 He left the show and then moved back to Fargo with his wife, where he continued to work in music, organized a big band, and taught a course at North Dakota State University for a year plus continued to arrange music.By the late 1970s, he moved back to California and formed his own orchestra, which he led until he died in October 1995.By that time, he lived in Palm Desert and had arranged more than seven thousand songs in his entire career.