Paul Spotts Emrick

Paul Spotts Emrick (March 30, 1884 – July 28, 1965) was the first full-time director of the Purdue All-American Marching Band. He became director while still a student at Purdue University in 1905, and then served as full-time director from 1908 to 1954.

Early life and education A native of Rochester, Indiana, Emrick was born into a musical family; his father directed the citizens' band, and several other members of his family had been band directors. While a student at Rochester High School, the younger Emrick directed a number of ensembles that played at dances and dramatic performances. He primarily played the clarinet, but also played the violin and cornet, among other instruments. In the same year, it played at the Indianapolis 500, an engagement it has kept for all but three years since then. In 1920, it was the first band to play the opposing school's fight song. In 1935, it was the first band to play with lights on its instruments and uniforms. The result was the famous Purdue Big Bass Drum, which debuted that fall. While the size of the resulting drum remains a closely guarded secret, published reports showed it was originally in diameter and wide.

Emrick was also a noted composer of marches. In 1925, John Philip Sousa read one of them and was impressed enough that when Sousa's band came to Purdue for a performance, Sousa handed his baton to Emrick.

Emrick retired as a professor in 1946 but continued as band director until 1954. More than 6,000 students marched under his baton over the years. By the time he retired for good, he had spent the first half-century of his adult life in West Lafayette as a student, professor, and band director.

Retirement and death Emrick retired to his hometown of Rochester in 1956. He suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage in July 1965 and died at Woodlawn Hospital in Rochester on July 11. He had married his second wife, Adeline, in 1946. He had married his first wife, Martha, in 1907 while still a student at Purdue; she had died in 1942.