In Memory Wesley Verne Blomster

My father, Wesley Verne Blomster, was born in 1929 in Aberdeen, South Dakota and grew up near the now-defunct town of Wetonka, near Ipswich, in rural South Dakota. He considered his experiences as a youth during the Great Depression-Dust Bowl era as formative. Wesley’s grandfather, fisherman Noah Blomster, immigrated from Sweden to settle first in Pennsylvania (there are still relatives and a Bloomster Hollow) and later, as a pioneer, in South Dakota. When Wes reached high-school age his father Walter Blomster and mother Ellen Boulais (French Canadian) took him to Aberdeen where he lived in a boarding house while attending school and where he worked at a shoe store.

With the help of his high school Latin teacher, himself a graduate of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Wes was admitted to UI following his graduation from high school. In the post-war years, colleges were so full of soldiers attending school on the GI Bill that some schools were required to hold classes in churches. Thus Wes considered himself fortunate to be able to attend UI.

From 1947 to 1951 Wes immersed himself in the study of German language, literature, music, and culture. He had had no previous exposure to German; his Aberdeen high school offered only Latin and Spanish. Among many formative experiences in Iowa City, Wes often spoke of Stephan Clapp, a composer and conductor of the university orchestra who considered himself the heir to Mahler, Strauss, and the great Romantics. In his years at the university Wes became familiar with many of the great Romantic composers and their works.

After graduating from UI, Wes joined the Army and served from 1951 to 1955, spending most of this time in Europe. He was valued as a translator due to his fluency in German and Russian. As a Fulbright scholar Wes met Adelheid Woerz, a piano student in Vienna. They married in 1955.

Returning to the US, Wes and Heidi criss-crossed the country serving in various teaching positions in colleges in Waterville Maine, Billings Montana, Portland Oregon, and Boulder Colorado, where Wes and Heidi ran summer language houses and where Wes completed his Doctorate in German. Wes and Heidi spent the period 1959-60 in Berlin where Wes taught high school while finishing his dissertation. Their son Thomas was born in Portland Oregon in 1960. By 1961 the family had settled in Boulder where Wes taught at CU until his retirement. Wes received several awards from the university for his teaching. After completing a degree in German, Heidi also taught at the college. Wes and Heidi divorced in 1982.

Always an active concertgoer, Wes began writing music criticism for the Boulder Daily Camera in the 1970s. Soon he was writing for national and international publications as well. By the time he retired from CU he had a second career as a music critic, traveling all over the world until the time of his death, including trips to China and Israel this past year.

A few years ago on a trip to China, Wes met young violinist Xianbo Wen. Because of China’s relative isolation, Xianbo grew up listening to the same old recordings by German musicians that my father had listened to. This shared experience across generations led Wes to mentor Xianbo, eventually helping him to attend music school in Berlin.

In the early 1990s Wes was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which he managed to beat initially with radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Sadly the cancer returned a couple of years ago. Wes decided against additional severe treatments. Still, he was able to live his life as he wanted to until a week before passing away, still getting on the bus to go downtown and hear a concert by the Boulder Bach Festival a week before he died. Although he didn’t talk about it much, Wes was often in pain during the last couple of years, and it was only by the sheer force of his will that he persevered. Finally his body gave out as the cancer spread. Wes entered hospice on September 27. He died on the afternoon of October 1.

Wes left a legacy of students and a love and passion for music, literature, and the arts that has no equal. Often when I felt ignorant on a given subject, instead of using Wikipedia, I would call my father. He was a walking encyclopedia, reading on a wide variety of subjects to his dying day. My wife Nikki once ask Wes how he became a teacher. He answered that when he was a child and got together with neighborhood children, he was always the teacher.

A few years ago I joined my father on his first trip back to South Dakota in some 20 years to visit his younger brother Dwayn and see his home turf. A powerful story came to light during that trip about a family relative, Dr. Lundquist. Dr. Lundquist was a well respected and educated man who came back to his community.

My wife Nikki continues the story of Dr. Lundquist:

“One of the things Wes spoke to Thomas and I about during our last visit was a family relative, a country doctor who was a beloved member of the rural community where Wes grew up and had died in an automobile accident. He said they had to have the funeral in a high school gym because that was the only place large enough to accommodate the crowd that was expected and which in fact, turned out. In the Depression, when flowers were an unthinkable extravagance, Wes, who was only five years old at the time, said he remembers a ‘wall of flowers’ at the memorial service.”

This story is important to understanding father’s wish that there be no public events such as memorials, burial services, or concerts dedicated to him.

As a close friend of Wes’ said: “Sometimes I wonder if Wes’ reluctance to receive special recognition was because of his acute awareness that, for all he had done, it was all part of a bigger picture in which many more folks were working hard also, in their own ways, to bring to fruition the projects and goals important to all of them together.”

Nikki goes on to say:

“I think there is humility in his request. Perhaps in his mind, his accomplishments did not seem worthy of being singled out because he was aware of the world at large, the bigger picture of things. At the same time we are grateful that people have desired to honor him and to recognize his accomplishments.”

Dr. Wesley Verne Blomster died October 1, 2011 and is survived by his brother Dwayn Blomster, his son Thomas and his wife Nikki Tuschiya, and Wesley’s divorced wife Adelheid Blomster.
Throughout Wes’ career as a music critic, he studiously avoided any hint of nepotism towards his son Thomas’ musical career. Thus in death, Wes requested that memorial contributions be made to Thomas’ orchestra:

Colorado Chamber Orchestra
1820 Race Street
Denver, CO 80206-1116

Condolences may be mailed to Thomas at the same address above (1820 Race St).

Plans are being made by the family for a concert next year to celebrate Wes.