Jack Brookshire is the former band director at West Junior High School and now teaching at Baker University.

An inspirational teacher, a generous group of high school seniors and his father’s persistence saved internationally recognized music teacher and band director Jack Brookshire from a miner’s life in Picher, Okla.

Brookshire’s dad became a miner in eighth grade after his own father was killed in a mineshaft. The family remained poor. Music lessons were out of the question, so Brookshire tried out for the school band in fifth grade.

“Mr. (Denis) Ralph let me try the cornet. It seemed easy to play, and I was hooked,” he recalls.

“Mr. Ralph was a wonderful, encouraging teacher. He knew our first names and made band fun. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, he treated everyone the same. I cried at his funeral 12 years ago.”

Brookshire loved rehearsals and practiced cornet whenever he could. In seventh grade a group of seniors invited him to join their newly formed jazz band.

“The first piece I played was ‘Orange Colored Sky.’ It was fabulous,” he says. “Those guys took me under their wing and gave me free lessons. They were great teachers.”

When Brookshire’s plans to join the Army straight after high school were thwarted, he decided to be a miner, but his father forbade him.

“Dad said he didn’t want me to be exposed to the mine’s dangers and toxic chemicals like him,” he says.

“He insisted I pursue my education in spite of our poverty.”

The band director at a local junior college, where Brookshire played some gigs, offered him a full American Legion scholarship to study music at Northeastern State Teachers’ College.

“I just had to work hard and play taps at veterans’ funerals,” Brookshire says.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962, married his wife, Diana, then taught music and band at Adair High School, Oklahoma, before moving to teach band and choir at Baldwin City’s grade, junior and senior high schools in 1965. He completed his master’s degree at Kansas State University in 1975 and accepted an invitation from composer Claude T. Smith to teach at Chillicothe High School, Missouri.

He moved to Lawrence in 1980 so his two children could attend Kansas University, became band director at West Junior High and embarked on doctoral work at KU. He received the Bandworld Legion of Honor (from the John Philip Sousa Foundation) in 1990, worked as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the Midwest, was invited to teach and serve as a clinician in Australia in 1992 and 1994, and his bands and groups won numerous awards.

Shortly after retiring as West’s band director in 1997 he was invited to teach music education student teachers at Baker University.

“I told them I didn’t want another full-time job,” he says.

“I agreed to become an adjunct professor for six months; I’m still there and love it.”

He also teaches students at his private Lawrence music studio and still practices the trumpet every day.

“I love working with students,” he says.

“It keeps me young at heart. I hope I can continue to inspire them as others have inspired and encouraged me throughout my life.”