University Bids Farewell to Popular Music Professor, Band Leader Philip Cansler

"I thought if I had a good time and the kids sensed it, the band would play better and have a good time too." - Dr. Philip Cansler

Dr. Phillip Cansler

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The University of Portland community is mourning this week the loss of one of its most colorful and endearing figures, music professor, band director, and trumpeter Philip Cansler, who passed away Monday at the age of 54 after being diagnosed with brain cancer last fall.

A memorial service for Cansler has been scheduled for Sunday, June 15th at 4;00 PM. It will be held at First Baptist Church, on 909 S.W. 11th. The service will be followed by a reception there.

It is anticipated that there will also be a memorial service for Cansler on campus in the fall after the students and faculty return.

Dr. Cansler came to the University in 1980, and over the years became a popular professor and mentor to hundreds of students enrolled in his Concert Band class, and fundamentals of music and introduction to fine arts courses.

The composer of the University fight song, "University of Portland Victory March," and a regular trumpet performer in his church and the community, he was affectionately known on campus as "Dr. C." Off campus, he performed locally in choirs and enjoyed playing in a band at the annual Pendleton Round-Up rodeo.

Eventually, he became a favorite at basketball games, directing the pep band, wearing a purple wig, dancing and prancing with his trumpet in hand.

"My first nine years, I was a typical pep band director," Dr. Cansler was quoted in a 1999 feature in The Oregonian newspaper. "I'd go to meetings with other band directors and they would always be complaining that the worst job they had was directing the pep band. I decided life was too short to do anything I didn't enjoy."

Dr. Cansler moved west after graduating in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in music from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. He earned a master's degree and doctorate in music, both from the University of Oregon. His area of expertise at the University of Oregon was in trumpet performance and music history.

Philip Cansler's first job as a paid musician came while he was attending Washburn University in 1974 and answered a call for auditions for two summer pit orchestras at the Worlds Of Fun Amusement Park in Kansas City. He got the job, beating out more than 40 others and worked four shows a day, starting at 10:00 AM and learned the value of Carmex lip ointment to ease the pain of sore lips.

"That summer, hot as it was and sore as my lips were, gave me the confidence to try to be a professional musician," he wrote in 1998 in a memoir in the University's Portland Magazine, "and I am that rare trumpeter who can say that he began his career in an amusement park."

Dr. Cansler carried that spirit and enthusiasm with him throughout his career, earning praise from former students and co-workers, and, of course, throughout his years with the University's 30-member pep band.

"In their course evaluations, students consistently praised Dr. Cansler's enthusiasm in the classroom," said Michael Connolly, chair of the department of performing and fine arts.

The purple wig and purple suit that Dr. Cansler wore were only a few of his props at basketball games. He would wear a white glove while the band played a Michael Jackson tune or a straw hat for a Beach Boys song. At other times, he wore an Indiana Jones hat, a big top hat or a Mohawk haircut wig.

"I thought the band members would feel my energy," he told The Oregonian. "I thought if I had a good time and the kids sensed it, the band would play better and have a good time too." He added that the band's music could also help spur on the basketball team.

"Sometime's when it's a close game," Dr. Cansler noted, "I'll say, ‘Band, it's up to us.'"

Survivors include his wife, Annette, two step-children, a brother, Joel, and a sister, Myra.

Source: University of Portland