Weldon E. Petz Collection

Weldon Petz was born September 11, 1923. He began his career as a trombonist in an orchestra with Jimmy Dorsey and Johnny Long, and worked with many others such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, and Abbott & Costello. Petz even started his own orchestra, the Tommy Weldon Orchestra, which operated from 1947 to 1953. He eventually sought a career in education, but continued to focus on music, and furthered his career as a historian focusing on the presidential history of Lincoln, music, and education. He went to Wayne State University and received his Master’s Thesis in 1951, which is entitled Music and Abraham Lincoln. In 1954 he became involved a legal dispute with John Lair, who he accused lair of having plagiarized for Lair’s book research he had shown him. While the evidence was substantial, nothing came of the lawsuit. Petz received the Lincoln Diploma of Honor in 1972. His publications include In the Presence of Lincoln, published in 1973, and Michigan's monumental tributes to Abraham Lincoln published in 1987. He died April 28, 2011 at the age of 88.