Life Story: Jim Torok
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Twin Cities family is saying goodbye to a man with many talents.
Jim Torok lived in Shoreview. He was a research physicist at a computer company called Univac. He was also the founder of a well-known jazz band in the Twin Cities.
He was a gifted musician and a brilliant scientist, and as we discovered in this week's Life Story, Jim left his mark on science and music in many ways.
On many nights, you could find Jim on many nights playing the clarinet or soprano saxophone for the Pig's Eye Jass Band.
Jim started the band in 1961 by encouraging his co-workers at Univac to pick up their instruments again. He taught them how to play traditional jazz, known as Dixieland.
Nancy Hite is Jim's wife.
"He was passionate about it -- keeping live music thriving. That involved of course making sure people continued to learn to play music," she said.
Jim also played with other groups, like the Mouldy Figs, the Red Beans and Rice Band, and the Jumpin' Jehosaphats gospel jazz band.
"He was methodical about it in terms of the importance of staying true to the original creators of jazz, and in terms of emulating them and practicing so that you could sound like they did," Nancy said.
Nancy sometimes sang in his bands. She has a stack of his recordings.
She says as much as he loved jazz, Jim loved physics and spent most of his 30 years at Univac researching ways to advance computer technology.
"Most of what he did had to do with early on making computers faster and have more memory," Nancy said.
Jim was an inventor. He's the guy who came up with something called image rotating diffraction grating, and still has the patent to prove it.
"He was very successful in accomplishing over 40 patents in his lifetime, which is pretty unbelievable," Nancy said. "So he was always working on something new. That gave him more energy I think," Nancy said.
After he retired, Jim volunteered at Patrick Henry High School and Columbia Heights High School. He worked one-on-one with band students, teaching them how to improvise.
"He was a quiet person. He wasn't a big talker," Nancy said. "He only spoke when he actually had something to say," his wife said.
Jim died Nov. 8 at the age of 80. Donations in his honor can be made to the Young Musicians Scholarship Fund of the Twin Cities Musicians Union online, or by sending checks to:
708 North 1st Street, Suite CR31
Minneapolis, MN 55401
