Ron Klimko

Ronald James Klimko (December 13, 1936 – March 18, 2012) was an American bassoonist, author, composer, teacher, and performer.

He was editor of The Double Reed, the publication of the International Double Reed Society, for thirty years (1982–2012) and a professor of music at Lionel Hampton School of Music, University of Idaho, for thirty-two years (1968–2000).

Ron was born on December 13, 1936 in Lena, Wisconsin, the second son of Robert Louis Klimko and Evelyn Rosera Klimko. He graduated from Oshkosh High School, Oshkosh, Wisconsin and then went on to study choral music on scholarship at Milton College, in Milton, Wisconsin, where he received his bachelor's degree in music education in 1959. Ron began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a teaching assistant while studying for his master's degree in music. In about 1960 he was drafted for a two-year term in the U.S. Army, where he was posted to the Army Element of the Navy School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia. After his discharge, he spent several months abroad in Germany, where he hoped to study music. Opportunities were better back home in Wisconsin, so he returned to study for his Ph.D in music at Madison. While in graduate school he married Kathleen Sorenson (now, Kathleen Rathbun) and they had two sons, Karl Nicholas and Christopher Anthony. While writing his dissertation, he was hired at Minnesota State University Moorhead, in Moorhead, Minnesota, to teach bassoon theory and composition. The next year he was hired at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. His daughter Julie Marie was born in Terre Haute. He finished his dissertation and received his Ph.D. in 1968. From there, he went to the University of Idaho, where he taught bassoon, theory and composition, and music history for 32 years until his retirement in January 2000. His youngest child, Benjamin Andrew was born in Moscow in 1969. In 1986 he was invited to teach at National Music Camp, Interlochen, Michigan, and he taught at the School Music, Indiana University, for the summer of 1980.

During his career at the University of Idaho, he contributed to the world of music in a variety of ways. He played bassoon in the Spokane Symphony for 20 years from 1969-1990. He also played bassoon with the Yakima Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, Mid-Columbia Symphony, and LaGrande Symphony. He played solos with symphonies in Alaska, and the lower 48, as well as in Europe. He gave master classes in bassoon at Lawrence University, Ithaca College, and several other schools. He was conductor of the Spokane Youth Orchestra for one year. He was constantly performing in orchestra and chamber music, and if no events were going on, he would organize a concert, a group, or an event.

While at the University of Idaho, he received three sabbatical leave grants. On the first leave, he was in London, England, from January to August 1976, to study with world-renowned bassoonists, William Waterhouse and Cecil James. On the second leave, he was in Paris, France, from September 1983 to August 1984, to study French bassoon privately with the maitre, Maurice Allard of the Paris Opera and Paris Conservatory. On his third leave, he was Visiting Professor of Bassoon at the University of Colorado, Boulder, from 1990 to 1991. He was until his death a member of the North American Wind Quintet, where he played the French bassoon.

He authored the well-known book Bassoon Performance, Practices, and Teaching in the United States and Canada (1971, rev. 1992), the first such study of its kind for double reed players. He was the editor of the The Double Reed, the professional publication of the International Double Reed Society, from 1982 until his death in 2012. He regularly wrote a column and reviews of recordings for that publication. In 2011 he was honored by the IDRS with a lifetime Honorary Membership. He has traveled around the world to visit with and interview bassoonists for publication in the Double Reed.

His original compositions are now archived at the University of Idaho. In his early years of composing he was interested in choral music and opera. He composed an opera to the Huxley work Brave New World but could not publish or perform it due to copyright restrictions. Perhaps someday it will be performed. Over the years he experimented with harmonies and wrote works for woodwind instruments. His own work "Passages," for clarinet and bassoon, was performed at the concert for the celebration of his life held in Moscow, Idaho in June 2012.

In retirement, he and his family lived in McCall, Idaho, from 2003 to 2012, where he was President and Director of the McCall Chamber Orchestra. Every year for the last several years he organized a summer concert of the McCall Bassoon Band, now called the Ron Klimko Bassoon Band. Ron arranged many popular and classical works for bassoon quintet and bassoon band. Following a decline in health in 2011, he and his second wife, Kathryn George, relocated to Issaquah, Washington to be nearer to children and better medical care. In 2011 and 2012 he played in the Sammamish Symphony and the Microsoft Orchestra. He reconnected with his old Milton College friend, Glen Danielson, who had recently retired Principal English Horn with the Seattle Symphony. They enjoyed many hours of reminiscences and collegiality in the Microsoft Orchestra. Ron's last performance was with the Microsoft Orchestra, sitting near Glen when they played the Dvorak New World Symphony.

Throughout his life, Ron was an avid sports enthusiast and participant. His efforts began at Oshkosh High School, where he was a miler on the track team for three years and lettered in the sport. Ron returned to running in his thirties, where he began competing in fun runs, 10K runs, and marathons. In the mid-1970s, he and Kathleen also began learning to ski and taught his children to ski. In 1995 he took up snowboarding with his son Chris acting as sometime instructor.

For many years while teaching at University of Idaho, he ran 6 miles every noon hour with a group of friends, fondly known as Team DeMoura. He ran many local 5ks, 10ks and Fun Runs. Though seldom a first-place winner, he usually placed high in the finishers. He ran Bloomsday in Spokane for over a decade. A member of Palouse Roadrunners, he helped organizers of the Snake River Marathon and ran the marathon itself more than once. Over the years he ran many other marathons, including Oregon, Seattle, Vancouver, Coeur d'Alene, Twin Cities [Minneapolis-St. Paul], Avenue of the Giants [Eureka, CA], Marathon de Bezons, Paris, and the Boston Marathon in 1979. For his fiftieth birthday, he ran the 50K ultra-marathon in Green Lake, Washington.

Ron was equally enthusiastic about mountain climbing. He climbed a great many of the volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon, including Mt. Rainier (multiple times), Mt. Adams (many times), Mt. St. Helens (both before and after eruption), Mt. Hood (many times), Mt. Shuksan, and Sahale Peak. In the Tetons of Wyoming, he and Kathleen climbed the Grand and Middle Tetons, Teewenot, and Mt. Owen. He also later climbed Symmetry Spire. He climbed with his family in the Selkirks of Idaho and wrote an article on Chimney Rock for Off Belay. Also, in Idaho, he summited the He Devil in the Seven Devils, and he climbed the Matterhorn, Sacajewea, and Twin Peaks in the Wallowas of southeastern Washington. While in Europe, he climbed Rimpfischhorn, Pollux Peak, Liskalm, and Mt. Blanc in Switzerland. Of all his climbing treks and tours, his most memorable was a trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp in October 1999, where he reached the summit of 18,600-ft Kala Patar, an altitude personal record. The roundtrip trek started at Lukla in Nepal and took about ten days.

In his sixties and seventies, his favorite sports were snowboarding and mountain biking. He began skiing in 1970 and while in Europe skied the French, Swiss, and Austrian Alps. While on a tour of New Zealand with his second wife Kathryn, they skied the Tasman Glacier on the South Island. He climbed and skied many of the Cascade volcanoes in the West, skied most of the major areas in Colorado, Montana and Idaho, and Lake Louise in Canada. He was an avid back-country skier until age 70, spending a week in May with friends and his sons at the Kokanee Glacier in British Columbia every year for over a decade. In 1995, he took up snowboarding and enjoyed most of the major areas in Idaho, especially Tamarack Resort and Brundage Mountain Resort near his home in McCall, Idaho. While on a tour of South America, he snowboarded (while his second wife skied) at Valle Nevado in Chile. His love of the terrain park for snowboarders led him to enter competitions, and he was 2007-08 Idaho State Champion in Superpipe for his age division (Methuselah!). He was a nationally ranked Methuselah Division snowboarder in Slopestyle and Superpipe. Ron loved snowboarding so much that he bought lots of new boards, and his friends call him the "Ron Klimko doll, wind him up and he buys a snowboard."

Ron died on March 18, 2012 at his favorite ski resort, Brundage Mountain in McCall, Idaho. He left this earth just as he always said he wanted to go: he had finished a beer or two with his wife and son Chris, was laughing and talking with friends, having done a couple of snowboard runs the day before, left for the car and then turned back for his credit card. While in the bar talking with the area manager, he collapsed suddenly and apparently without pain. Perhaps he is climbing and snowboarding the highest peaks of all now. Ron seemed to live every moment as if it were his last with an unmatched passion for music, running, biking, snowboarding, climbing and every other thing he could do. In his prime he had the energy of a light beam and his wit and love of people was infectious and endearing to all who knew him until the end.

The Ronald J. Klimko Memorial Endowed Scholarship was established by his colleagues and friends and gives scholarships to music students at the University of Idaho.