Dear Friends,
It is with great sadness I have to tell you of the passing of David John Harvey; most of you will know him as Dave Ewing.
Dave became known to members of BYBA in the mid-1980s when he was Corps Director of the Southend Blue Jackets. I first met Dave as a very young Band Director of Trinity School Show Band when I purchased our first two sousaphones from him. I was immediately struck, as many others have been, by his warmth. He offered me such friendly advice and on the couple of occasions he saw the band was always full of encouragement and constructive ideas.
Dave was one of the first regional representatives of BYBA and a loyal, supportive member. He was always at the Festival of Fun & Music with his corps, working mainly with percussion, however he was equally at home with wind instruction. His band competed regularly on the BYBA circuit and he was also a judge at competitions.
He gave his time as the Editor of Notebook (BYBA’s publication for members), was the Communications Chair on BYBA Council. He was inaugurated as a Fellow of BYBA in 2015 by former Chair, Paul Cartwright; a measure of the esteem he was held in and his dedication to the banding fraternity.
Dave was a positive, calm force within the organisation and will be sadly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
Neil Wright
BYBA Chair.
It would be helpful to have an idea of numbers, so if you can please email Paul Cartwright at performance@byba.online. Paul will pass on the information to the family.
UPDATE (15/01/19)
A JustGiving Page has been created on behalf of Dave's wife Tracey, to honour his memory for any that wish to do so.
Donations will go to the NSPCC as Dave was such a supporter of the charity.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-john-harvey