I met Mr. Spencer when I was nine year old. My older brother was a freshman then at La Serna High School and he played trumpet in the band. Mr. Spencer was the band director. My parents both got very involved in the Band Booster group. Jim Spencer had a real talent for involving entire families in that high school band. As a result of that I started attending summer band camp at the age of nine because my parents volunteered to be chaperones at camp. The high school band during those years was a very impressive musical group of teenagers. They played with great skill and joy and that was a direct result of Mr. Spencer’s teaching and conducting. He knew that music should be an integral part of everyone’s life. He knew that if a kid wanted to play music that someone should teach them how, and so he did. Mr. Spencer was an amazingly good sport. You have to be a good sport if you’re going to survive life around teenagers. He tolerated a monumental amount of silliness. The pranks, oh the pranks. The shaving cream fights. The adventures in toilet papered houses. The ridiculous outfits worn by the pep band. The whining about the uniforms. The whining about the concert dresses (they really were made of upholstery fabric for a few years there). The endless teenage romances complete with exceedingly dramatic breakups that could cause problems during performances. The continual begging to be allowed to do scatter drills to each formation during half time shows. Through it all he maintained a wonderful sense of humor. Sadly I only got to have Mr. Spencer as my high school band director for one year. But I was honored to be one of the student speakers at the dinner we had for him when he left La Serna. I remember I tried to be funny, and maybe I was, but mostly I was struggling not to cry, as I am now. I am thinking tonight of the lyrics of a song written by Dan Fogelberg: The leader of the band is tired And his eyes are growing old But his blood runs through my instrument And his song is in my soul My life has been a poor attempt To imitate the man I'm just a living legacy To the leader of the band Mr. Spencer left a wonderful legacy of joy and music behind and the world is better for him having been here. Blessings, Tantris Hardee Hernandez