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William C. Moffit Papers

 Collection
Identifier: 2007-025

The William C. Moffit papers contains 44 cartons. The collection is organized into 14 series: Personal/Office Files, Teaching Materials, Sheet Music, University Fight Songs, Moffit Arrangements of SWC Fight Songs, Small Sectional Sheet Music, Moffit’s Resource Materials and Michigan State Band Books, Original Working Scores, Formations, Audio Cassettes and Records, Ephemera, Music Books, Awards, and Oversize material.

The collection includes personal office files, teaching aids, sheet music, and Moffit arrangements of SWC school fight songs. It also contains complete shows for marching band, as well as general formation patterns. There are original Moffit working scores, formations/shows for the Michigan State University Marching Band, the University of Houston Marching Band, and the Purdue University “All-American” Marching Band. It also includes the Patterns of Motion material, ephemera, and awards. Materials range in date from the 1927 to 2007.

Dates

  • 1873
  • 1927-2007
  • undated
  • Majority of material found within 1960s-1980s

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Special Collections owns the physical items in our collections, but copyright normally belongs to the creator of the materials or their heirs. The researcher has full responsibility for determining copyright status, obtaining permission to publish from copyright holders, and abiding by current copyright laws when publishing or displaying copies of Special Collections material in print or electronic form. For more information, consult the appropriate librarian. Reproduction decisions will be made by Special Collections staff on a case-by-case basis.

Extent

43.0 linear feet

Biographical Information

William C. Moffit was a band director of national importance whose contributions to musical education gained many honors. He was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, on May 13, 1925, and joined the Coast Guard after high school, where he played in the Coast Guard Band. After World War II, he attended Baldwin Wallace College on the GI Bill and attained his degree in 1950. He taught in the public school systems of Ohio and Michigan for ten years before joining the faculty at Michigan State University as a band director, where he taught for nine years. In 1969, he became the Director of the University of Houston Marching Band, where he taught until 1981. Bill Moffit resigned from the University of Houston to take a job at Purdue University, where he taught until his early retirement in 1988. After retiring, he founded the Jacksonville Community Concert Band in Jacksonville, Florida. He is the author of Soundpower, a collection of more than 450 arrangements for marching band, and the Patterns of Motion concept in marching. Bill Moffit was the Director of the Fanfare Trumpets at the 1984 Olympics and the Director of the Fanfare Trumpets at the Pan American Games in 1986. The recipient of many honors and awards, he was nominated for the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and named “Music Arranger Laureate of Indiana” in 1988. His talents as a clinician, a guest conductor, and an adjudicator for music festivals were coveted by many institutions across the country. Bill Moffit died in Jacksonville, Florida, on March 5, 2008.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by William C. Moffit, University of Houston professor. Additional materials were acquired in 2012 and 2013 as part of a donation by Jeannette Moffit, widow of William C. Moffit, in 2014 as part of a donation from the Moffit family, and in 2019 from the school of music.

Processing Information

For preservation and access reasons the collection has been re-boxed and re-foldered. New folder titles conform, as closely as possible, to original folder titles, except when the original was obviously incomplete, incorrect, or confusing. Original folder and item order has been maintained whenever possible. Exceptions were made when folders were obviously misfiled or when no order was apparent.

Title
Guide to the William C. Moffit Papers
Author
Stephanie Malone, Meghan McCain, Toshia Miracle, Diana Pena, Minh Tran, Vickie Thai, Mikaela Selley, Bobby Marlin, and Dan Johnson
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of Houston Libraries Special Collections
MD Anderson Library
4333 University Drive
Houston TX 77204-2000 USA
713-743-9750