If Joe Pappas of Festus ever had any doubts about whether he touched any lives during his 50-plus-year career teaching music, those had to be dispelled when he recently was inducted into the Missouri Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame.
On June 20, during the association’s annual convention, held at the Lake of the Ozarks, Pappas became the 55th inductee into the Hall of Fame. He was honored for his service leading five high school bands, most recently at Eureka High School from 1990-1999. After that, he was an adjunct professor at Jefferson College and Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO).
During the ceremony, a number of testimonials from students and co-workers were read.
Doug Smelser, the band director at Herculaneum High School, said Pappas has played an integral role in his career.
“I was a young director at the time, having taught for seven years,” he said. “I was really considering leaving the profession. Through my contact with Joe and the many long talks we had about being a director and what it takes to be successful, I can honestly say he changed the course of my career.”
Former student Kim Whitehead, now a band director at Sikeston High School, said Pappas had a huge impact on her life, too.
“I still have vivid memories of Joe Pappas helping me choose a band instrument to play when I was in elementary school. As a high school student, my love for band grew to a whole new level thanks to Mr. Pappas. Let me be clear: I am a band director because Joe Pappas was an amazing teacher. I am still a band director because he is an amazing mentor.”
Pappas said he’s overwhelmed when he speaks with some of his former students.
“I’ve heard from many of my former students, who have told me they’ve applied the lessons I’ve taught them – not just musical lessons, but life lessons – and have been successes,” he said.
Former Festus High band director Chris Auchly said he has known Pappas most of his life and said that Pappas has influenced countless students and fellow teachers.
“And it’s more than just musically,” Auchly said. “He’s had an effect as a friend, as a mentor. He and I talk gardening, how we can best grow things. It’s just his mentality to assist anybody who needs assistance. He’s a genuine, caring person.”
Not into gardening? Pappas can converse about any number of topics, including high school coaching and officiating (he’s done both in several sports), taxidermy (he once had his own shop) and fishing, especially the deep-sea variety.
Enshrinement a surprise
Pappas, 72, said he was not expecting the call of the Hall.
“It was a total surprise,” he said. “They started out reading information about the person they were inducting, and by the second or third thing they read, I started putting two and two together. It was exciting. I’m very proud to be among the other band directors in the Hall of Fame.”
Auchly said he spoke about Pappas’ honor with Paul Fleige, the past president of the bandmasters group, which includes mostly high school band directors with a few college instructors.
“Paul told me he thought Joe was already in the Hall of Fame and that he should have gotten in two decades ago when he retired from Eureka,” Auchly said. “Just think about how many great band directors there have been in Missouri – there have been quite a few through the years from Jefferson County alone – and there’s only 50 or so who have received this honor.”
Pappas, who grew up in Festus, graduated from St. Pius X High School in Crystal City and then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at SEMO. He then led the band programs at Bell City, Scott City and Mexico High before he landed in Eureka.
“This (the induction) means a lot to me,” Pappas said. “It’s always great to be recognized by your peers, but it shows the hard work and the dedication of all the bands I’ve been associated with, and the quality of those programs. You don’t build a band program in a year. I’ve been fortunate to have directed bands that already had a solid tradition, and I could help build on that, year after year.”
He said he retired from Eureka and directing high school bands because of health problems.
“I was diagnosed with a heart condition, and my doctor said that if I didn’t change my lifestyle or my job position, I would likely have a short-lived life,” he said. “But I always have wanted to teach, so I thought college would be a good fit.”
The week after Pappas left Eureka, he started at Jefferson College, where he revived a community band and started summer band camps for junior high and high school students. He retired again in 2017, although he continues to teach online music education courses through SEMO.
Despite making his mark teaching high school and then college students, Pappas said he has a heart for beginning musicians.
“I love to see the expression on their faces when they’re first successful at something,” he said. “It’s an excitement that you don’t see from older children. When they first play something like ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’ and it sounds like the song they know, it’s priceless. My heart has always been with the beginners and the middle school students.
“I’ve always been able to keep my hand in teaching the beginners.”
Early start in music
Pappas said his parents encouraged him to take up music.
“By the end of my third-grade year, I was taking private lessons,” he said. “By the time I was in fifth grade, Festus band director Heuby Moore had recruited me into the middle school band. I would be in the old band room with my fifth-grade friends, and then they would leave and the middle schoolers would come in.”
By the time he was 13, Pappas was playing R&B music with an adult combo that had gigs around the region.
However, Pappas said, as his high school graduation loomed, he had his sights set on a different career.
“I originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but a counselor at St. Pius called me in and looked through my transcript and asked, ‘What are you doing to prepare for that?’ I had to admit that I hadn’t done much to prepare for (veterinary) college. He said, ‘What else can you do?’ ‘I can teach music,’ I told him.
“Really, I probably knew that before. During high school, I would give private lessons in my neighborhood to kids who were starting band. I picked up a few bucks.”
Pappas has remained active since retiring from Jefferson College.
He owns a publishing company, which controls the rights to more than 200 of his original compositions – many written for young musicians and young bands. He also conducts seminars on the finer points of music education, and he drops by high schools in the area from time to time to lend a hand with their bands.
Since 2013, he has led the Missouri Big Band (MOBB), a collective of local band directors and other adults that plays big band and swing music.
“I was in a band that played at a Jefferson College musical, ‘The 1940s Radio Show,’ and some of the guys in that band on the last night said, ‘Why don’t we just keep things going?’ I said, ‘Like a big band or something?’ And that’s what we did. At first, it was just us playing together and having a good time, but then someone called us and asked us to perform. Then another, and another. Now we do several shows a year. A couple of those original members are still with us. We’ve been together nine years now, and it seems like we keep growing in quality and popularity.”
Throughout his career, Pappas has amassed countless recognitions, but he said the Missouri Bandmasters Association induction is special.
“This is right there at the top,” he said. “I think the only thing bigger for me would be entering the Missouri Music Educators Hall of Fame. I’ve always looked at myself as a music educator rather than a band director.”