to the Family of Professor John C. Belland: I took several classes in my doctoral program in educational communications from Dr. Belland, 1976-79, at OSU. He was always very encouraging of my work with museums as educational institutions and applauded my research with museums. I remember being athis and Ann's home when they entertained

I, too, remember John from the Morgan Park High School band.  John not only played clarinet in the Concert Band, but also was our pianist in our Dance Band. He did both superbly.  I lost touch with John after high school, although I was in cllege not far away at Wisconsin, and then moving to California afterwords.  I was not aware of his stellar life afterward, although I'm not surprised.  He  was known as a stand-out student, and I thought I remember him saying he was going to be an electrical engineer.  He and I both were early Hi-Fi enthusiasts, although while I built my stuff from kits he probably designed his own.  I have a 2 pictures of the Morgan Park Dance Band, one from the cover of the Beverly Review and the other a scene from a performance in the MPHS auditorium, which I'll send to the funeral home, in hopes they will can forward it to John's family.  John's paying the piano and I'm playing trombone.

John and I sat next to one another for at least two hours a day during his senior year at Morgan Park High School on Chicago's South side. We both played clarinet under John LaCognata's leadership. The way he teased me about most anything, and every day, kept me in my second chair place!  My clarinet teacher urged me to challenge John's first chair placement. I knew he'd try harder and not let me beat him. I also felt he was a better technical player. Besides, he was bigger than I was.
 
 I thought John  was intellectually superior. He knew more about any subject he brought up. Maybe I mistook his high opinion of himself (call it snobbery?) with his actual intellectual superiority. I was in awe and trembling! Maybe he wanted a little sister and I fit the bill.We needed one another's companionship and he kept me on my toes.When John graduated from high school, I took over first chair without needing to challenge my superior "big brother." 
  
Tom Morgan played tuba in the high school band. About five years ago, Tom sent me John's email and we re-connected. Me in Orange County, California; John in Ohio.  We had flurries of messages back and forth, relishing old times and sharing current lives. With more adult eyes, I realize what a gloriously well-rounded person John was. Although I never made the opportunity to visit him in Ohio or Wisconsin, through correspondence I came to know his insatiable curiosity, his continuing love of his musical communities, his pride in his children and his wife, and John's resiliency to try harder when facing any challenge. I love and respect my friend, John Belland. 
             Linda (Lacey) Missouri (misslindamo@yahoo.com)

I took computer classes from John in graduate school at OSU back when this was a beginning field for educators. He always challenged us to reach for more. I especially remember the time when the program I was writing for one of his classes required more and more space, and he got a little bit frustrated with me for having to keep restructuring the disk space allotted to me!!!
I also remember Sherry and Brian from when I was librarian at Evening Street School. The family has a warm place in my heart. 
My condolences at this sad time. 
Patricia Gill

I was saddened to read of the death of John...I am the person who pieced together the "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt that was started by his late wife so that he could use it and remember her often in his new home...I do hope that he got it quilted to his specifications and was able to use it....He was a joy to work with and it was a dear tribute to her that I was chosen to assist in finishing such a beautiful work of quilt piecing.  I'm sure he will be greatly missed by his family and all who knew him.  
Sincerely, Marylou Hill, Dublin, Ohio (Quilt Beginnings, Sawmill Road)

Memories of John

I have known John since we were kids and I have always admired him for his extraordinary range of talents, energy, and perseverance. Some examples:

                                            High School era.
He was the first person I knew to build his own high-fidelity music system including both the electronics and the speaker cabinets.  (I followed his lead and built my own the summer I graduated.) I recall several times when the Bellands hosted parties for our young people's group, we would lean on John to take us up to his room to listen to Holst's "The Planets" and have him turn the sound up as loud as Mrs. Belland would tolerate.

As a gift to our church, he installed a sound system including some devices in the pews for the hearing impaired.

At our two-week summer scout camp in Michigan John was the chief cook for several years for some one hundred or more campers.

In addition to playing clarinet in band, orchestra and jazz band, he also played piano and organ. He became a member of the American Guild of Organists. 

                                                Later years.
He was the organist and accompanist of the soloist for our wedding. 

I've forgotten how many houses John and Ann built, maybe two or three in Columbus plus the winterizing and remodeling of their inherited house in Wisconsin. In every case, I think John did a large amount of the work in these projects. After he got into wood turning, he turned all the balusters for the new stairway railing in the Wisconsin house. He was a perfectionist, he did beautiful work, and he carried through his many projects to completion. 

John was most proud of his two children, both now also successful educators.  

Despite his many and serious health difficulties in these last years, John continued to live his life in the spirit he had always lived. With his customary readiness for the next challenge, he would bounce back and adjust his life as necessary to maintain some semblance of an independent and productive life.  

We will miss him.
Tom Morgan
_________________________________________________________
In memory of revered John

I feel privileged to have been adopted into Tom's friendship with John for nearly 40 years. Especially in these last 25 years, I witnessed his extraordinary parallel life of living with the consequences of the car crash and its series of health issues, while personally being a loving husband to Ann with whom he was a caring parent of Sherry and Brian, and professionally serving as a dedicated professor under whom many students were hooded. During their children's early years, we were most honored to be asked by John and Ann to be their legal guardians on reserve. He was philosophical and knowledgeable, yet he was a master engineer and workman when it came to building-related matters.  We will miss our visits in Columbus, in Wisconsin and conversations on the phone. Though he journeyed on ahead of us, we are blessed with his inspiring memories. Thank you, John.      
Michi Morgan

John and I taught in Nanchang, China, for 2 months in the Fall 0f 1993....  paid for by the World Bank and as guests of the PRC. Of course we flew via Honolulu and spent a delightful week there enjoying the beaches and the sights & shows.  It was an experience that we would never forget. Our families had a veritable adventure trying to reach us by phone...yes..at that time, Chinese operators would only understand Chinese. 

We had several batches of young university professors (sadlly, the older ones were victims of the Cultural Revolution) assembled by the Chinese government each of the 8 weeks we were there to teach computer-based test-development techiniques. No, we did not teach in Chinese...we had a pair of interpereters with us all the time.  

John and I adapted to the facilities and the simple life-style in that rural Chinese university.  It was not Beijing or Shanghai.  No 4 or 5-star hotels.  But we enjoyed ourselves with our students. We taught them all we knew, including American country music and barn dancing.   Every weekend we used the rest of our per diem (it was a lot!) to order up a feast for our students and introduce them to American life and culture.  We had fun!!  They wondered why we, clearly not Communists, would go to China to help them. We tried to help them understand the "people-to-people" concept of American service and dedication.

John developed a neat multi-colored booklet on the trip. I did not have his skills, so all you get here from me are some photos and memories from my scrap-book.  Deep within me are the memories of a wonderful friend and colleague.  John and I also did several major projects together.  We served OSU and China together.  I will always miss John.

Charlotte Belland is following this tribute.

I will always remember John as being a good friend as I went through Kellogg grade school with John, played in the Morgan Park HS band with John and was in his class at Northwestern. My vivid memory is of John in Latin class at Morgan Park where we would compete for the first seat in the class based on our weekly test scores.
As I recall John also was a good organ player at St Pauls church in Chicago.
I'm glad John was part of my early life.
Larry Bjork
Los Altos, CA

OBITUARY

John C. Belland

12 November, 1938 – 26 November, 2009

Schoedinger Midtown

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