Victor Bilanchone Jr.

Victor Bilanchone, Jr., 82, of Spartanburg, SC, died on April 27, 2022, at Spartanburg Regional Hospice Home. “Dr. B” loved being Italian, making music, working with his personal construction company, “Dilettante Construction”, and dancing the tango. Oh, and playing golf.

He was born December 18, 1939, in Waterbury, CT. He lived in Connecticut and Rhode Island until he left for the University of Miami in Miami, FL. He graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in Radio-TV-Film. After serving five years in the Air Force, (England, Oklahoma and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan), he returned to Miami to get a Master’s in Music Education and, later a doctorate in Musical Arts.

His first college job was at Paine College in Augusta, GA, a historically black college. In 1972, he was employed by Wofford College where he was director of music for 29 years until he retired in 2001. In 1990, he and his wife, Linda, bought a 100-year-old house in Hampton Heights and Vic spent the next ten years painting, wallpapering, repairing, designing and building stained glass windows and a two-car “barn” from the ground up!

Vic was also a tango aficionado and to celebrate his retirement in 2001, he and Linda and Vic’s dance partner, Ana Maria Wiseman, and her husband, Dennis Wiseman, trekked to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for some honest-to-goodness tango lessons.

However, most of Vic’s better known musical accomplishments featured his wonderful choirs at Wofford College – especially, the Men’s Glee Club – and basso profundo roles in Gilbert and Sullivan shows or roles such as Juan Peron in “Evita” in local productions. In addition to his work at Wofford College, Vic was Music Director at Central United Methodist Church for 30 years.

Vic and Linda have three children, Patrick, a double bassist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, and the Columbus, OH Chamber Orchestra. Jodi, a singer and music therapist in Cleveland, OH, and Jill, a lawyer, cellist and a vice president of AutoNation in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

No flowers, please.  In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in memory of Vic Bilanchone to the Bilanchone-Conway Scholarship Fund at Wofford College, 429 North Church Street, Spartanburg 29303, or to Central United Methodist Church, 233 N. Church St., Spartanburg, 29306. The family will celebrate Vic Bilanchone’s life privately at a later date.