John Mark Carney

Retired from Allstate after 34 years in the claim department. Currently working as a substitute aid for the Claremont Unified School District. My wife is a special Education Teacher at Danbury. I enjoy riding my mountain bike up in the Claremont Hills about 40-50 miles a week, Camping, and still enjoy playing the drums. I play in the Orchestra and Worship Team at Purpose Church in Pomona. I also play in a small swing band called Swing Shift that plays for special events. During the month of September 2016, our band Played for the Village of Claremont Wine Walk at the packing house plaza.

Both my son and daughter are Claremont High Graduates. My two brothers and sister also graduated from Claremont High.

During a band practice for a half time show three of us were goofing around. Rowland Withrow took the American flag from the band room, put it down his pant leg to conceal it. Another person had a wooden flute and I was carrying a marching drum. During a section of a patriotic song that we were rehearsing the three of us broke formation and began marching up the middle of the field as a joke. We looked like the three wounded soldiers that you see in an old civil war picture. The band director actually liked our little skit and we added it into the overall show at our next football home game field show.

Larry Pitcher. He was a good band director with a lot of energy. He built the music program up from a small unit to over a hundred people performing. He was able to have the jazz band perform with other great musicians such as Frank Rosalino, Bobby Brant and Doc Severenson from the tonight show.