Legacy of selflessness
Loved ones remember Yuma musician and band director John dallabetta and his contributions to the community
If the days of our lives are fabric, John Dallabetta’s is a cloth intricately woven with an unwavering devotion to family, a boundless passion for music and a sincere love for educating and supporting local students.
A longtime “quiet but fervent” contributor to Yuma’s arts and music scene, Dallabetta passed away Sept. 29 at the age of 75, leaving behind a rich and far-reaching legacy.
“When people today think of John, they think of jazz, because that’s what they heard him play publicly,” said Margie Dallabetta, John’s wife with whom he celebrated 50 years of marriage in August. “He had excelling bands in every form, but his personal love to play was jazz.”
According to Margie, as a music educator, John was perhaps best known for his flawless marching band performances.
“Especially as a young director, there was nothing less than perfection in marching band for John,” said Margie. “He was laborious, but it was very rewarding. Many people were exposed to the bands whether it was through football shows, whether it was competitions, whether it was parades. Then
as the season changed in January and the spring semester, he put together some exquisite concert bands and wind ensembles.”
During those seasons, John and Margie would take the bands on road tours.
“He always tried to go to rural Arizona, because they didn’t have the exposure to these bigger programs,” Margie said. “He would play at high schools, maybe a junior high if that’s all that was there, and then in the evening do a public concert for the community. We went from Yuma to the Four Corners into the Indian nation and then back around...to expose his students to the discipline of travel and performance, but also to expose the communities to music that they don’t have.”
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
John was a protégé of his father, the late John L. Dallabetta, who presided over the Yuma High School music program until his untimely death in 1964.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in music education from Northern Arizona University in 1970, John launched his teaching career as an assistant band and jazz director at a high school in Kingman, Arizona, and was promoted to director the following year.
“The program was phenomenal because Havasu was just birthing and Bullhead City was just beginning to be developed,” said Margie. “Students from the Havasupai
Indian Reservation were
bused in, Havasu was bused in, Mohave Valley and Bullhead City were bused in.”
The following year,
John was promoted to director and held that position for 14 years.
“During that time,
Yuma had beckoned him back not once but three times,” Margie said. “Both Yuma High and Kofa
High had requested him to come back to Yuma and take over programs. The third call came from Yuma High, and that was a beautiful beginning.”
The Dallabettas returned to Yuma in 1986 and John began his 29year stint as band director at Yuma High School, where he imparted much of his musical wisdom and skill as well as his appreciation of the artistry of music to his daughter-inlaw, Amanda Dallabetta – his own protégé in many ways.
“I wanted to be a teacher in seventh grade – I had a really great teacher that inspired me to go into education,” said Amanda. “When I started playing in band, it was just one thing I really enjoyed. While working with John in high school, he provided opportunities for me to explore music and I got to work with him more closely than other students because I was in love with the art form (of music).”
“One of the favorite things all the students enjoyed was when he told stories about his favorite music,” she added. “One of the bands that I think every person that’s gone through his program knows is Tower of Power – everybody would fall in love with Tower of Power because John loved them so. There’s certain
concert band pieces that
he absolutely loved, so we played them several years in a row because he really enjoyed them. We enjoyed developing an interest and love for a particular piece because he liked it a lot.”
When the time came for Amanda to begin her student teaching, John swayed the administration at Yuma High to hire her as his assistant with the intent of passing the baton to her.
“He said, ‘You’ll hire her as my assistant – we’ll work together one year, and then the next year she will be the director and I will be her assistant part time,’” said Margie. “He basically just told them, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and it worked out very, very well. After those two years, (Amanda) was ready to move on and he stepped away. I can remember him saying that Amanda would ask his input on things and he would say, ‘You’re the director, I’m here to support you.’”
According to Amanda, who now presides over the band program at Cibola High School, it was a “smooth and sweet transition.”
“I felt like he had the confidence that I was capable,” she said. “It really makes a big difference when someone believes in you. He was very respectful of the transfer of power and authority, he was aware that it needed to happen and he did it in a very diplomatic and manageable way.”
From his strong work ethic to the way he handled tricky situations, exuded patience and understanding, Amanda looked to John as a sort of role model in music education.
“I’m aware of the special thing that experience is, so I always sought him out for advice on situations that would come up,” she said. “I would ask him for advice on music to play with the band – I’d be a fool not to, because he had so much experience with different literature. I’d throw an idea at him, or he’d bring me music and say, ‘These are really great pieces, you should have your jazz band play these.’ And we would, because they were classic, really outstanding literature.”
A MAN OF THE PEOPLE
According to Margie, although John had retired, local schools still sought him to start or stabilize their music programs. For the first few years of his retirement, he directed programs at Somerton Middle School, San Luis High School and Gila Ridge High School, preparing them to succeed under the guidance of another director.
“He kind of felt like he was on the community aid program those later years, and he was,” said Margie. “And he enjoyed that, because it wasn’t a career piece then – it was really giving back to the community, making sure these schools were stabilized in their programs.”
In every job, teaching music was only half of the equation; John’s heart was set on making a difference. As Amanda put it, he fostered a sincere desire to help young people and ensure they always felt they had a place in his program.
“John was always very welcoming, with everybody,” Amanda said. “When I was in high school – even before I was in high school – he’d have kids over to his house to just enjoy the camaraderie of having an adult that was there for our success. A lot of the students in the (band) program didn’t have an adult, didn’t have parents that loved them and wanted to support them. He wasn’t looking to be like our father figure whatsoever, that’s just who he was as a human being. We were drawn to that because somebody believed in us and thought we could make a difference in our world – and that’s what we were dying for, because if one more person could believe in us then we could believe in us, too.”
“It was all about the kids,” Margie echoed. “His office within the band room was never a shut door, and our home was never a shut door. Our door was always open, day or night, Sundays or Saturday nights.”
According to Margie, wherever they lived, John made a point to become acquainted with the local police department and its chief. Down the road, Margie realized why.
“The reason was if any of his band kids ever got into trouble,” she said.
“He would tell the chief, ‘These kids are good kids, but if they ever end up here, you call me and I’ll make things right.’ And I’m not going to tell you that he didn’t get a few calls. He saved a lot of kids from going down the wrong path. He would get calls in the middle of the night from kids saying, ‘I’m stuck, my dad would kill me if he knew I messed up his vehicle,’ and there were very tragic stories where we saved children and brought
them into our home and sheltered until we could get things situated.”
In all things his endeavors, Margie said, John remained selfless, giving himself entirely to his family, his students and his community.
“John never put himself first, ever,” said Margie. “Whether it was his students, whether it was community, whether it was family, he was never self first. And that resonates all through his life. I look back on college days and even as a young man, he always stopped to help someone else first.”
“He definitely didn’t seek the spotlight,” Amanda said. “The spotlight sought him. It was really amazing, with all his accomplishments he wasn’t egotistical whatsoever. He wasn’t seeking praises or chasing awards. He appreciated when he was acknowledged for the bands performing well, but he never sought out individual, personal awards. It was really authentically (about) helping young people learn who they are through music.”
John was the recipient of an array of awards and accolades, including the O.M. Hartsell Excellence in Teaching Music Award – a peer-nominated honor presented by Arizona Music Educators Association – in 1994 and the City of Yuma’s Arts and Culture division’s Tribute of the Muses Award in 2010 alongside Amanda and his mother, Marge Dallabetta, who accepted on behalf of John’s father.
“Just to be a small part of that and be inspired by that is something special,” Amanda said.