Boys choir director retiring after 54 years

By Jonathan Turner

 

MOLINE, IL — The annual Moline Boys Choir spring concert later this month will be extra special — not only because the April 29 program will inaugurate the new auditorium at John Deere Middle School, but that the choir, alumni and community will bid farewell to its longtime director, Kermit Wells.

After 54 years with the choir, Mr. Wells, 75, will retire this summer. The beloved choir (now with 36 regular members and 14 younger cadets) was founded by Frederick Swanson in 1948; Mr. Wells joined as an assistant in 1958. The MBC has toured the country and overseas, made many recordings, and included as many as 200 boys in three separate groups in the 1980s.

“I still enjoy teaching the kids; I don’t have energy for concertizing,” Mr. Wells said. “It takes so much stress, physical endurance for the concerts. I just don’t have the energy for it. “

Former music coordinator for the Moline School District and a junior-high and high-school music teacher (he retired in 1995), Mr. Wells has directed MBC since 1973. He leads five one-hour rehearsals a week at the Coolidge auditorium; singers — from second through ninth grades — are required to attend at least two each week, and three in the weeks leading up to a concert. Mr. Wells often doesn’t see the whole choir together until the concert.