Frank Vidergar

Frank Vidergar Eulogy
by
Larry Sikora

I speak today as a representative of the Fontana Slovene Button Box club. As I collected our club’s thoughts and was searching for adequate words to honor Frank, I could feel Frank standing behind me saying Please Larry, keep it brief. Frank more enjoyed giving recognition than receiving it.

Some people have a single driving passion that will often become their life vocation. Frank was exceptionally passionate about everything and he was able to live all of those passions each and every day without compromise. I will speak today about his commitment to the Accordion Club, but it is difficult to separate this from his other passions of family, friends, Slovene culture, work and community.

Back in the early 70s Frank traveled to Chicago and heard the very first button box club in the United States. Frank came back to Fontana determined to start a local Button Box Club. He rounded up all the local pros as well as amateurs and started to have jam sessions. It was a struggle at first trying to get everyone on time, on key, and playing the same tune but he remained undaunted. Frank organized the club and was elected our first president. It was Frank’s ideas and drive that led our club to host the national button accordion jamboree in Fontana in 1978. Through Frank’s leadership, the annual jamboree continued for 26 years and attracted people and groups from all over the US and at times from other countries. It was always a happy event with people sharing their culture; their music, their dancing, their singing.

Over the years, some of our club members moved away, drifted away, or passed away, but new members continued to join. Even though we have evolved, the one constant that remained was Frank as our club president by unanimous consent. He always said we wanted him to remain as president until he got it right. Needless to say, we wouldn’t admit to him he got it right for fear he would decline the position.

With Frank’s knowledge and love of tax codes and corporate law, he properly organized our club as a non-profit organization, formally worked with the club officers to establish bylaws and he ran the club business meetings in a well-organized fashion. He required accurate records and a detailed accounting of our treasury’s funds. Yet, thanks to his efficiency, the bulk of our meetings were spent rehearsing and learning new tunes. Because of our success, our club was able to subsidize many trips over the years including such far away places as Minnesota, Alaska, Canada, Florida, Washington, Slovenia, and just this past Memorial Day, Oklahoma. On the trips to Slovenia, you could see how Frank loved the country and treasured his family ties as if Slovenia were his home, yet his patriotism and love for the United States was never in doubt. After Joe Umeck, our first music director, passed away 10 years ago, Frank set up the Joe Umeck Scholarship fund and since then under Frank’s leadership, our small club has donated over $62,000 to this worthy cause.

Frank then assumed the additional duties of Music Director. He developed a system of notation for the button box that was easy for people with no formal musical training to learn. He would spend many hours listening to poor quality recordings from modern Slovenian bands. He would commit the tunes to paper and share them with our group. First, he would play his recording for us to listen to the melody. Because he made these recordings from live events in Slovenia and various venues in the US, all we could hear was the background sounds of the festivities and the merriment all around. We would look at each other wondering if anyone could hear a melody in all that racket. Then Frank would play the tune for us and pass out the music he had written. We always marveled at how Frank was able to reach deep within an ocean of noise and pluck these precious pearls of polkas or waltzes and we were continually learning beautiful new melodies. Even though this took hours of his time, he was always eager to bring in more music.

Some how, Frank was able to do this without neglecting his family, work and other loves. With his patience and good teaching skills we would often learn one or two new tunes during a single practice meeting. As if this weren’t enough, he was eager to give lessons to anyone interested and has inspired and taught numerous people to play the button box. It’s not surprising that two of his most accomplished students are his own children, Frank Jr. and Lisa.

The Oklahoma Memorial Day weekend, 2007, was his last days of excellent health and boundless energy. During our time there and even after we returned, people, some of them strangers, sincerely commented to me that when Frank was on stage at Oklahoma, he brought an energy that would charge up everyone, players and dancers alike. It was not just our club, but when Frank jammed with others they always played their absolute best.

One could not know Frank without knowing about his family, his work, his accordion club, and his Slovene heritage. Frank and Mary Lou made us all part of their extended family. Frank gave so much to so many of us, yet he also loved to know about everyone else. He was very quick to laugh with everyone. He loved a good joke and he had that contagious smile that seemed to be bigger than his face. And, he was also very quick to cry with a person. Frank had no emotional secrets.

They say a person cannot pass through a room without taking a little from each person and giving a little of himself. When Frank entered a room full of people, if he did not know everyone when he entered, he certainly knew everyone when he left and everyone knew Frank.

Although it has only been a few days since Frank’s passing, I’ll bet that Frank is already surrounded by relatives, old friends and many new friends, he has just organized the first Heavenly Button Box Club and even God has already confided in him with a tax problem.

If I would have to sum it up in one sentence I would say that above all, Frank was a good and honorable man never swaying from his passionate loves of family, work, Slovene heritage, and friends, and he was eager to share all with everyone.

On behalf of our club I say that we all rejoice in having known Frank.

In the last Mass of 2007, Psalm 96 was recited. I can’t help but think of Frank as I hear the response to this Psalm.

So today, As Frank passes us for the last time we rejoice that he has given us a very big part of himself. We on earth can all take comfort in knowing that we also have been a very big part of his life.

I quote the responsorial Psalm 96

“Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice.”

Na Svidenje Frank.