Mentoring Ideas Steve Litwiller, Mentoring Chair The Long Game


I played for a funeral last November, but not just any funeral. A great music educator passed away at the age of 88. He was a FIRST YEAR TEACHER when he was hired in 1951 as band director in Boonville, Missouri. He taught in Boonville for twelve years, and then went into administration. He was a principal at Lebanon and later, at Hickman High School in Columbia. After retiring he moved to Forsyth, Missouri, then took a part time job, teaching band at a small school in Arkansas. Through a series of tragic events his wife, daughter, and son, preceded him in death. The former bandleader came back to Boonville.


I thought he returned because of the great memories of those twelve years, but I know now it was more. He had community—former students, colleagues and friends. I’d see him at concerts and festival performances, and he would visit the school occasionally. He told me once that the biggest mistake he’d ever made in his life was to quit teaching band and go into administration. He loved to reminisce about the “big name” band directors he called his friends: John Patterson, Carol Lewis, Bill Mack, Jerry Hoover, Herb Duncan, Mary Lightfoot, and Roger Mason.


As professional musicians, whether vocal or instrumental, we are often called upon to play for funerals. But this was the former band director in my hometown and the famous creator of the “Boonville Silver Pirate Band” nickname. This was much more than a memorial service. The very first band I heard live was Boonville’s band on parade and at pep rallies at the courthouse. Many of the students I taught when I returned home to serve as band director in 1983 were children of his students. I knew his teaching had a profound impact from 1951-1963 in Central Missouri, but there was a lot more to discover.


During his first twelve years of teaching, the spring 2017 | www.mmea.net


Boonville band received the first “I” Rating in school history at the State Music Festival held at the University of Missouri. The Boonville Stage (Jazz) Band performed at the Missouri Music Educators Conference, held at the time in Kansas City. He organized and hosted the first Jazz Festival ever held in the state of Missouri at Laura Speed Elliott Auditorium in Boonville. He built an exciting and award winning marching band. His students went on to become successful professional musicians, band directors, and college music educators. This was his legacy to our profession as A MUSIC EDUCATOR IN HIS FIRST JOB!


The minister at the funeral home was relatively new in town, but knew his musical heritage and preached a beautiful service. Kyle Donnelly, Kim Pirtle, and I, plus a few students, played a “toned down” version of the school fight song. It was when the minister asked if any former students had remembrances they wanted to share that we all received a life lesson on what really matters. As an educator, you have to ask yourself what impressions would a young teacher, age 23, leave with a student over 60 years later? After all of those accolades and accomplishments in his time at Boonville, what were their memories?


Not a word was spoken about trophies won or lost, contest ratings, or grand trips they had taken. Nobody mentioned scoring more points and finally “beating” a school that was a competitive musical rival. The common theme in their memories and impressions were of his high standards and expectations of them, his love of music, and his devotion and loyalty to his students and to the teaching profession. That was his legacy and it was clearly visible to everyone watching those former students speak six decades later.


See LITWILLER, p. 64 55


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