintet.

Every Christmas season he goes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles to play in the annual tuba concert there.

``You've never heard a sound like that in your life unless you've been there,'' said Halasey, 66.

Playing his giant horns has been a major pleasure in Halasey's life since his retirement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1985 and the heart attack that followed two weeks later.

Strangely enough, Halasey did not come from an exceptionally talented musical family background.

``One of my mom's friends thought kids should learn to play an instrument so we all got instruments,'' he said. ``My brother and sister had clarinets, so I didn't want one of those. My original instrument was a trumpet but I wasn't good at it.''

It wasn't until he was in junior high school that he found what he wanted.

``I went to hear some musicians play in the town square in Eldora, Iowa, where we were living at the time, and the tuba player was really talented,'' he said. ``That tuba sounded so good, it really turned me on. I knew at once that was my instrument.''

So he approached his junior high school band instructor, who was delighted.

``Tuba players were pretty hard to come by so it was real easy to become one,'' he said.

Halasey, son of a U.S. Department of Agriculture employee, majored in music at the Iowa State Teachers College, but his education was interrupted by a stint in the Air Force, which taught him to be an aircraft mechanic.

When he got home in 1956, he resumed his schooling at Iowa State University, majoring in math and minoring in physics with a basic teachers course.

He came to Lancaster in 1960 and in 1962 he went to work for NASA as a control systems engineer. Computer programming followed. Then he became a systems analyst through 1979, and in 1980 his classification changed again to simulation engineer.

He came full circle in 1984 when he went back to being control systems engineer until he retired.

After coming to the Antelope Valley, he began playing tuba in a newly formed German band with several Lancaster school principals, at the encouragement of a charming young widow and teacher, Helen Price Rogers, whom he met at a Parents Without Partners meeting.

They were married in the Lancaster United Methodist Church on Aug. 28, 1964.

With Helen's two children, the youngest only four-months-old when his father died, they had a ready-made family. Eventually, they added another son to the set.

Even though she loved her profession and was dedicated to it, Helen took 13 years off to stay home and raise the children, but still has managed to accrue 27 years in teaching.

Her current Lancaster School District position is as a kindergarten teacher at Sunnydale School.

``I've liked most of my assignments,'' she said, ``but I really love these little ones.''

While Bob plays his tubas, casts tuba-playing lead soldiers, builds model airplanes, collects antique model engines and dreams of building his own working engine for one of his planes, Helen does her own thing.

She recently realized a lifelong dream of becoming an amateur radio operator, is serious about her work in photography and plays in the Oliver Handbell Choir at the Lancaster United Methodist Church.

Bob plays frequently with the Antelope Valley Brass Quintet, formed in 1987 when the late Dan Coon got the musicians together at the First Baptist Church of Palmdale. They now play for that church and others, wedding receptions and myriad other functions, he said.

They can be heard every third Sunday of the month at the First Baptist Church of Palmdale morning services.

``We play chamber music, baroque, jazz, gospel, spirituals, you name it, for almost every occasion,'' he said. ``We like it all and we enjoy playing together as a group.''

He stroked his horn and confessed, ``I really like to solo, too.''

PALMDALE - A community forum to discuss the future of the Los Angeles County Protective Services program will be held 9:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 1 in the Palmdale Cultural Center, 704 E. Palmdale Blvd.

The panel presentation, provided by the Los Angeles County Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council, will include an open discussion period.

The session is open to the public.

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Photo

PHOTO Bob Halasey, seen here with his wife, Helen, has played tuba since a boy. He owns four of the horns and plays them regularly.