Mansfield Senior High School assistant band director retires after 34 years
Mansfield Senior High/Middle School assistant band director Charles Bradley II retired Friday after 34 years.
He'd also served as head band director at Malabar Intermediate and Spanish Immersion schools.
On Friday, the band room with its towering ceiling was quiet as teachers worked their final day for the school year.
Bradley said he was 23 years old when he started his career at Mansfield City Schools, having just earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Ohio University in 1990.
More: Galion High School band director participates in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
A native of Marietta, he said there were no job openings for a band director in southern Ohio so he applied for the job in Mansfield, got the position and has called Mansfield home ever since.
His first year, when the school district had more buildings, he traveled to six buildings each day, finding space where he could for a makeshift band room, and he loved it.
"The only issues at that time was space. I was teaching in locker rooms, cafeterias, teachers' lounges, school libraries," he said. "I was basically ping-ponging to all the schools, grabbing lunch in my car in between schools."
He said he brought stands and set them up and took them back down. He also carried instruments.
He had great mentors, he said, working as an assistant for three years to Mansfield City Schools' band director Percy Hall during Hall's final three years with the district. Another assistant band director, Larry Cramer, taught Bradley how the elementary schools worked and served as his mentor.
Bradley said his Marietta High School band director, Marshall Kimball, who is now retired, influenced his career choice. "Just his love for what he did and his enthusiasm sparked my interest into going into music."
The friendly Bradley, who plays trombone and several other instruments, said he has enjoyed teaching and knowing his students for seven years. Many of them first start playing an instrument in fifth grade.
Band and football: They go hand-in-hand for four Clear Fork student-athletes
"I see these kids essentially all through middle school and high school, which is the joy of what I do. I start them as they're going out the gate and watch them graduate," he said from the band room at the senior high.
"That's one of my favorite things about teaching is watching them right when they start as beginners, squeaks and squaks and then blasts to the brass. In middle school they're going through all the changes of mind and body, and then high school, as they start to mature more and start setting goals for themselves, and then when I see them at graduation as seniors, it's like I watched them grow up," Bradley said.
He has also taught students whose parents he taught years earlier.
In addition to teaching, Bradley also has played in the Ashland Symphony Orchestra since 1993, is a substitute trombone player with the Mansfield Symphony and is an American Federation of Musicians Local 159 concert/jazz band member. He also plays at churches.
"I started playing in sixth grade and have been playing all my life," Bradley said.
In his retirement he plans to continue to play in and join more musical groups to earn extra money, and he also teaches private trombone lessons. He plans to spend time with his wife, Kim, and son Dillon, 23. He also plans to see relatives and travel.
Senior High band director Jeff Freytag is taking over Bradley's role as assistant band director. A new band director, Christian Watson, has been hired from Willard.
Bradley said he enjoyed everything, from marching band to concert band to band practice, and just the joy of teaching music to students.
His final parade with the band was Mansfield's Memorial Day Parade.
"It's been a wild ride, is what I tell people," Bradley said, adding he will miss all the students.
419-521-7223
X (formerly Twitter): @lwhitmir
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield High assistant band director retires after 34 years
