My first trombone teacher was Otto Blankle, who had retired in 1968 from the Army Field Band after 20 years. I studied with him from 1973 - 1975 in St. Petersburg Florida. After I graduated from University of South Florida in 1981 with a degree in music, I returned to St. Petersburg where I taught middle school band and played professionally beside Otto. We became life long friends until the day he passed in 2010. Here is a tribute to his life on Vimeo [url]https://vimeo.com/9993377