Tressie Benson

Benson, a professional jazz saxophonist and retired educator, will be the keynote speaker at the Cal Poly Pomona black graduates' celebration at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 7.
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Born in Marks, Miss., and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Benson has played saxophone and piano since age 14.Now 70, he plans to travel more after his wife's June 30 retirement from 27 years in education, but said playing music will remain a vital part of his regular activities.

Benson's studies at the University of Toledo were interrupted by a call to military service.He completed a bachelor degree in education at Alabama State University while serving in the Army and assigned to duty near Montgomery.

He and Army buddy Leon Williams, also a professional tenor saxophonist of note, co-founded the Gow Dow Experience in Montgomery.The Gow Dow Experience was later transplanted to California when the two musical friends respectively moved to Oakland and Los Angeles.They contined to play together in the musical ensemble and added students and professional musicians as needed for different gigs at college, concert and community events.

Benson's affinity for music, young people and education began as a boy who was taught the importance of respect, balance, service and cultural understanding by his parents, Escar and Tressie Benson.Those life lessons were later enhanced by teachers, musical mentors and community colleagues.

He earned a master's degree at Cal State Los Angeles after moving to California.Benson taught at Lincoln High School in East Los Angeles for six years before moving his wife and children Barry and Angela to Claremont in the late 1960s when he accepted a faculty appointment at Cal Poly Pomona.

He taught philosophy of black thought and music, directed the Gow Dow Experience with college musicians and served as the university's black studies director at Cal Poly before resigning to complete his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate School.

In the summer of 1975, he took the Gow Dow Experience and student musicians on a concert tour of Africa.That fall, he joined the Palomares Middle School faculty as a teacher and instrumental music director.Although he taught at Palomares for 21 years before retiring in 1996, he always maintained musical interests.