March On! ...the history of the
Toronto Optimists Drum & Bugle Corps
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Warren Mills
Corps: Opti-Corps, Toronto Optimists
Warren joined up in 1956 and wore the Blue of Opti-Corps, then both Greens of the Toronto Optimists. He played a soprano before moving to French Horn in 1958. He aged out in 1962.
When the Alumni Corps was formed, Warren was there, playing mellophone. Unfortunately, after a few years of playing with the Alumni health issues forced him to leave the corps.
Warren and his closest friends, Henry Beben, Jim Patten and Phil Hennings, had all been members of both Opti-Corps and the Toronto Optimists. When Warren could no longer travel they made regular trips to Orillia to visit him. It was a friendship that lasted over fifty years!
Here are a couple of comments from some of those who knew him.
"In the later years he was a man of few words but his silence said everything. We will remember him in the good and bad times of his life."
"Warren was an inspiration, a gift of sunshine, and a true blessing to all who knew him."
Warren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . We Remember!