Childhood, high school, and college years

A newspaper photo of Josh Noland (with guitar on the left), singer Rose Mary Billings (center), and Glenn (with guitar on the right) doing a rock and roll number in Mexico City. Elvis Presley had just started coming out with songs like "Blue Suede Shoes" and "You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog." This was the first time Mexican audiences had heard the new rock and roll music, and they absolutely loved it.

Glenn met Josh Noland, who was one of the two best guitarists in Louisville, Kentucky, when the two of them were both students at Atherton High School there. When Josh was around sixteen and Glenn was around fifteen, Josh formed a country-western band, playing lead guitar and doing vocals himself, and using Ray Shipp on steel guitar, Bob Montgomery on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Glenn on bass. They played at places like county fairs, roadhouses, and various spots in the rougher parts of Louisville.

An agent for a nationally famous country-western singer eventually offered to represent Josh and Glenn, starting them off with small jobs, and seeing whether they had the talent to make it into the big time. But after deep thought, the two of them decided not to try to make a living that way.

The Administration Building at the University of Louisville. One of the original bronze castings of Rodin's famous sculpture, "The Thinker," sits on a pedestal at the bottom of the large stone staircase which leads up to the white-columned porch.

Glenn attended the University of Louisville on a full tuition scholarship from 1956 to 1960. He graduated second in his class, summa cum laude, with a B.S. in chemistry and course work in mathematics and nuclear physics. His senior research project was included in a journal article published in the Journal of Radiation Chemistry.

He was also president of his fraternity (Tau Kappa Epsilon), president of the debate team, and president of the service fraternity (which ran blood donor drives and helped provide manpower for other university activities).

Another part of the tree shaded campus of the University of Louisville. It was started in 1798, not long after the American Revolution. It was still a fairly small university when Glenn was a student there, but it was a good place. In addition to the usual arts and sciences courses and some doctoral programs, it had a law school, an engineering school, and the state's only medical school.

Milt Lane and Glenn (standing on the left) formed a dance band with four saxes, two trumpets, two trombones, piano, bass, and drums, and played the old classic big band numbers. Our song list included "Blue Moon," "Stars Fell on Alabama," "Take the A-Train," and the other jazz greats.

We played for high school and fraternity dances, at country clubs, and at the grand old hotels they had in Louisville in those days, including the Brown Hotel and the Seelbach Hotel.

One of the problems Glenn had to solve was figuring out how to get his string bass to wherever the band were playing. This is his first automobile, a grey-blue 1949 Plymouth which he bought for $300 when he was sixteen. He took out the back seat so the bass could be put in the car through the back trunk, which gave just enough room to close the lid on the trunk.

Later on, Milt lane (front center on the piano) and Glenn (on the right with the string bass) quit putting the big band on the road, and switched to playing as a four-man or five-man combo. John Ruby (in the very back) always played drums. This photo must have been taken around 1958-59, when Glenn was nineteen and a junior at the University of Louisville.

For their fourth person, they would phone around and find a good jazz saxophonist who was available. The tenor sax man on the left in this photo was one of the guys we used a lot (his name was Richard Krunkelton, if I remember correctly, but that was fifty years ago). If we could negotiate enough money to afford a fifth musician, we would phone around and also find a trombonist to play with us.