Bill Maginnis (1938-2016) Bill Maginnis was born November 15, 1938 in Yreka California to William R. and Elma E. Maginnis. In 1943 the family moved to Glendale, CA. during world war II, but returned to Yreka late in 1947 or 48. Bill's father was in the electronics and broadcasting business. When Bill was about 9 years old he made singing commercials for the local radio station, KSYC, and regional spots for West Coast Shows. Bill's mother taught him to play the Ukulele, and he transfered some of this knowledge to the Guitar. By the age of 12 he had started playing drums in the Junior High band. In high school he joind the "Dance Band" in addition to the concert and marching bands. In 1954 he played his first professional music job at a Valentines Day dance. In 1955 he was granted special permission from the California ABC/Attorney General's Office (because he was under-age) to play in a local nightclub, The Yreka Inn, AKA "The Snake Pit". Bill attended Chico State College from 1957-1959, transfering to San Francisco State in 1959 to study composition and percussion. He studied composition with Roger Nixon and Alex Post (now Minister Emeritus of the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco) and Percussion with Roland Kohloff. Bill also studied privately with "Cuz" Cousineau and later with Joe Morello. In 1963 Bill married Ruth May. He and Ruth met at SF State in 1959. They are still married and live in San Francisco, and have one daughter, Sarah, who is now a flight attendant with United Airlines. Ruth is a librarian with SF Public Library. Bill has a wide and varied musical background, ranging from classical music with the Oakland Symphony, where he played with such artists as Jan Peirce and Jack Benny, and with members of the SF Symphony where Bill played the tape recorder. He worked at the San Francisco Tape Music Center with Ramon Sender, Mort Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and others. At this same time he was playing Jazz with several different groups including Bill Napier's Trio at Pier 23 in SF. Later he played with such jazz greats as Bert Bales, Wingy Manone, Joe Darensberg, Phil Harris, Pops Foster, Barbara Dane, Pat Yankee, Peanuts Hucko, Wild Bill Davidson, Bob Helm, Norma Teagarden, Mal Sharp and many others. He was involved in other so called "legit" musical productions such as "Brigadoon", "Carousel", "Leave It To Jane" (Jerome Kern 1910), "South Pacific", "Oklahoma", and revues such as "The Macaroni Show". Bill passed away November 12, 2016. He was a great musician, member of our band, and a dear friend. You can read his obituary here.

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