Jack Hicks: Strike up the band for this director

With a little imagination you could see Bob Gregg heading out to a green space, with a sprinkling can and a trowel.

But it's not flowers or veggies Gregg has grown over the years on football field-sized plots of ground. The veteran educator has produced band directors - men and women responsible for putting together some of the finest musical and marching aggregations in Kentucky.

"He has a real passion for music, and getting the most out of his students," said Greg Boulden, director of the University of Kentucky's Marching Band and one of Gregg's proteges.

"I'd tell parents, 'If your child never learns a note of music, he's going to be enriched by being around this man,' " said Cliff Wallace, the former Williamstown school superintendent, who taught, and later hired, Gregg.

Bands directed by Gregg have put a lot of hardware in school trophy cases. His bands won three state championships and 15 Kentucky State Fair championships during a lengthy tenure at Harrison County High School.

In four years at Williamstown High School he won two state championships and has been runner-up twice.

The Williamstown Band, with 74 members in a school population of 225, will be bidding for another state title later this year in Bowling Green.

How does he do it? Hard work and dedicated youngsters, Gregg claims. Inspiration and honesty, people such as Boulden and Wallace say.

"He's just an honest person. I'd say that's the most important thing I've learned from Bob," said Boulden.

Honesty is a virtue when dealing with students, parents and fellow faculty members, but inspiration based on the instructor's work ethic may be the key. Gregg works hard and his band members have followed the example.

And in a score of instances, the example has prompted former high school band members to become college music majors, and then go to direct their own bands.

Sports fans know how hard football players work, sweating out practice sessions getting ready for their fall schedule. Marching band participants work as hard, or harder, Gregg contends. Members of his bands put in 13 hours a week during the school term, plus another five hours in the classroom.

Members of marching bands also participate in concert and pep bands, and that requires additional practice.

Then there are summer band camps, in July, when marching musicians sometimes go as long as 12 hours a day for three weeks.

"You'll never see more dedication than in a great marching band. It (the participation and preparation) tests you in every way that you're likely to be tested in life," Gregg said.

"Music has order. It doesn't make you smarter, but it provides order in the mind," he said.

"Nobody sits on the bench in a band. Each of the members are interdependent on the others," Gregg added.

Even hardcore football enthusiasts have come to appreciate good bands. Halftime at games is no longer just an opportune time for spectators to visit the concession stand or restroom.

"I've had football fathers tell me, 'This is visually thrilling,' " said Gregg. "The bands are a draw, and people enjoy them."

As is often the case in life, fate stepped in on at least two occasions to draw Gregg into his position as band master. While a student at Grant County High School in the early 1960s, he had plans to become an engineer. Then he joined the band directed by Wallace, as a French horn player, and his goals were redirected.

"He has changed a lot of lives in a positive way. He is the reason I'm doing this," Gregg said of Wallace.

Gregg majored in music at Eastern Kentucky University, and became a faculty member at Harrison County High. A military obligation soon put him in the Air Force, and that circumstance proved almost too good to leave.

Stationed at the Air Force

Academy in Colorado Springs, he was a member of the band and traveled the country extensively. If he re-enlisted he could have become the director of the academy's drum and bugle corps, he said. Instead, he chose to return to Harrison County's band.

"I just missed it too bad," he said.

After 30 years he retired, but it wasn't long before Wallace was in touch to offer him a part-time music teacher/band director job in Williamstown. "If you're going to have a great band, you need a great band director," said Wallace.

The secret of continuing success, Gregg maintains, is getting new people to rise to the level of veteran band members. So far, that has been a winning formula.

As for inspiring high school band members to chose teaching as a career, Gregg notes: "if you love kids and you love music, there's no question about it, it's worth it."

Jack Hicks writes about people for The Post on Thursdays. E-mail him at jhicks502@yahoo.com.