Sunday, January 26, 2014

R.I.P. Andy Trout.

Apologies for missing this notice, which was posted January 15. It remains my fond hope that someday, the newspaper will relent and permit me to pay it an on-line viewing fee without subjecting me to the onslaught of tasteless Hanson Ads in their variously intrusive pop-up, roll-over and audio varieties.

That said, Andy Trout was teaching history at IU Southeast during my tenure there (1978-82), and although I never had him as an instructor, he was a certified legend on campus. Later, when the Public House began in the early ninties, he came in often -- not to drink, but to hang out with the other professors.

At some point, I casually mentioned my interest in jazz and early recorded music, and it turned out that Andy was an avid devotee of popular dance music recorded by society orchestras of the 1920s and 1930s. It's an esoteric niche, to be sure; he'd bring cassette compilations, and I'd play them in the bar.

At least two of us enjoyed these times. It was my bar, after all.

Andrew P. Trout Jr., 83; Illinois

Private graveside services for Andrew P. Trout Jr., 83, Illinois, formerly of New Albany, and Des Moines, Iowa, will be at Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines. He died Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, at Pine View Care Center, St. Charles, Ill.

He was born April 5, 1930 in Des Moines, the son of Andrew P. and Nelle Gertsch Trout. He served his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was a professor of History at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany for 25 years. Andrew loved teaching and with that passion, authored City on the Seine a chronicle and tableau of seventeenth century Paris, to give others the opportunity to experience, through his eyes, the city he loved.

He is survived by his brother John Trout and his wife, Lily, Geneva, Ill.; nephews, Michael and his wife, Patricia, Steven, Robert and his wife, Jeanne, and John and his wife, Muffet, and many other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

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