Collection C0174 - Bob Waller's Sheet Music collection

Robert Edward Waller, 1914-1999, was born in Toronto, Ontario. He was educated at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario and served in the RCAF during the Second World War. He married Polly, ?-1987, ca. 1942 and had two children, Bryan and Joan. In 1932, Bob joined Price Waterhouse and in 1949 was transferred to Calgary, Alberta. Bob served as Managing Partner in charge of the Calgary office from 1952 until his retirement from the company in 1976. He was a governor of the Glenbow Museum from 1971 to 1974. Bob and Polly moved to Okotoks in 1962 where they raised purebred shorthorn cattle, later running a cow-calf operation with their son Bryan. Bob also had a great love of music which led to the creation of a collection of more than 2000 pieces of sheet music, carefully indexed alphabetically with notes referring to the composer, key, and date of each piece. He collected popular music that he himself personally enjoyed, including scores from musicals, loves songs, and pop/rock music. Bob sought out sheet music from various dealers and sources in Winnipeg, Toronto, Victoria, Calgary, and New York. Bob was also a member of The Sheet Music Exchange (1990), an organization with members across the USA and Canada. In 1991, due to illness, Bob gave up active collecting, but continued to pick up a few titles of interest and maintained his collection for many years after.