Crawford County’s Music Man

GALION-Elmore Beale is Crawford County’s Music Man.

A musician since he first picked up the drumsticks in fifth grade, a teacher since he earned a music education degree from The Ohio State University, and a band director who has been “instrumental” in changing the lives of area students for nearly 60 years.

“I just enjoyed the playing,” said Beale, 82, who recently retired for the second time, capping off a lengthy career teaching music in both public and parochial school systems. “l really liked what I did, you know. It’s been a good run. I’ve had a good time at it.”

Beale has worn many musical hats during his tenure, but he is probably best known as the longtime band director at Colonel Crawford High School. He retired there after 28 years, then went on to get music programs off the ground at three other elementary schools, including St. Joseph’s in Crestline.

He’s always had a passion for playing – “I can play a mean twinkle, twinkle on anything” – but he’s always had a special connection with his students, too, whether it was playing along with them in the band room, directing half-time shows on the football field or joking after private lessons on brass and woodwinds.

From an early age, Beale was a natural musician. He started out as a drummer at his hometown school, Logan West Elementary in Logan, Ohio, until the day “my band director thought I had a little more talent, so I moved on to the tuba,” he recalled, “then string bass as a freshman in high school.”

He played all three instruments in high school, transporting the tuba and string bass – which he bought used for $72 – on his bicycle back and forth to class. He was chosen to perform in the All Ohio Boys Band (now the State Fair Band) for three years and, in his senior year, to the All State Symphony Orchestra.

But Beale wanted more. He wanted to be an “I Dotter.”

So he enrolled in The Ohio State University, earned a coveted spot in the Best Damn Band in the Land, and finally – as a senior tuba player in 1960 – had the thrill of dotting the “I” during the 120-member marching band’s traditional Script Ohio formation before thousands of cheering Buckeye fans.

He left Columbus after graduation to accept a teaching job as band director at Leipsic High School in Northwest Ohio and, after a three-year stint, headed to Miami University of Ohio to pursue a master’s degree and to work as a graduate assistant with the Redhawks marching band.

He’ll never forget his first day on the practice field. “I got down there and I said to myself, ‘O Lordy,’ and then I said to the bass drummer, “Next time down the field, double the tempo. And when we were done the right guard said, ‘I thought this was a marching band, not a running band.’”

Beale had already married his high school sweetheart, Doris, when the two arrived in Galion, he to take the Colonel Crawford job and she to teach at Whetstone Elementary. Back then Beale taught grades 5-12, which meant traveling between Sulphur Springs, Whetstone, Leesville and North Robinson schools.

His years at Crawford were memorable. Band bus trips, pep band practices, parades and plenty of camaraderie. But Friday night halftime shows topped them all, he said, especially when he “put the marching band on automatic” and simply stood with his baton on the sidelines, much to the dismay of some of the crowd.

After retiring from Colonel Crawford, Beale worked as an educational representative at Coyle Music Center in Marion, where he did fittings for young band students, and as a teacher at the former Canon Music in Galion until he received a phone call from the principal of Sacred Heart School in Shelby.

They needed a band director. And “Mr. B” was their man.

So began a second career-a rewarding 23-year run as elementary band director at Sacred Heart, which led to additional teaching positions at Crestline St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s in Mansfield. “I was in there for the kids. I wanted those kids to have music,” Beale said. “Those were really fun years. They treated me like family.”

Beale, who also played in the Ohio State Alumni Band, had the honor of dotting the I two other times – at the OSU-Rice game in 1993 for the alumni band’s 25th anniversary and again in 2006. In fact, two of his three sons, Steven and Brian, went on to play the trombone and trumpet at OSU, carrying on the family tradition.

Beale has hung on to “Henrietta,” his vintage string bass, which he plays at home and on some Sundays at Christ United Methodist Church in Galion, where he’s a longtime member of the church’s praise band. His tuba and drum set still get playing time, too.

Naturally the Beale home is chock-full of band memorabilia-concert programs, high school yearbooks, newspaper articles of a younger tuba player and photos outside the Shoe. Letters from former students, too, many of whom went on to have successful musical careers. Messages of gratitude mostly.

Because even though time has “marched on,” this veteran bandsman knows first-hand what music does to the heart and soul. “Music is the only way to go as far as I’m concerned. It’s done a lot for me. Brought me a lot of nice friends.”