If Not You, Then Who?

My Grandfather, Harvey Vernon Egan, was born in August of 1919 in Brooklyn, New York. He was a gifted clarinetist, pianist, and arranger during his high school years and entered New York University in 1936.  By 1941 he had graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Music Education and took an instrumental music teaching job at Islip High School in Long Island, New York.

In the summer of 1942 he met Frances Freshwater.  Frances had just graduated from the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin University and was visiting friends at NYU.  Frances also had a degree in Music Education and was a piano major.  They were married on V-E Day, 1945 and remained married for 62 years until their deaths.

Harvey enrolled back into New York University in 1942 and finished a Master's Degree in Music Education by 1945.  He taught High School Band, Private Lessons, and Church Choir in Islip until his retirement 30 years later.  He had a very distinguished career, many of his pupils became professional orchestral and instrumental musicians.

My earliest memories as a child include Grandpa and I at his Steinway playing and singing jazz and broadway songs.  Most summers we would take on a different instrument in addition to singing, afternoons were dedicated to music theory.  My time as a clarinetist was especially short and I became focused on brass instruments and voice.  He was a lifetime teacher and I was his student.

He loved to teach, loved to make music, was patient and kind.

My high school years nearly paralleled my Grandfather's and I found myself leaning toward a lifetime of music.  I was heavily involved in band, choir, piano and musical theater.  My Father was a high school choir teacher for several years, and my Mother was a career elementary teacher who minored in music.  I grew up thinking that everyone's house sounded like the practice rooms at Carnegie Hall.

My years at Otterbein College were focused on both performance and education.  By my third year of college my advisors in the music department encouraged me to decide on a life of performer or a life of a teacher.  I had been fortunate to have roles in all of the musicals and operas at Otterbein and considered a lifetime of performance.  In addition, I had accepted a contract to sing with Opera Columbus that year.

The summer before my last year at Otterbein I met with my Grandfather and shared with my apprehensions about being a teacher, which included being not very impressed with many of the music classrooms that I had observed.  Teaching seemed like a thankless and unglamorous task.  I also shared that the music making in many of the classrooms I visited was weak, uninspired, and pedestrian at best.  I asked him if I should become a music teacher.

After a quiet moment he looked me in the eye and simply said "If not you, then who?"

If not you, then who?

A lengthy discussion followed, and his passion for teaching and music brought a brightness to his eyes.  He talked about his successes and celebrations with students as if it were yesterday, even though it had been 30 years.  He spoke of James Houlik, a now world-renowned Saxophone player that other teachers couldn't seem to reach, but was a tremendous talent.  He was passionate that students would always need quality teachers, quality music education programs, and quality literature.    

I made my decision to be a teacher after that discussion.  Like hundreds of students before me, I owe much of my musical training, educational concepts, and teaching philosophy to Harvey Egan, 1919-2009.