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This Book of Memories memorial website is designed to be a permanent tribute paying tribute to the life and memory of John Dietz. It allows family and friends a place to re-visit, interact with each other, share and enhance this tribute for future generations. We are both pleased and proud to provide the Book of Memories to the families of our community.

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Dr. Dietz was a wonderful friend, a wonderful voice teacher, and....he told wonderful, usually funny, stories. At one point, he demonstrated his ability to sing Italian Art songs consistently half a step off of the accompaniment. This was hideously hilarious. Ask my brother, Kurt, who also studied with him, why we will never, ever forget Dr. Dietz's home phone number. That story needs to be told offline.

My favorite story, though, was told to me by Dr. Dietz, about his younger days in Cleveland. He had great memories of Cleveland, and said that it was a great place to grow up, particularly being legally blind. He had a bus pass for the blind, which was issued free, and allowed him to travel all over the place.

In addition to that, he told me a story of his younger brother. His younger brother was a hard worker even at a young age, and he saved up and bought a car. He was, however, too young to legally own a car in Ohio, or at least to insure it, so the insurance was listed in Dr. Dietz' name. His brother remained a good driver for several years, and even let Dr. Dietz try driving "his" car in a farm field at one point. After a few years of good driving, his brother was issued a "safe driver's card" by the insurance company. The card, however, came in Dr. Dietz' name, since he was the insured party.

Well, the third story involves shopping in Cleveland. Dr. Dietz told me that he had gone to a department store and found a "lovely" (imagine him saying this in his lieder voice) sport coat that he wanted to buy. Except, he had dressed "rather slovenly" that day (imagine him saying this, too), and when he wanted to pay for the jacket with a check. The clerk asked him for two forms of ID, which he provided: His Cleveland bus pass for the blind, and his safe drivers' card.

I think Kevin Cooper and I rolled around laughing on his oriental rug under the piano that day in his office after hearing this one.

Posted by John Widmann
Monday January 2, 2017 at 11:01 pm
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