Real name: Frederick Charles Ebbs

Frederick C. Ebbs, born 1916 in Amherst, Ohio, received his B.S.M. degree from Baldwin-Wallace College in 1937 and his M.M. degree from the University of Michigan in 1940. He served as supervisor of music in the Rittman (Ohio) Public Schools and moved on to become director of the Hobart (Indiana) High School Band from 1940 to 1948. During the summers of 1947 and 1953, he was a guest instructor and visiting lecturer at the Universities of Michigan and Illinois, respectively. From 1948 to 1954, he was Director of Bands at his alma mater, Baldwin-Wallace College. From there he was hired as Director of Bands at the University of Iowa (1954-1967).

Ebbs was appointed Director of Bands at Indiana University in 1967 by Dean Wilfred C. Bain. He retired as Department Chair in 1982 but remained on the faculty until 1984. He was also the director of the IU Summer Music Clinics from 1974 to 1984. He directed many different bands during his tenure at IU, including the Marching Hundred and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
He was honored in 1957 and 1974 with the Alumni Merit and Achievement Awards from Baldwin-Wallace College, and in 1969 he received the Edwin Franko Goldman Award from the American School Band Directors Association. Mr. Ebbs was a clinician, guest conductor for all-state/regional high schools and college bands, adjudicator, and director of many workshops, conferences, and summer camps. His travels took him to 32 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Japan. One of the highlights of his career was conducting the University of Iowa Symphony Band on a three-month concert tour of Europe, winning high praise from music critics in Portugal, Spain, and the former Soviet Union. Mr. Ebbs took two trips to the Rose Bowl with the University of Iowa marching band and, in 1967, with the Indiana University Marching Hundred.

Mr. Ebbs was a member of the American Bandmasters Association (ABA), College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Phi Beta Mu, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, Kappa Kappa Psi, Indiana Bandmasters Association, and the Music Educators National Conference. He received the distinct honor of being inducted into the National Band Association's Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors in 1987, posthumously. He died in 1984 in Bloomington, Indiana.