Saluting Walling ford-Swarthmore’s music man
Taxes in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District are slated to go up 3 percent next year.
It will be worth every penny if kids can continue to be exposed to teachers like Jack Hontz.
The Wallingford Swarthmore community was stunned Friday to learn that the longtime school district music director died after suffering a heart attack.
Very few people had as big an effect on the district as Jack Hontz.
He spent 34 years in Wallingford-Swarthmore, arriving in 1992 fresh out of West Chester University with the mission of launching a marching band.
Hontz did more than that. He established a rare rapport with students, parents and the community.
That’s not to say he was not successful in his original mission. Today the Strath Haven High School marching band is one of the best in the state, a homage not only to Hontz’s love of music, but his love for the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District as well.
Hontz had a plan. First he enticed another recent graduate, Henry Pearlberg, to serve as music director at Strath Haven Middle School. In essence, Hontz was creating his own farm system, much like professional sports organizations employ. Only Hontz’s kids did not excel on the athletic fields, aside from the dazzling work of his marching bands on countless Friday nights.
In his first years as music director, Hontz literally went door-todoor, seeking to enlist kids with an interest in music. Four students showed up at the first meeting. By the start of the season, 35 kids were members of Hontz’s flock. The chain of excellence was established. But describing Hontz as simply a “Music Man” does not do justice to his effect on the Wallingford-Swarthmore community. For starters, Hontz actually served as supervisor of the entire K-12 music program.
While he always kept a keen eye on his kids, he also realized they were just that – kids.
Someone’s children. He treated them as his own. It was this kind of thinking that led him to make a decision early in the process that tells you everything you need to know about Jack Hontz. In order to maximize student participation, the decision was made to not have the high school marching band be a competition entity. That way kids could take part in a wide variety of activities – including band. It was not uncommon to see football players – dressed in their uniforms – going through their paces with the marching band at halftime.
Today nearly a third of the high school’s student body takes part in band activities, enough to fill three buses when the football team plays on the road.
They may need even more buses to transport kids to Hontz’s services later this week.
That’s the kind of effect he had on them – and the Wallingford Swarthmore community.
As high school Principal MaryJo Yannacone noted in a message to the Wallingford-Swarthmore community, Hontz was a “mentor, friend, colleague and inspiration” to all.
His duties were not limited to Wallingford-Swarthmore. For years Hontz also served as a musical adviser to the Princeton University Band.
Think for a moment of how many young lives were touched – and enriched – by Hontz’s tender, loving hand.
Or you can simply ask those who perhaps most appreciated Hontz. Those would be the parents of Wallingford-Swarthmore students who saw glimpses of Hontz ensconced in his young charges.
“For 13 years straight I sat in the stands and watched this wonderful man enact his vision,” said parent Tiiu Jill Lutter. “He created a safe placed inside a pressurized, competitive school where everyone could be included and participate in making something way bigger than the sum of its parts.”
Hontz “mentored, challenged, inspired and yelled at all three of my children in different ways,” Lutter added.
Lutter offered perhaps the greatest compliment a school band director could ever hope to receive.
“He made the marching band cool,,” Lutter said.
Another parent noted that Hontz delivered something teens desperately need.
“It’s so important for teens to be believed in and he was that person,” said Vierra Becht. “He was a force of nature and included everyone no matter their ability in his band family.
These days, education – and the costs of delivering it – are under a constant microscope. Savings – and cost-cutting initiatives – are the buzzwords.
Teachers often find themselves bearing the brunt of criticism, with some property owners openly wondering what they are getting for their money.
In Wallingford-Swarthmore, especially this past weekend, they know exactly what they got. They got Jack Hontz. For more than three decades, he made sweet music, shaping young lives along the way.
On Friday, the music stopped, but Hontz’s legacy continues.
Just ask anyone who came into contact with him.