Jerry Seawright

Jerry Seawright was the Founder and Former Director of The Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps of Concord, CA. He was born Illinois May 3, 1925 - died Grass Valley, CA on May 16, 2004. Jerry founded the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps in 1970 and set the tone for the professionalism and excellence for the organization that has since been its trademark. He has positively influenced thousands of lives worldwide, within and outside the Drum Corps community. In the fall of 1970, Jerry founded the Blue Devils as a new part of the Blue Devils youth organization. He brought together a group of relatively unknown young instructors and designers, with names like [a2372243], Mike Moxley, Jim Ott and Tom Float, who would later create the look and sound of one of Drum Corps International's (DCI) most consistent and dynamic performing units. When Jerry retired from the directorship of the Blue Devils in 1983, he continued to commit his time and effort to the Blue Devils and to the activity by serving as the corps' booster club president and as an active member of the Drum Corps West board of directors. Jerry was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1993, Jerry returned to his home town Danville, IL to visit with his high school buddies: Dick Van Dyke (2), Bob Hackman (Gene Hackman's uncle), and Harold Brown. They had a chance to chat away, trade wisecracks, swap old stories and perform old songs.