I was looking through a Long distance log circa 1974 and came accross a race result I had complketly forgot about. It was a marathon in the middle of July at Gloucester County College. Wesley Emmons age 46 with a time 0f 4:46 finished the race!. I had such a flood of memories. It all came back;the unrelenting dogged determination to keep going in a 90 degree sun pounding day. A snippet of a memory from the many I had with my friend and running buddy.

I had just finished dinner at what was Mirabella's Restaurant behind the Academy of Music on Locust Street on April 24, 1990.  As I was coming down the steps to the sidewalk on Locust Street, I noticed a few people entering the rear entrance of the Academy of Music to the right of the bottom of the steps.  I also noticed a lady dressed in the Academy of Music usher's uniform which was a maroon blazer jacket with brass buttons and black pants standing at the Academy of Music rear entrance door.  When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I walked to her and asked her what was going on.  She told me that the Guarneri String Quartet was giving a concert.  I responded that I thought I had seen an article in the paper about that.  She then asked me "Do you have a ticket?" I answered "No".  She then said "I have one."  She then pulled one out of her right lower outside pocket and put it in the one on her left lower outside pocket.  I continued to stand there for a few seconds not knowing quite what to do because I wasn't expecting anything like that and she then said to me "You can go in now."  I said something like "Uh, ok, thank you."

  I entered and climbed several steps and continued through a wide passage way that opened into the back of a small performance hall filled with rows of chairs facing a performance area with a center aisle and and an aisle on the right and left ends of the rows .  Since there was no raised stage the performance area was on the same level as the audience.  In the performance area there were four chairs arranged in the standard string quartet arrangement with two side by side facing each other on either side of the center of the performance area.  There were some acoustically reflective screens  arranged in a broad semicircle behind the performer's chairs.  Since there were no reserved seats, I entered the hall and took a few seconds to look for a seat and noticed that there were some empty seats just to the left of the center aisle about half way between the front and the rear.  So, I took one of those next to an older gentleman.

  At the intermission the gentleman whom I was sitting next to introduced himself saying "Hello I am Wesley Emmons" and I replied "Hello I am Walter Waugaman".  Next, I said "You must be the Jogging Goldsmith."  He then asked "Where did you hear that?".  I told him that had heard his advertisement on WFLN which was at that time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week commercial classical music FM radio station to which I listened every day.  To which he replied something like "Oh that must have been Ralph Collier."

  The whole program that night consisted of Beethoven string quartets.  String Quartet in G Major Opus 18,  No.2 and  String Quartet in G Major Opus 18,  No.6 (There are six quartets in Opus 6) were played before the intermission.  After the intermission, the Guarneri String Quartet played my favorite string quartet which is the Beethoven Opus 59, No. 1.  This was one of the most wonderful concerts that I have ever heard because it was the first time that I had ever heard all of these quartets, including my favorite, live played by one of the best string quartets in the world and it was free, no admission charge.

  At the end Wesley signed my program and told me about the Curtis institute of music and said the I should come to the student recitals there and that they were free.  About two months later I moved into my present apartment in the Academy House.  I began jogging around Rittenhouse Square several days a week and would often pass Wesley on the sidewalk.  Every time I saw him he would remind me about coming to Curtis  saying "Walter you have to come to Curtis!".  It was like an old cracked or nicked  phonograph record that skips back to the beginning every time the stylus goes over a crack or nick in the surface of the record.  This continued until I finally attended my first student recital at the Curtis Institute of Music on Monday October 21, 1991 which was the first student recital of the 1991-1992 season.  When I entered Curtis Hall, Wesley was already seated in his customary seat which was in the center of the last row which is against the back wall and goes all the way across with no break for the center aisle which gave him a clear view of the stage.  As soon as I came through the door to the hall, he waved to me and called out in loud voice "Walter".

All of us at Curtis will miss Wesley, especially the young musicians who considered Wesley, "our best fan."  He was our most loyal, enthusiastic, attentive, appreciative and sincere auidnience member. He will be missed, not only by the students, but by all of us on the Curtis staff.