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Dan Goodenow
Bob Legge
About four weeks ago, I posted a message that Bob Legge had died. Since then, I’ve been able to accept that loss and move toward this message that I hope celebrates his life in a special and meaningful way.
It was in the 8th grade at Mendon Middle School that I first met Bob. The British Beatle “invasion” had occurred early in the spring of 1964 and many of us wanted to be in a rock band. My first attempt was in a short-lived group with Danny Dodson, Rick Morenson and Buzz Petsos. I remember Buzz being a very good drummer with the rest of us just starting out with our instruments. We played a couple of parties and then Danny and I were invited to “try out” for another band that Bob Legge was putting together. At that first jamb, I immediately noticed how accomplished Bob was on the drums and how well he could sing. He had a beautiful voice and could mimic the sound and style of many of the popular vocalists of the day. He could also effortlessly memorize the lyrics to the covers that we learned and as you can imagine, that was a big deal. After cuts and additions were made, the final configuration of the band was Bob Legge on drums and lead vocals, Dan Kropp on keyboard and trumpet, Greg wolf on bass guitar, Jim Womeldorf on lead guitar, Jon Barker on sound, lights and trumpet, and me on rhythm guitar and some vocals. As with many of those old bands we practiced wherever people would put up with our noise. I remember our garage at 14 Falling Creek Road, Greg Wolf’s living room and finally Bob’s basement at his house on Arlington Drive. The Legge basement became our regular practice venue for 5 years. Bob was a fantastic and talented drummer and singer. From 1964 thru 1969, we kept the same guys in the band and ended up learning and performing 93 cover songs ranging from The Byrds, Beatles, Stones, Animals, Blues Magoos, Deep Purple, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Electric Prunes, Kinks, Sam & Dave, Spencer Davis Group, Ventures, Young Rascals, Hendrix and others. Bob was the creative leader of the band and really kept it all together. We were all as they say tight like a good band should be and did many other things together. Bob was a great skier and we’d often head to Bristol Mountain with a few 6-packs of beer for night skiing. I remember another great ski trip with Bob and Dan Kropp heading out to Aspen to visit his sister Diane and ski. Many stories about that trip could be told. I remember I sold my Hagstrom solid body guitar and Bandmaster amp to pay for the plane ticket. We brought a bunch of Coors beer back with us on the plane. It was considered a rare treat back then.
In addition to skiing, Bob was a great athlete. He was on the track team with Dan Kropp and me and was our top pole vaulter and high jumper senior year. In 1968 Dick Fosbury competed in the Mexico City Olympics and used his “flop“ technique in the high jump to win gold. Bob was able to learn Fosbury’s backward approach flop technique. He was the first high jumper in the conference to learn and use the flop approach and used it in competitions. Having never seen it, competitors and their coaches would gather to watch him jump. The advantage Bob achieved was that the flop only required about 3 steps at a slower speed where the older front approaches required more speed and about 6 steps. With Bob’s handicap and lack of speed, he had a lot of success with Fosbury’s flop.
Yes, Bob had a handicap. When he was young, he contracted polio and the disease left him with an inability to place his one heel on the ground while walking or running. The amazing thing to me was that in addition to being a good high jumper, he was also successful in the pole vault. Again, with lack of approach speed, he was able to use considerable upper body strength to get up into the air and over the bar. His vaults were one of my favorite things to watch during our track meets. Needless to say, he lettered.
That polio condition was rarely ever mentioned by him, and he never complained or ever used it as any kind of excuse. In spite of the polio, to be a great skier, a fantastic drummer and a track athlete was to be respected and I respected him very much.
In early spring of 1969, the band played our last gig in the PCS small gym after a Basketball game, and we all knew that the group that kept us all grounded was ending and we were off to new lives. Atter graduation, my family moved to Connecticut, and I stayed behind and lived with the Legge family so I could work that summer on a construction job in Webster. That summer we kept our friendship strong and then we all went off to different colleges. I visited him at Wooster College and he to me at Penn State. He went on to Wisconsin for grad school, and I went off to serve in Philadelphia as a VISTA Volunteer. We lost touch until the internet brought us back together. After that we were able to continue periodic get togethers at his farm in Lyons, cottage on Sodas Bay or at my home in Massachusetts and a few class reunions. We both had a strong interest in sailing and sports. I brought him to a Boston Bruins game, and we visited PSU for Big Ten hockey games against Wisconsin. Every time we were with each other, it was as if we had never parted. Later in life he had picked up playing the mandolin and I was still playing guitar, so we’d share music a few times. Once we got together at his farm with Greg Wolf and jammed on some tunes I had written. Being out of practice he had trouble drumming and singing at the same time. We found that funny in that after all those years in our band, it was his simultaneous drumming and singing that had kept the whole thing going.
Bob was amazing and I haven’t even mentioned his talent in drama. Not my thing so others can chime in on that aspect of his life.
As I told Lisa recently, Bob never used a cross word or ever complained, or if he did complain it was always with a touch of humor. It was so wonderful to be in his company, and I will remember our times together forever.
A special note here that some of you readers might have known Bob as “Boston”. The name was given to him because we had a music gig coming up and he took a trip to Boson, MA to visit his sister and possible colleges. We were upset and had to cancel the gig. Sort of out of fake disgust we ended up just calling him Boston. The name somehow stuck and he seemed to enjoy the moniker and took it as I suppose, a term of endearment. I miss him dearly.
Boston: As good a friend as one can ever have…
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Regardingmy posy about Bob Legge's recent death, this is a photo of Bob, Greg Wolf and me jamming at Bob's farm in Lyon's NY about 2010. We had a great time and we got to play a few of the songs that I had written. 
