Tucked in an old violin case was an age-yellowed ACE Album for Orchestra. There is no date on the music for second violin, but the cost printed on the cover is 35 cents. Stamped across the top of the front and back of the booklet is Tacoma School District No. 10. Andy Chase of Los Angeles found the music recently in a relative’s old violin case as he was downsizing. After doing some online research, he called the district’s Public Information Office to return the music to the original owner.
Chase is not certain how the music came down through the family, but he speculates that it was through Seymour S. Todd, who might have been a staff member at Stewart Junior High, as it was called long ago. Chase found a photo online in the Tacoma Public Library that shows
Todd at Stewart in 1929.
After Todd retired from teaching, he married Chase’s grandmother Ruth Harris, and they lived in Tacoma where they organized tours to foreign countries and served as tour guides. Chases assumes the music was passed down to his father, who like the Todds, is deceased. The 14-song booklet is now back in the Tacoma Public Schools.