Aging in America- Our Heritage of Wisdom
a series of thirty-six pencil drawings by artist jim branscum

 

Harry's 7 year old granddaughter,   Maria Schwabland, was playing the piano at the Centre.  Mr. Alexander came to the piano and began to gently instruct one more student.  He was 103 years old,   and the love of music and teaching was still a part of his being.  He was again doing what motivated his entire life.  Their story of "Maria's Lesson"  was my inspiration for the 20th drawing for the Aging in America series.

Alex grew up in the south-central Ohio town of Jackson.  "I started singing when I was a little bit of a kid,"  he said,  "Jackson was a singing town.  There were a lot of Welsh people there and they were singers."  Alex was ten years old at the turn of the twentieth Century,  he began music training on the piano.  He did not simply take piano lessons,  Alex studied piano.  After graduating from Jackson High,  he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. .  He graduated, with a major in public school music education and theory, and landed his first teaching position at Sullivan,  Indiana,  in 1913.  Three years later,  he was hired as supervisor of music in Dover schools.

There was no instrumental program at Dover when he was hired to supervise it.  Alex,  now "Mr. Alexander,"  had to create the entire musical program for the school.  He quickly initiated instrumental classes in the schools.  A year later,  1917,   Mr. Alexander organized the Dover High Band-- one of only three high school bands in that part of Ohio.  An orchestra was formed with "Mr. Alexander at the baton."  He also taught all the vocal classes and wrote the schools alma mater.   "Residents of the city were proud of the band and supported music in the schools and my other music programs,"  he recalled,  "Dover was a town that liked what I had to offer.  It was a pleasant place to live and work in."   Mr. Alexander and his Dover High School band won the state competition and qualified for a national contest in Evanston,  Illinois,  where they were among the top finishers.

Mr. Alexander,  taught his love of music to thousands of young people over a 51 year career in Dover,  In 1957,   When he retired from his formal teaching position,  "Mr. Alexander" again became "Alex."  To the thousands of students he taught through the years,  he will always be "Mr. Alexander."  On his 104th birthday,   Willard Scott recognized his accomplishments on NBC's Today Show. Later in the day,  the Dover High School Marching Band came and played for the residents of the Hennis Care Centre in honor of their beloved teacher.  The recognition was not merely for the number of years that he taught music;  it was for the love of music that he imparted.
 

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