RIVERSIDE

When a beloved retired educator returns to the school where they spent decades of their career, they tend to be mobbed by faculty members and former students. For Gordon Dyer, things were no different when he dropped by Highland High School on Aug. 20. Everyone at the all-district luncheon wanted a few minutes with him.

Dyer served as Highland’s band director from 1973 until his retirement in 2004, a span of 31 years. Last week, he was recognized with the district’s 2024 Spirit of Education award, only the second to be awarded.

Gary Curtis received the first Spirit of Education award in 2023.

Growing up in Manchester, Iowa, about 75 miles north, there was never any question about what Dyer wanted to do with his life.

“When I was in seventh grade, my mother said, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ I said, ‘I want to be a band director.’ And she said, ‘Well, you know, you’re young. You may change your mind a few times,’ but I never changed my mind,” he says.

Once he accepted a job at Highland, “one of the most important decisions I made,” he never had reason to leave.

“It was a good place. There were good people here: good students, good parents, good teachers,” Dyer says. “I would be lying if I said every single day was wonderful, but most of the days were wonderful.”

After Highland Schools staff finished their lunch, provided by Hills Bank, Superintendent Ken Crawford presented Dyer with the award, which goes to an educator who has made a lasting impact and exemplifies the professionalism, positivity, and good morals the schools hope to impart to their students.

When Dyer addressed the staff, he called attention to the many band trophies lined up in the display case just around the corner from the high school lunchroom in which they were gathered.

“We were pretty competitive, and we were pretty successful, and we had a lot of trophies,” he said of the Highland bands he directed over the years. “We had goals. We worked hard to achieve things.”

Then he told them a story that “is a million times more important than any of those struggles.”

It was the story of a student who didn’t start band in fifth grade like most students, but became interested a year later; however, his parents could not afford to purchase him an instrument or music book. Dyer found him a school tuba and instructed him to bring his music book and mouthpiece to class, but the student often forgot. Between his family background and his own habits, the student’s future didn’t look promising.

“Gordon, give up on this kid. He isn’t going to do anything for you,” one of the student’s previous teachers advised him. “You’re wasting your time.”

Dyer, however, did not give up.

“It wasn’t going good, but I thought I saw something in this kid,” he said.

For years, Dyer picked him up in the morning for early marching band and jazz band practices. Eventually, the student began to practice, and then he became good. He received a perfect score in the state solo contest. He made it into the All-State band. Dyer gave him lessons after school and took him home; then he made the High School Honor Band.

The student’s tuba playing won him a four-year full college scholarship. He earned a teaching degree, a master’s degree, and today he is a band director himself.

Dyer’s message to the staff: don’t give up on a student.

In fact, it is the success of his former students that Dyer says is his greatest reward, more important than any plaque or trophy.

“When you find out that your former students have done well, have great careers and nice families, that’s the reward,” he says.