G Wilt

G Nelson Wilt March 11, 1941- January 18, 2011 G Nelson Wilt was born on March 11, 1941, in Columbus, Ohio, to Mary Louise Nelson Wilt and Grant Mason Wilt, an executive at White Castle. His parents discovered early that playing orchestra music on the record player enthralled him. He began playing the violin in high school and graduated from University High School at Ohio State University in 1959. He studied violin and music at the University of Arizona in Tucson, played second violin in the University Orchestra under the direction of Henry Johnson, and graduated with a Bachelor of Music, with a specialty in Music Education, in 1967. Nelson began teaching orchestra at Spring Junior High School in 1967. He taught at many middle schools and their feeder elementary schools in southwest Tucson during his 36 year career at Tucson Unified School District. Some of the Middle Schools he taught at included: Mansfield, Maxwell, Menlo Park, Miles, Pueblo Gardens, Roskruge, and Wakefield. Some of the elementary schools he taught at included: Blenman, Brichta, Carrillo, Davis, Drachman, Holladay, Lineweaver, Urquides, Menlo Park, Miles, Mission View, Ochoa, Pueblo Gardens, Roskruge, Safford, Tolson, Tully, Van Buskirk, and Vesey. He also taught at Tucson and Pueblo High Schools. In 1980, Nelson started teaching orchestra at Utterback Middle School. When it became a Fine Arts Magnet Middle School in 1983, he organized several orchestras and a guitar class. The most promising players from the guitar class were encouraged to learn the violin or other orchestra instruments and enter the orchestra program. Nelson encouraged leadership by having some of the players become conductors for the pieces the orchestra played. In 1987, he and the science teacher started taking the orchestra to the Grand Canyon Junior High Music Festival each spring. The Utterback orchestra won the Superior rating (Best in State) every year from 1987 through 2001. The students had a lifetime memory of playing their instruments on the edge of the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon among the pine trees. The students also played at the Arizona State Fair every year. In 2002 and 2003, Nelson took the orchestra to Disneyland for music workshops. Nelson retired from TUSD in 2003 after 23 years as the Orchestra Director at Utterback Middle Magnet School of the Arts and 36 years of teaching orchestra and enhancing the self image of students in southwest Tucson. Nelson was active in the orchestra music scene in Tucson throughout his career. He taught orchestra as a section leader for Tucson Junior Strings in the 1970s and 1980s. He played second violin in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the late 1960s to the middle 1970s, the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in the early 1980s, and the opera orchestra in the mid 1970s. Nelson's hobby was astronomy and he made numerous trips to see solar eclipses throughout the world. He built his first 6-inch telescope in his early twenties and continued to add to his collection of telescopes throughout his life. He built an observatory at home with a roll-off roof and various computerized telescopes. He drove with his family in a camper to Baja California to photograph the total solar eclipse in July of 1991. He also traveled to Bolivia in November 1994, the Caribbean in February 1998, Easter Island, and Libya in March of 2006 to observe total solar eclipses. Nelson's other hobby was horseback riding and he rode in numerous Rodeo Parades on his old white, curly-haired cowhorse, Chip. He was active in Horse 4-H, taking his daughter Janelle and her various horses to numerous horse shows and competitions, including the Arizona State Fair, throughout the 1980s. Nelson is survived by his daughter Janelle Litel, his son Andrew Wilt, and his two grandsons Aiden and Kaelen Wilt, all of Tucson, Arizona. Nelson was married to Jan Carol Rasmussen for 30 years (1965-1995). Although Nelson's parents are deceased, he is survived by 11 uncles and aunts on his father's side and 1 uncle on his mother's side, most of whom live in the Washington Court House area of central Ohio.