Wendall L. "Pete" Exline

August 15, 1922 - April 07, 2016

Wendall L. "Pete" Exline Obituary (Age 93) Pete passed away Thursday afternoon, April 7, 2016 at Hospice House South in Spokane. He lived near Medical Lake. He was well known as a performing musician and as a teacher at Eastern Washington University. He was born in Enid, Oklahoma on August 15, 1922 to Wendell Philip and Edna (Rogers) Exline. He studied at Oklahoma State University, at Northwestern University and at the University of California in Los Angeles. Pete served in the US Army and the US Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946. After graduating from Northwestern with a master?s degree, having studied with the famous Max Pottag in French horn performance, Pete accepted a faculty position at Eastern Washington University in 1949 teaching brass instruments and music history. From 1949 to 1960 he was principal French horn in the Spokane Philharmonic (later the Spokane Symphony). At EWU Pete conducted bands and other ensembles and performed as a founding member of the Eastern Washington University Faculty Woodwind Quintet. He played in ensembles in the Spokane region and in Yuma, Arizona where he had a winter home. Beginning with a sabbatical leave from EWU in 1964 Pete traveled in Europe to interview French horn performing and teaching professionals to document playing and teaching techniques. The results were digitized into the MP3 format and are a part of the archive of the International Horn Society. Pete was a life member of the International Horn Society and regularly attended the society?s meetings until the year of his death. He was also a member of Windjammers Unlimited, a life member of Local 10-208 of the Chicago Federation of Musicians and the Spokane Chapter of the A.F. of M (Local 105). As an avid sports car driver, he was a member of the Porsche Club of America. His horn-playing colleagues the world over and his colleagues and students at EWU and in Spokane valued Pete?s knowledge, his unfailing humor and willingness to share a good story. They give special thanks to the physicians and nurses at the Cheney Care Center, Deaconess Hospital and at Hospice House of Spokane for the care they provided Pete to make his life?s end peaceful and comfortable. Pete was preceded in death by his sister Ruth Exline Stuck. At his request there will be no service.