(Joe’s Bio was submitted by his son Andrew Dean on 3-24-05)
Frederick Joseph Dean, aka “Little Freddie Joe Dean”, the son of music store owner Fred Dean, began his life with the same question he posed to his children when they were born: “WHICH musical instrument are you going to play?”. He had a stint of fame as a regular on a local Fort Worth morning radio show. His trademark signature on the show was singing “you are my sunshine” and, thankfully, that was one of the last times he appeared in front of a microphone without a trumpet in between.
After graduating Paschal, he attended Texas State Teacher’s College then graduated from Texas Weslayan, where he met his wife (my mom), Molly Stewart. Dad spent his time outside the classroom playing in various area bands and traveling with the Ice Capades, the Rodeo, The shriner circus and even the Glen Miller Orchestra under the direction of Ray McKinley.
Not long after graduation, Joe and Molly were married and moved to Houston, where Joe made a living playing the Houston music scene with the likes of the Ed Gerlach Orchestra, Tony Landry, Tommy Lauer, Jerry Vann and “Manny Uthers.”
After the birth of his first son, Kelly Dean, Freddie Joe decided to “settle down” and get “an honest job.” He worked shortly at Westinghouse then settled in to the Burroughs Computer Corporation where he helped promote the first desktop business calculator. (“desktop” was a measurement of the dimensions of the base of the machine) Freddie Joe became successful in computer sales and dropped his first name, since “Joe Dean” sounded much more businesslike. Burroughs sent the family moving around the state first to Dallas where his sons David and Andrew were born, then to San Antonio.
In San Antonio, Joe moved to the Brant Corporation then to Six Flags where he moved up from regional sales manager to Marketing manager. After many years, Joe left Six Flags and resurrected his computer knowledge from Burroughs years to become a computer science professor in the Dallas County Community Colleges. He earned his MBA in computer science and worked his way up to the Dean of Computer science at El Centro college before PSP forced him to retire.
Dad stopped playing music for a living, but never stopped playing. He’d play in various big bands around the Dallas Area and we’d often have family “jam sessions”. Music has been a big part of our family life, thanks in no small part to my father’s passion.
David, the middle brother, chose Bass as his instrument and attended Rice university with a music scholarship. While he still plays his bass in a local Greek band, he has his PhD in business administration and is a professor at Lincoln University in New Zealand.
As the youngest kid, I learned the lesson from my older brothers and chose the cello as my instrument. (its the one classical instrument that you NEVER have to stand up to play. Hehe). I still drag my cello around, but for a living I do broadcast video production. Two years ago, thanks to the internet, My wife and I were also able to move to New Zealand where I continue to work for my US clients, but now I do it from a farm overlooking the port hills of Christchurch.
While all three of us went on to play in the All-State bands and orchestras, Kelly, my oldest brother, is the only one that selected music as his career. While his primary instrument was always Saxophone, he can play (excellently, I might add) pretty much anything with keys and/or a place to blow into it.
Dad always spun tall yarns about his early years and we’d all love to listen. Since he can no longer talk, the tables have turned and now we have to tell the tales. If any Paschal grads have any humorous or entertaining anecdotes involving my dad, please send them to me at andrew@regina.com so that we can help him reminisce.
Also, while he is not George Benson, My brother Kelly recorded his version of Stardust where he sings and plays the sax. I thought some of you out there might enjoy a version sung by the son of a Panther. You can download a medium quality MP3 at http://kellydean.net/mp3/demo/stardust96.mp3 or a CD quality version at http://kellydean.net/mp3/demo/stardust.mp3
My Dad is in hospice, so he doesn’t have long to live. If you have anything to say to him, or have a chance to visit, please do it soon, as it is impossible to tell how much longer he’ll be with us. He may not be able to communicate complex thoughts with blinking, but he understands every word spoken to him and has a very soft spot in his heart for his Paschal Pals.