The band at Lincoln-Way West High School marched Monday without director Steve Nedzel, the first time a rehearsal has taken place without him since the school opened in 2008.
The yellow steel reviewing stand from which Mr. Nedzel choreographed and critiqued his Warrior band was empty and bedecked with balloons and messages from grieving students.
Mr. Nedzel died Friday, June 17, of injuries suffered in a fall at his home in Chicago three days earlier, his father said. He was 32. He suffered head injuries and he was intoxicated when he fell, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Mr. Nedzel composed the New Lenox high school’s fight song — with a nod to Auburn University’s “War Eagle” — and led the fledgling West bands to strong finishes in state and national competitions.
“He loved what he was doing,” said his father, Mike Nedzel. “He took us on a tour of the school (in 2008), and he said to his mother and I, ‘This is where I’m going to be for the next 25 years.’ Tragically, that wasn’t meant to be, but that’s what he wanted.”
As a grade-schooler, Mr. Nedzel began playing clarinet, then taught himself to play saxophone to improve his chances of making the jazz band at Fremd High School in Palatine.
The shy, pudgy teenager blossomed at the University of Illinois after he won a coveted spot in the Marching Illini, his father said. His outsize confidence and focus became his signature as band director, as he demanded the best from his students, said flutist Ariel Ruttenberg.
The class of 2011 was the first crop of seniors to graduate from West, and the Illinois-bound Ruttenberg recalled that Mr. Nedzel encouraged her to try out for the Marching Illini and lent her a piccolo so she could master the instrument before her audition.
“He always expected 111 percent from us, and he usually got 112,” said Ruttenberg, who didn’t make the cut this year but intends to audition again.
Mr. Nedzel was an assistant band director at Lincoln-Way Central, and jumped at the chance to start the program at West. The Warrior band had just 36 players the first year, but never finished lower than second in any competition, Band Boosters President Jim Stellwagen said.
“I think he thrived on it, from designing uniforms to coming up with the fight song,” Stellwagen said. “It was such a commitment of time, he had to love it.”
In addition to his father, Mr. Nedzel is survived by his mother, Karen, and a brother, Andy.
The school will hold a memorial service July 2 at the West campus, 21701 S. Gouger Road in New Lenox, while family and friends will gather at All Saints Lutheran Church in Palatine on Saturday. The school has set up a memorial fund that will support scholarships for music and music education majors.
