Decades after his dad’s death, Austin man hears his music

Here’s your daily dose of sweetness:

John “Bud” Minerich, 93, died on Monday and you couldn’t ask for a more perfect end than the one described in today’s Austin Daily Herald.

His father, John, died when Bud was only 14 years old, but he remembers him playing Croatian music.  Some time ago, he found some music his father had written.

“I know he taught other people how to play; but where he learned to play, and how he learned to write music, I just don’t know,” he told the Herald last month.

His dad was a coal miner in Pennsylvania and then worked in the mills of Ohio; that’s not generally the pedigree of a composer.

Earlier this month, his son, Phil, arranged to have Bud’s dad’s music  played  during the Croatian Cultural Society of Minnesota’s Christmas party.

He said it was more than he ever expected.

He developed some pneumonia last week and it looked like he had it beat when he suffered a massive heart attack.

His son says the title of his grandfather’s composition — Go Forward, Marching — is pretty relevant now.

“Keep going forward — that was like my dad. He would say we’re on a path and it is what it is. Whatever happens, you just keep moving on,” Phil told the Herald.