In Tune

When Gordon Estabrook ’72 reached his 64th birthday, he woke up and drove to his engineering job. He only had a few small tasks to complete at the office, so when he was done, he began the drive home, stopping to grab breakfast at a restaurant en route. He pulled out his phone and saw that his family had sent him a link to a YouTube video.

“When I get older losing my hair/ Many years from now/ Will you still be sending me a Valentine…” 

It was a rendition of the Beatles’ “When I’m 64,” performed by his daughter and son-in-law, complete with hand puppets and some rewritten lyrics. His wife, Lois Estabrook ’74, was the ringleader. “It was marvelous,” Gordon says. 

That YouTube video is a good example of the type of relationship Gordon and Lois cherish. It shows the strong relationship they each have with music — and their drive to support one another’s interests. 

Lois Gigliotti was in the first class of women to descend upon the Hill in 1970. Determined to make her mark on campus, she, along with only three other women, joined the marching band. Gordon, a trombone player and the band’s assistant director, remembers seeing Lois during practice, marching in bell-bottoms, expertly playing her clarinet. 

At that time, the Colgate marching band performed only at football games, so every Saturday, they led the Raiders’ fight to glory. “We’d start in the center of town, and we’d lead a parade to Andy Kerr Stadium; at halftime, we’d do shows,” Gordon says. It was during a bus trip to play Yale that Lois first noticed Gordon. “He just struck me as being very funny, and I think that was the big attraction; he could make you laugh,” she says. Knowing Lois was a French major, he instructed the band to only converse in foreign languages for the entire ride to New Haven. 

Gordon and Lois don’t remember their first date — maybe it was bowling, or taking a walk around campus. For them, what’s more important than “firsts” is the time they spent together, helping and encouraging one another to pursue their individual goals. Gordon, a physical science major, had a tough time completing the language requirements at Colgate. “Lois managed to get me through with passing grades,” he says. Later, after many years of marriage, they would go on dates and talk shop about Gordon’s work as an engineer and Lois’ as a marketing analyst. “We would go out to dinner to celebrate an anniversary or something, and be sitting there talking about marketing statistics or quality plans,” Gordon says. “And I’d jump out of myself and say, ‘Jeepers, I wonder if somebody watching us would think that this was a business meeting, rather than an anniversary?’”

What’s also important to the couple is keeping music a part of their relationship. The two are members of the 222-year-old Temple (N.H.) Band, “America’s First Town Band.” Wearing colonial-style uniforms, they perform on the town commons. And, true to Lois and Gordon’s roots, they march. 

In addition to their town band, the couple also plays in a 16-piece swing band.