A musical loss

She was an adviser, a Jacobs School of Music practice room proctor, a confidant and a motivator to nearly 47 years worth of music school students passing through the halls.\nHelen Clouse did it all.\nAfter almost a half-century of serving the University and reigning as the oldest employee at the age of 100, Helen Clouse passed away Sunday, leaving behind a missing note in the music sheets practiced throughout the Jacobs School’s halls. She served as the coordinator for student practice room scheduling until the very end.\n“It’s hard not to have her with us,” said Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards. “To have a relationship with her for five decades, she becomes a part of the fabric of the school.”\nRichards, who met Clouse during the 1970s when he was an IU student, recalled her immediate importance in the music school family. \nAs December of the late 1970s rolled around, “Helen Clouse’s lounge” began. The week before finals, students in the music school gathered to enjoy catered goods and baked treats, often made by Clouse herself. She refused to let students travel hungry, Richards said. \nThis tradition still continues today, and Richards said it will continue, as it will be one of the things students close to Clouse will remember her by.\nOn her 100th birthday, the music school dedicated “Helen Clouse Plaza,” located right outside of the Music Practice Building on Third Street.\nClouse’s grandson, Charles Aikman, remembered how during the dedication, as the rock with the plaque was unveiled, she said, “I’m glad you picked that rock, I’m mighty fond of it.” \n“I think I will miss her wit. She had a wonderful sense of humor,” Aikman said with a laugh. “Working until she was 100 years old, quite an accomplishment. She made an impact she would never take credit for – she was always humble in terms of contribution. ‘They’ve done everything for me,’ she would say.” \nWhat Clouse leaves behind is a missing bond – the bond between her and the school, the faculty and staff and the alumni.\n“Ask any alumni, and they will say one of the things they remember most of all is the relationship with Helen,” Richards said. “She was remembered years into the future.”\nDuring the 1980s, Alvin Chow attended IU for his doctoral studies. \nAs a new music student, he remembers turning in his practice sheets to request times and rooms for practicing. The chore of assigning the hundreds of music school students to practice rooms didn’t faze Clouse. It was through her job that she met generations of students, keeping in touch with many and remembering them all. \nDespite the hundreds of students bustling in and out of the music practice building day after day, Clouse took the time to get to know the students, to ask them questions and listen to them, and occasionally, to offer advice, Chow said.\n“She was almost like a mothering figure for me at Indiana, even though I was a graduate student,” Chow said. After he left IU, Chow said he kept in touch with Clouse, sending her Christmas cards and making a point to visit her if he neared the Bloomington area.\nBesides conversation and advice, Clouse offered students newspapers and magazines to read, and snacks, which were always on her desk. \n“It was a great way to bring humanity to such a large imposing school of music,” Chow said. \nHer selflessness spread to all aspects of her life.\nYears ago, when the music school became financially challenged, Richards said Clouse offered to forgo her salary.\n“She was extraordinarily giving,” he said. “And she gave the best advice. If you wanted advice, you could go to Helen. You always knew she was doing it for your best interest.” \nHer legacy, Richards said, will be the intense bond she created in her lifetime of service to others. No desire mattered more to her than helping people live up to their potential. \n“On her birthday, several alumni returned to campus to celebrate with her,” Richards said, recalling how she’d remember qualities about students. “She’d say, ‘What is it about practice room 135 that you liked so much?’ And the student would have long forgotten the practice room but she knew the number.” \nWhile she was physically failing, her mind was sharp and clear, and her memory vivid as always.\n“It was remarkable that way, and the way she stayed young,” Richards said. “Even at 100, she was a young person, and I think that was because of the students, they kept her young.”