DECORATED CAREER: La Grande High School band teacher Jim Howell, shown in his office, has been named the 2009 Oregon Music Educators Association teacher of the year. - The Observer/DICK MASON

La Grande High School trumpet player John DeVillier can play a wide repertoire of music, including works by Count Basie and Miles Davis.

The LHS junior can also keep a secret.

The shock on the face of LHS band teacher Jim Howell recently was proof.

Step back 12 days ago to the annual Oregon Music Educators Association conference in Eugene, which Howell attended with his wife, Jane. Events were proceeding in normal fashion.

Oregon State University music professor Steven Zielke then made the day a red-letter one in Howell’s already decorated career.

Zielke announced Howell had been named the OMEA’s 2009 Outstanding Music Educator. Howell sat in stunned disbelief.

“All I could think of at that moment were the names of other teachers who also deserved it,” Howell said.

Howell had no acceptance speech prepared. He had no idea he’d been nominated.

“It was amazing. The selection means a lot because it was made by my peers,” the veteran music teacher said.

The award deserves an added exclamation mark because it was student initiated. DeVillier nominated Howell and did much of the leg work needed to put the music teacher’s name in the running.

The LHS junior got former students and Howell’s colleagues to write letters endorsing his nomination. He told no LHS band studen he had nominated their teacher because he wanted to keep it a secret from Howell.

DeVillier was inspired to nominate Howell because he believes the band program Howell has built is overlooked despite the many awards it has received.

“I feel like La Grande is under the radar. I decided that I wanted to make something happen,” DeVillier said.

He also said he had no trouble convincing people to send letters to the awards committee endorsing Howell. In fact, he had to discourage some from writing letters because so many people volunteered. He did not want Zielke, who heads the OMEA’s awards committee, to be deluged.

“So many people wanted to write letters. He would have been overwhelmed,” DeVillier said.

In the end, Zielke was almost overwhelmed with emotion when reading passages of letters from students and teachers telling how Howell has touched the lives of so many. Zielke said his heart tugged as he read passages from some letters submitted about Howell.

“I don’t consider it to be an exaggeration to credit him with ushering untold numbers of fragile and uncertain young souls toward a powerful and enduring sense of worth and purpose in life,” wrote Jan Michel, a teacher in the Cove School District.

Howell is in his 22nd year as the LHS band teacher. He moved to La Grande in 1987 after earning degrees in music from the University of Southern California, the University of Oregon and Lewis and Clark College. The awards and recognition he has received since then is “off the charts,” Zielke said.

Howell has been listed as among the “50 Teachers Who Make a Difference in the Country” in School Band and Orchestra magazine. He has won the Patty Vemer Oregon Symphony Oregon Music Educator of the Year Award, received EOU Inspirational Teacher awards four times, was named Union County Educator of the Year in 1998 and much more.

Howell has led the LHS wind ensemble to state Class 4A titles in 2000 and 2006 and many other top five finishes at state.

Howell’s students have won music performance awards, something he credits to work, not natural skill. Musical talent is not in the equation when Howell evaluates students.

“Talent means nothing without hard work. Hard work can lead to talent or surpass it,” Howell said.

The band teacher often puts in marathon days. But his enthusiasm for teaching never wavers for he senses his students’ hunger for knowledge, an appetite stronger than people realize.

“Kids want to learn. They appreciate learning every day, as much as it might seem they don’t want to,” said Howell, displaying his gentle but ever present wit.

The LHS teacher is also spurred by the excitement students bring to the classroom.

“Kids make the job interesting. They have lots of ideas and lots of optimism.”

Howell’s bands excel at state-level competition even though he does not emphasize it. Howell downplays competition because he wants students to embrace music in college and beyond. University educators, Howell said, report that often musicians from high school programs focusing on competition are often burned out by the time they reach college.

Howell speaks with pride about the students who have left his program and gone on to perform in college band programs or teach. Of his students who have graduated from LHS in the past five years, 11 are in band programs at Northwest colleges and universities and one is a music teacher.

Walk into the LHS band room and one senses an excitement Howell’s students have for music and life. An electric and welcoming atmosphere prevails, one Howell cultivates.

“He treats us like people, not students. He takes the time to get to know all of us. He treats us as part of his life,” John DeVillier said.

DeVillier’s sister, Christina, a former student of Howell’s who graduated from LHS two years ago, agrees.

“He taught me, he taught all of us, that we needed each other. We learned well and from this knowledge we made beautiful things,” said Christina DeVillier, now a student at Reed College.

Howell does not separate himself from students.

“He makes every effort not to isolate himself from us,” John DeVillier said.

Howell’s office door in the LHS band room is – fittingly – always open, even as the sometimes piercing off-key sounds of students practicing reverberate. Howell embraces such shrill sounds, even while tackling clerical work in his office before class.

“I don’t hear noise, I hear progress,” the LHS teacher said.

Michael Frasier, a retired LHS choir teacher who is now a

La Grande School Board member, said a major reason for Howell’s success is that he sets high goals and then makes it clear he will work with his students to help them reach the goals.

A current colleague, LHS social studies teacher Jerry Sebestyen, has long admired the close connection Howell has with his students. He recalled that about 10 years ago Howell’s students put out a T-shirt that listed the top 10 ways a student can tell they have been in band a long time. Topping the list: “You start calling Mr. Howell Grandpa.”

“That is the kind of relationship the kids have with him,” Sebestyen said.

Sebestyen’s son, Colin, was a student of Howell’s several years ago. Sebestyen said the band teacher had an enormously positive influence on his son.

“Many parents feel about Jim the way I do. We owe him a lot.”