Submitted by Sean Kirkpatrick
I believe that I am Wendell's last student. I was stationed at the US Naval Station in San Diego in late '79/early '80. I had not played for 5 of the 6 years that I served in the Navy when a friend loaned me a horn and suggested that I contact Wendell to see if he would take me on as a student. I recall that he had to ask Nancy Frisch if it would be OK. Luckily for me, it was. I had about 5 months with him before I was sent on a Western Pacific deployment. Upon my return, I was very saddened to learn of his passing. He was the first person with whom I studied and helped me put a very fine polish on a pretty good self-taught technique. I still have the Kopprash etudes with his handwritten notations for my assignments, and I also have a handwritten copy of the 7/8 exercise that is posted elsewhere on your site.
Wendell and Jim Decker were the only two guys I studied with, and between them, I learned volumes about what it meant to be a player and a human being.