Former DCI executive director Don Pesceone passes away
The first full-time executive director of Drum Corps International, Donald L. Pesceone passed away the morning of Wednesday, 8th July. He was 75 years old.
Drum Corps International owes much of its early growth and survival to the efforts of Pesceone, who served in the executive director position for more than 20 years from 1973 to 1994. Pesceone had been involved with drum corps since he was a child, playing French horn in a variety of Chicagoland groups; as a youth in Park Ridge's Mel Tierney American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps and the Skokie Vanguard, and later in Maywood's Winfield Scott Rebels Senior Corps.
"When it was time for the DCI Board of Directors to hire a full-time executive director, we felt comfortable in offering the position to Don because he had a stellar reputation as a fair judge, treating all corps the same. He gave up a good job to work for DCI," former Madison Scouts director and 1994 Hall of Fame inductee Bill Howard said.
"As the first full-time DCI executive director he was the right person at the right time,” DCI Hall of Fame member and longtime Pesceone family friend Gene Monterastelli said. “The new organization needed someone who had the interest, energy and drive to spend the time to get the organization moving.”
When Pesceone accepted the position as DCI's executive director, he and his wife Mary first ran the organization out of their home. Soon, more people needed to be hired to handle such elements as show promotion throughout the United States and Canada, public relations, and merchandising, requiring the move into DCI's first headquarters in the suburbs of Chicago.
"Don deserves a lot of credit for sticking his neck out and taking the job," Cavaliers founder Don Warren said. "None of us knew upfront if DCI was going to be successful. He did a good job during his two decades at the helm."
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