John "Jock" Carl Budelman died on September 10, 2024 at the age of 93. He was born on January 1, 1931 in Portland, OR, the first child of John and Elisabeth Budelman. The family moved to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, and Jock grew up in the Atwater district with his two younger sisters, Nancy and Linda.

Jock began studying the flute at age nine and quickly moved on to playing clarinet and saxophone. At age 16 he had his first opportunity to play professionally at the Rendezvous Ballroom behind such greats as Peggy Lee and Billy Eckstine. After graduating from John Marshall High School in 1949, he toured and recorded the song "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" with Perez Prado and his Orchestra.

Jock married his high school sweetheart Geraldine Florentine in 1951. They decided to move their young family to Seattle, where Jock enrolled at the University of Washington and the Air Force ROTC. He graduated in 1957 and went on to teach music at John Marshall Junior High (1957-59) and Nathan Eckstein Middle School (1959-1962). In 1962, he was offered a position teaching choral music at Verdun American High School in France, where he and Geri lived with their daughters Rebecca, Jennifer, and Deirdre until 1964.

Inspired by the Vienna Boys Choir, he returned to teaching at John Marshall Junior High in 1964 and founded separate boys and girls select choirs, combining talented students from four different public schools. As a student of Zoltan Kodaly, he was dedicated to teaching the Kodaly method of sight-reading and solfège to his choral students. He enjoyed more time abroad in Seville, Spain with his family in the late 1960s, where he played flute with a flamenco ensemble in addition to teaching.

In 1971, Jock married his second wife Gail Hardman. They lived on a houseboat in Lake Union and embarked on several sailing adventures in the Puget Sound and Pacific Coast. He joined the music department at West Seattle High School in 1973, and took a sabbatical in 1978-79 to sail down the West Coast of the United States to Mexico.

Jock retired from teaching in 1986. As a musician, he played with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Fifth Avenue Theater, and the Ken Cloud Orchestra at the Seattle Center Armory, among many other gigs.

In the early 1990s, Jock began migrating annually to Mazatlan, Mexico in his Chevy van, with his cat and dogs in tow. He had a longstanding gig playing solo jazz at the restaurant Pedro y Lola's, and he gained a local community of friends.

Jock began experiencing dementia in 2016 but enjoyed two more winters in Mazatlan before moving back to Seattle in 2018. He was preceded in death by his sisters Nancy Druley and Linda Clasen, first wife Geraldine, his daughter Deirdre Law, and grandson Michael Soderberg. He is survived by four daughters, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Memorial will be held Sunday, 10/27, 1:00 pm at the Ballard Community Center.