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Friday, June 13, 2003

By Nate Guidry, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

William Charles Dobie, a staunch musical preservationist with a passion for jazz, died Wednesday at UPMC Braddock. He was 91.

Mr. Dobie's sister, Wilma Dobie of Jupiter, Fla., said he was taken to the hospital more than a week ago with pneumonia.

"He's been quite fortunate," she said. "He lived an admirable life. It was inherent in him to always help others. He loved his family and he loved jazz."

A few days before his death, Mr. Dobie was able to hear a CD made especially for him by a friend in Florida. The CD contained 15 famous bands performing "Sunny Side of the Street," a song close to Mr. Dobie's heart.

"Bill was overwhelmed," said his sister. "He said it was the best medicine he could have received."

Mr. Dobie, who lived in Wilkins, wasn't a musician. His love for jazz came from a vast collection -- and near-religious examination -- of the music's often overlooked periods. He also lived through nearly every innovation in the music and met some of the greatest jazz practitioners.

Mr. Dobie started collecting records in the 1930s. Save for a 1960s recording by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, about the only thing current in his collection were his CDs, and even they were steeped in the earlier styles of jazz.

"He was a member and supporter of the Three Rivers Dixieland and Swing Association," said friend and fellow record collector Fran Verri. "He listened to music every day. Music helped him to maintain a youthful outlook."

Verri and Mr. Dobie met in the early 1970s. The two men nurtured a friendship and began attending jazz concerts at Conneaut Lake. There they heard and met artists like Dick Hyman, Joe Wilder and Milt Hinton. When they weren't listening to music, they traveled to New York, Princeton, N.J., and Cleveland, scouring those cities for records.

Another place they frequented was Frank Pope's used-record store in Carnegie. Pope dealt primarily in 78 rpm and 16-inch transcription discs.

Mr. Dobie purchased his first jazz recording two years after the Great Depression. It was a 10-inch copy of the "Charleston" by Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson.

"I used to do the Charleston when I had two good knees," he told the Post-Gazette last year. "If you could do the Charleston, you could get the girls. Jazz was so much of the fabric of our everyday lives. It has brought so much happiness into my life."

Over the years, Mr. Dobie amassed several thousand recordings, from Jelly Roll Morton's 1926-27 recording of "Birth of the Hot" to original recordings of the McKinney Cotton Pickers, who were formed in Springfield, Ohio, in 1922 by drummer William McKinney and over time featured such artists as Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman and Fats Waller.

"Let's face it," Mr. Dobie said unapologetically. "I'm a preservationist -- ragtime, Dixieland and swing -- and when you get down to brass tacks, you can't go wrong with the older timers. I don't go for bebop or much of that modern stuff because it has too much rock 'n' roll in it, and of course rock 'n' roll isn't music. It's an insult to one's intelligence."

Mr. Dobie was born on April 26, 1912, in Swissvale. In 1942, he was drafted into the Army and served in New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan.

After his discharge in 1946, he returned to Pittsburgh and got a job as a contractor installing sinks and bathroom partitions, which he did until his retirement.

In 1947, Mr. Dobie married Ludmilla Lepeta of Johnstown, who died in 1992. The couple, who never had children, met briefly before Mr. Dobie went into the Army.

"He just meant so much to our lives," said Mr. Dobie's niece, Suzy Grant-Guthrie of Wilkins. "He taught me how to live because he had so much dignity."

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 today at Wolfe Memorial Chapel, 3604 Greensburg Pike, Forest Hills, where funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow.