The Knights Drum and Bugle Corps

Paul William “Hoogie” Hoogerwerf, 54, of Aurora, Ill., formerly of Atkinson and Geneseo, passed away on Sunday, April 15, 2007, at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Memorial services will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 18, at Vandemore Funeral Home, Geneseo. The Rev. Robert K. Freeman and the Rev. Don Niswonger will officiate. Inurnment will be at the Oakwood Cemetery, Geneseo, where military rites will be accorded by the Geneseo VFW Post 5083. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. today at Vandemore Funeral Home, Geneseo. According to his wishes, cremation rites have been accorded. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials may be left to Geneseo High School Marching Band.

Paul William “Hoogie” Hoogerfwerf was born on May 30, 1952, the son of Alvin and Barbara Lemke Hoogerwerf. He was a graduate of Atkinson High School. Paul served his country in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

He was united in marriage to Laura Head on Oct. 15, 2005, in Naperville, Ill.

Paul was a retired cartographer.

He had attended First United Methodist Church, Geneseo, and Grace United Methodist Church, Naperville. Paul had been a long time member of the Knights Drum & Bugle Corp, Geneseo. He enjoyed working with the Geneseo High School Marching Band.

Survivors include his wife, Laura; his mother, Barbara, Atkinson; two brothers (and spouse), Mike Hoogerwerf, Slater, Iowa, Rob (Pam) Hoogerwerf, Geneseo; one sister (and spouse), JoAnn (Carl) Borkgren, Moline; several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by his father, Alvin Hoogerwerf.

Just so everyone knows, within the next few days, the website will be moved to another hosting service (more storage, more features, cheaper price). So, if there’s a short time where the website is inaccessable, I apologize, but it will return shortly, and at that point will be accessable at both knightscorps.org and knightscorps.com. I’ll make another posting once the site has been moved.

First off, I hope everyone had a great time at the reunion (it seemed like most people did) seeing people that they hadn’t seen for years (in some cases, decades). I’d like to thank everyone involved in the reunion committee for getting it all organized and keeping the whole thing running smoothly. I also would like to thank everyone who came up to me during the reunion for your support.

Second, I’ve got a couple of notes that need to be passed along. The message about taking memorabilia was somewhat misunderstood by some people and there were a few items that were taken before the people could get their stuff. There was a 1980-1981 album that looks like this (click on the photo for a larger view):

It was supposed to make it back to Jill (Standard) Doak. If you happened to have picked up this item, please contact Jill at jjsdoak@mchsi.com or Gregg Neuleib at neul@qconline.com. Also Tom Whitman’s (t_whitman@pkfamily.com) red uniform was picked up by mistake, so if you know who has the uniform, please let either Tom or Gregg know. We would like to get these items returned to their rightful owners.

I have received quite a few updates from people for email changes, I should be able to get to those before I leave on Sunday, but if not, I’ll get them taken care of the week after next. I’m heading up to the Rockford show on Sunday, then Stillwater, MN on Monday, and Mankato, MN on Tuesday (I’ve then got a week long business conference in Minneapolis). If anyone is going to be at those shows, look for me, I’ll be wearing some combination of Knights and Colts stuff.

Financially, the website is doing ok, we’ve got about $125 in the website’s account, which is enough to cover us for at least another year. Donations are always welcome. We have paypal set up (I’ve received a couple of donations through that recently, thanks to those people who have donated) or you can mail checks to me. The information is all on the donations page. I’m thinking about moving the website to a different hosting service. I’ve heard good things, and people I know use it, plus it’s more storage for cheaper ($60 per year vs about $90 per year).

Finally, a request to everyone who was at the reunion. I would like to put together a whole gallery of reunion photos, and I’m sure that many people had much better photos than I did, so if you have a few photos, you can email them to me, if you’ve got a bunch, there’s a few other options, including burning a CD and mailing that to me. If you have any questions about getting photos to me, just ask, I know photos, I run a camera store.

I must say, I was very impressed by job done by the reunion committee, as well as the amount of people who showed up that I marched with. The time period that I marched with the Knights was not really a high point in the history of the corps, so considering everything, the ’90s group had a pretty decent turnout. Anyway, I hope we can do it all again in a few years.

10 DAYS UNTIL THE REUNION!!!

News from Gregg Neulieb: “If you know someone who hasn’t gotten in their reunion registration please let them know that we can still add a limited number. The Holiday Inn is giving us some leeway on reservations so that we can take some late ones. Hope to see you there.”

Also an updated reunion schedule:

Saturday, July 1, 2006

12:00 PM Golf at Indian Bluff Golf Course, Moline, IL
email neul@qconline.com for reservations and any preference of 4-some

3:00 PM – whenever. Shelter reserved at Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo. We’ll probably eat about 5 PM. This is a bring your own picnic. (Grocery stores and fast food places are very close.) Richmond Hill is a municipal park so no alcohol is allowed.

There are also many options for entertainment around the Quad-Cities for Saturday and they are listed further down this page (see posting from June 2nd).

Sunday, July 2, 2006

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Memorabilia Displays at the Moline Holiday Inn Convention Center. Wow, great stuff from members and DJ.

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM Cocktails – Soft drinks free, Cash Bar, Music of the Knights selected from many years.

7:00 PM Banquet – Full Buffet with salad, and dessert

7:45 PM (approx.) Banquet Program hosted by former Knights Drum Major and DCI Announcer Dan Potter. Featured speakers are Roman Blenski from DCM and David Kampschroer from DCI. 30 years of Knights Slideshow by John VanDeWoestyne and Steve Scherer.

After Program – music and general partying

Reunion Updates!
Activities for Saturday July 1:

We have 6 reserved tee times starting at noon Sat. at Indian Bluff Golf Course 5 minutes from the Holiday Inn. Email Gregg at neul@qconline.com if you would like to play.

We have a covered shelter reserved at Richmond Hill Park for a picnic in Geneseo late afternoon/early evening on Saturday. It will be bring your own food but there are numerous stores, fast food places etc. (You ought to see Geneseo now if you haven’t been here for awhile.) If you are flying into Moline and need a ride out to Geneseo for the picnic please email Gregg neul@qconline.com.

Other options on Saturday include:

Col. Davenport House Tour noon-4pm Arsenal Island, $3, $1 students. $7 parents with children 309-388-9657.

John Deere Collectors Center Tractor Show And Auction 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 309-748-7944

Lock and Dam Tours, Mississippi River Visitor Center 11a.m. to 2 pm 309-794-5338

IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, LeClaire Park, riverfront, Downtown Davenport
563-322-5837, www.mvbs.org

Rock N Roll Party in the Streets, Starting 5 pm Racer’s Edge, East Moline, Quite Riot, Erra, Down 24, Bent, Smooth Kitty, $15 advance, $20 at door. 309-755-8131.

Genesius Guild presents Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, 8 pm Lincoln Park Classic Theater, Rock Island. Free, www.genesius.org

Also, the second speaker has been confirmed for the reunion: Dave Kampschroer from DCI.

As of this posting…ONLY 30 DAYS LEFT!!!!

Just received this information from Gregg Neuleib:

John Hamilton, a soprano player from the early ’70s, member of the Round Table, and son of Ken Hamilton (corps director for many years) passed away Tuesday (4/25) morning. As of right now, I don’t have any information about arrangements, however, more details can be found at http://www.caringbridge.org/il/hamildude/

News from Gregg Neuleib:

“Reservations are going well. The committee is excited. We have Alumni coming from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Alabama, Tennesee and Missouri so far. A confirmation will be sent after we receive a reservation.

The local Kewanee newspaper has given us some great press and more Knights are being found daily.

ALSO please fill out the biography that is on the website. Even if you are not able to attend the reunion please fill out the bio as we would like to have a book with everyone’s info. If you cannot remember some of the people or info that is asked for just leave it blank. Please get your reservation in soon.”

Only 89 days until The Big One!

This is a posting from the guestbook by Mike Skiles:

Help us find our missing Knights!! Hi everyone. I am on the reunion committee and we are having some trouble finding some knights. If anyone has any information on a former corps member, staff, or volunteer, please send us an email at knightsreunion@yahoo.com. Even if you think we might already have it, please send it anyway.

Also the deadline date for reservations has been moved back to June 10th so send in your reservations.

There has been some comments on the price for the reunion. This price includes the meal plus helps us with the cost of everything else involved in putting this on. Display tables, postage, etc.

So please come to the reunion. It might be the only one we ever have of this magnitude.

Thanks for everything,
Michael C

Quick update: added 1980 and 1981 galleries on the photo page, updated a bunch of email addresses that I hadn’t had a chance to get to in a while, and added a thing of Google ads on the left side of the screen (it’ll help pay for the site). I tried to make it unobtrusive so it wouldn’t be annoying, but if anyone has a problem with it, let me know, and I’ll get rid of it.

Couple of updates and things…I’ve started adding some of the photos that were sent to me by people over the course of last year (there’s a ton of them). I’ve color corrected and posted two years worth of stuff that was sent to me by David Stollberg. He went through and digitized a bunch of photos that were Bob Kruse’s. I’ve posted them as whole seperate photo galleries. They are linked to from the photos page, or you can click here to see them: 1978 Gallery, 1979 Gallery. Enjoy!

If you haven’t sent in your info for the reunion, you should get it sent in ASAP! The reunion committee needs to get the info to Holiday Inn by April 1st, so make your plans, book your flights, whatever you need to do.

Also, I’ve recently gotten a copy of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 (a new web editing program). Previously, I had been using Dreamweaver 4, so this is a big step up. I’m in the process of teaching myself CSS, along with a lot of other cool things I can do with it. Keep checking back now and then for updates and changes to the site.