Tribute to a great man

My vocal coach, Jim Casey, passed away over the weekend. He had cancer that had taken over his body.

Jim was well-known in the barbershop society. He coached many gold medal quartets. There are many of the best singers that have attributed much of their success in singing to Jim.

I was able to work with Jim many times over the past 3 years. He transformed my voice into what it is now. He also coached my quartet and helpped us get to the international competition.

Several months ago, I had him come and work with our praise team. It was an incredible night where everyone there was blessed. I will never forget him talking about the importance of communicating the message of the song from your heart. After talking about it, he sang "It is Well with My Soul." I don't think I will ever here a more heartfelt expression of that song than what he sang to us that night. We also gathered around him and prayed over hiim.

He called me the next day just to let me know what an incredible experience it was to work with us and that it just overwhelmed him when we gathered to pray over hiim.

Two weeks ago, my quartet was able to visit him in ICU and sing a couple of songs for him. As far as I know, our quartet was the last that he coached and the last to sing for him before he passed on.

He will be greatly missed. He knew my dad, so I'm sure he will find him in heaven and sing a few.

Pepperdine was this past week, but I'll save that for tomorrow.