Bowling
Green, Ky. - An acclaimed jazz pianist, a noted surgeon, and a decorated fighter pilot and commander of the Blue Angels will join Western Kentucky University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni this fall.
Beegie Adair, Dr. Richard Finley Grise and John Magda will be inducted during WKU’s “A Century of Spirit” Homecoming celebration.
The 15th class of noted alumni will be inducted during a Homecoming week luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 27 at the Sloan Convention Center. For ticket information, contact the WKU Alumni Association at 1-888-WKU-ALUM.
Beegie Adair
Bobbe Gorin “Beegie” Long Adair began taking piano lessons at age 5 and has become an acclaimed jazz pianist.
A native of Cave City, she graduated from Caverna High School in 1954 and received her bachelor’s in music education from Western in 1958.
During college, she played jazz professionally every weekend. She taught music to children in the Kentucky school system for three years, but spent her summers working in Nashville, Tenn.
Adair moved to Nashville during the hey day of country music and had the opportunity to accompany legendary performers such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Chet Atkins. Because Nashville was a hot bed of musical television tapings and live performances during that time, Adair worked with such entertainers as Neil Diamond, Mama Cass Elliott and Peggy Lee in her position as in-house pianist for “The Johnny Cash Show” for ABC-TV plus other television programs featuring Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Dinah Shore.
In 1991, Beegie Adair recorded her first trio album, “Escape To New York.” Adair received the 1998 Nashville Music Award (“the Nammy”) Jazz Album of the Year for “The Frank Sinatra Collection.”
Adair and her trio’s other recordings include “The Nat King Cole Collection”; “Sax & Swing”; “Jazz Piano Christmas”; “Love, Elvis”; “Centennial Composers Collection” (saluting Americas greatest composers Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael and Irving Berlin); “Dream Dancing” The Songs of Cole Porter”; “I’ll Take Romance”; and “Days of Wine and Roses: Songs of Johnny Mercer.”
Besides her own albums, Adair has a lengthy list of top credits backing other acts. She has both recorded and performed in concert with Chet Atkins, Henry Mancini, Wayne Newton, Perry Como and others. She also has played on recordings by Sonny Curtis, Johnny Cash, Al Hirt, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, J.J. Cale, Englebert Humperdink, Jerry Reed, Melba Moore, Hank Snow, The Little River Band, John Stewart, The Jordanaires, Connie Francis, Ronnie Milsap, John Loudermilk, Danny Thomas and many more.
Her piano performances can be heard on movie soundtracks such as “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Every Which Way But Loose” and “Perfect World.”
On stage and at jazz festivals, Adair has played with jazz artists such as Nat Adderly, Urbie Green, Bill Watrous, Red Rodney, Lou Tabackin, Jim Ferguson, Terry Clark, Conte Candoli, Michael Moore, Bernard Purdy and Nick Brignola; with comedians such as Red Skelton, Steve Allen and Rodney Dangerfield; plus extended stints with Ray Stevens, Lorrie Morgan, the Hank Garland Quintet, and the Andy Goodrich Quintet.
Adair served as the main pianist at five annual International Trombone Workshops where she performed with Slide Hampton, Kai Winding, Frank Rosolino, Carl Fontana, Phil Wilson, Albert Mangelsdorff and others. She serves as adjunct professor in jazz studies at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and teaches singers repertoire at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.
Adair was named an Official Steinway Artist in 2002, which enables her to have Steinway pianos on stage for her performances. She was a 2004 inductee into the Cave City Hall of Fame and a 2002 inductee into the WKU Music Department’s Wall of Fame.
She lives in Franklin, Tenn., with her husband, William D. Adair Jr.
Richard Finley Grise
For Richard Finley Grise, Western’s role in his education began long before his college days.
Dr. Grise, son of Dean Finley C. Grise, was born in 1920 and started kindergarten in 1925 at Western’s Training School. He graduated from Western’s College High School in 1937 as valedictorian. He received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry, physics and biology from Western State Teachers College in 1941 and earned the Ogden College Valedictorian Award.
He earned his doctor of medicine degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1944. From 1944 to 1950, Dr. Grise held various positions, including resident surgeon and surgery instructor, at the University of Virginia where he received his master of science degree in surgical pathology in 1950.
Dr. Grise, a World War II veteran, also was chief of surgery at Westover Field, Mass., and Lagens Air Force Base in the Azores whiles serving as medical corps captain in the U.S. Army Air Force.
In 1952, Dr. Grise returned to Bowling Green where he conducted his private surgery practice until his retirement in 1990. During this time, Dr. Grise was on the medical staff and chief of surgery at the Bowling Green-Warren County Hospital (now The Medical Center) and at Greenview Hospital. He also served twice as the chairman of Greenview’s board of trustees.
Dr. Grise’s memberships included the Kentucky Medical Association, the American Medical Association, Southeastern Surgical Congress and American College of Surgeons’ National Board of Governors. He also was a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and president of the Council of the Kentucky Surgical Society.
During his career, Dr. Grise served as the professional delegate from Kentucky to the American Cancer Society for 12 years, served as president of the Kentucky Cancer Society and received the group’s Gold Medal for Contributions to the Control of Cancer.
Dr. Grise also served his community and his alma mater. He served on the executive board of the Audubon Council of the Boy Scouts of America and a member of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, from which he won the 1975 Silver Beaver Award for Distinguished Service to Youth. He also was a member of the Bowling Green-Warren County Chamber of Commerce and the American Red Cross.
At WKU, Dr. Grise served as president of the Alumni Association from 1982-84 and was member of the Kentucky Museum Advisory Council and the Lancaster Society Board.
Dr. Grise, a longtime member of State Street United Methodist Church, died in April 2004 at age 83. He was survived by his wife, Wilma; three sons, four stepsons, five grandchildren and eight step-grandchildren.
John Magda
John J. Magda was a star on the ground as halfback for the Western football teams in the late 1930s, but he was a hero in the air as an ace fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War in the 1940s and ‘50s.
Magda, whose parents came to the United States from Hungary in 1904, was born in Camp Taylor near Louisville on July 23, 1918. He was captain of the football team at Okolona High School before coming to Western Kentucky State Teachers College.
Western went 21-4-2 during the 1937-39 seasons when Magda was a member of the team. Magda, who graduated in 1940, also was a member of the Western baseball teams coached by E.A. Diddle.
Magda enlisted in the U.S. Navy in September 1940, was appointed an aviation cadet in January 1941, completed flight training in June 1941 and was assigned to Fighter Squadron Eight based on the USS Hornet in August 1941.
During the Battle of the Midway in June 1942, Magda’s plane ran out of fuel after attacking three Japanese aircraft carriers and had to be ditched in the Pacific Ocean. Magda and another pilot drifted in shark-infested waters for five days in a rubber life raft before being rescued 300 miles from where they fell into the ocean.
Magda was assigned to carrier USS Saratoga in March 1943 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and two Gold Stars for heroism and extraordinary achievement as a pilot and leader of a fighter plane division. He was an ace at age 23, credited with shooting down five Japanese fighter planes and destroying at least seven more on the ground.
In 1944, Magda returned to the United States and was promoted to lieutenant commander in October 1945. In March 1948, he served as a member of the first jet squadron to operate on board an aircraft carrier, the USS Boxer. That same year, he set a speed record in a Navy jet fighter by making the 1,050-mile flight from Seattle to San Diego in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 54 seconds. The average speed was 485 mph with a top speed recorded at 550 mph.
In September 1949, Magda was assigned to the fly with the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight exhibition team. He became the Blue Angels’ commander in January 1950. Magda and his team were assigned to duty in the Korean War in August 1950 and were assigned to the USS Princeton.
On March 8, 1951, Magda was leading an attack on North Korean and Chinese installations at Tanchon when his jet was hit and burst into flames. He headed his plane toward the sea where it crashed, killing the famed pilot. Magda, 33, was buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville.
He was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism. His other military awards include Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with two Gold Stars, the Purple Heart, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal and the United Nations Service Medal.
Magda’s wife, Mary Kate Miller Magda, also graduated from Western. His son, Dale, is a retired pilot and daughter, Marni, is a retired professor.
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For information, contact Tracy Morrison at (270) 745-4395.