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Air Force veteran community's piano man

By Gale O'Dell, The Daily Star-Journal, Warrensburg, Mo. on

Published in Senior Living Features

WARRENSBURG -- Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. David Rest, 74, plays piano for area organizations -- not the path family tradition put him on.

Rest, who grew up in Chicago, said he learned to play piano from a church organist who worked as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's back-up organist.

"I took lessons for eight years and quit in the eighth grade, and never took another lesson," Rest said. "I was self-taught."

Rest said his father wanted him to become a minister.

"I come from a family where my father was a minister, he had three brothers that were ministers, and his father before him was a minister," Rest said. "And so, I am the oldest son of the oldest son of the oldest son, and here I came out and became a combat crew commander in the ICBM (program). I did not have the calling."

At first following the family tradition, Rest said, he went to Elmhurst College, in Elmhurst, Ill., but got booted out for behavioral problems.

The move did not end Rest's education career, which took him to Chicago City College, Roosevelt University and eventually to a master's degree in business administration from the University of Missouri.

To make money along the way, Rest said, he worked in a psychiatric ward and in a drug store, and he put those music lessons to work by playing piano at a bar until 4 a.m.

In his early 20s, Rest joined the Air Force. In January 1964, he went to officers training school at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. His military career took him to Iwo Jima for about a month; Japan for three and a half years; Whiteman Air Force Base, five years; Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for five and half years; Guam, two years; England, three years; and for his last year he returned to Whiteman Air Force Base.

Rest said he served with the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Program during his first tour at Whiteman and from there worked with ICBMs at Vandenberg.

"I did get a chance to launch three (ICBMs) without the nuke," Rest said. "In the last two years, I basically ran the Vandenberg Base Command Post."

Duties at home with family led Rest to switch Air Force careers after Vandenberg.

"I had kids growing up and I would be home two Thursdays a month," Rest said. "I loved what (the Air Force) wanted me to do, but I switched careers and ended up in Guam for two years with the family, and three in England, and came here (to Whiteman) for my last assignment."

After retiring from the Air Force, Rest said he played piano for 18 years at Remington Steakhouse in the Adam's Mark, a hotel next to the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City. Rest said he played there for guests, including Major League Baseball and National Football League players who stayed at the hotel. He said he got to know some of the pros and he played at the Chiefs' 25th anniversary celebration.

Rest also met golfer Tom Watson and celebrity performers, including Billy Joel and Robert "Wolfman Jack" Smith.

 

After leaving the hotel, Rest said he played at different functions and places around Johnson and Henry counties.

"I just go around playing," Rest said. "I know every senior center from here to Windsor to Clinton. I have played them all."

Rest is a West-Central Independent Living Solutions board member and decided to become a volunteer pianist after participating in Community Leadership and Involvement Means a Better community, or CLIMB.

"I went through a CLIMB program, and I just said, 'From now on, when I have time, I will volunteer to play for fundraisers, private parties,' and a lot of the stuff is pro bono," he said.

On Friday night, Rest played piano at the Warrensburg Senior Center during an awards banquet for volunteers. Center director Melissa Gower, the event emcee, spoke into the microphone and thanked Rest in front of a crowd of about 80 people.

"He can play just about everything and if he couldn't, he would fake it," Gower said, and the crowd, after laughing, applauded their appreciation to Rest for the tunes he played during dinner.

Volunteer work takes Rest on occasion to the Missouri Veterans Home-Warrensburg. He said he plays for the Alzheimer's disease group.

"I have gotten to know a lot of them," Rest said. "I've had some wonderful experiences with that, too."

Rest said one patient performed with the Metropolitan Opera.

"I am playing and he's humming a lot of the songs, all the big musicals, and I thought something was wrong," Rest said. "After that first time, it dawned on me that he has perfect pitch and the piano was out of tune."

(c)2014 The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Mo.)

Visit The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Mo.) at www.dailystarjournal.com

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(c) The Daily Star-Journal, Warrensburg, Mo.

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