Although Jack Mercer passed away in August of 2014, he is (and will probably always be) called the "Music Man," who as a young band director in Creston, Iowa, was visited by Meredith Wilson, the American composer who wrote the book, music and lyrics for "The Music Man." After moving to the West with his family, Jack became the band director for Chaffey High School in Ontario, CA; the beautiful "Art Deco," several thousand student, place of learning, which began in 1910. His first task was to bring precision marching and dance steps to the west coast, enabling his band to win almost every competition in which they (we) competed. Believing the system for judging was harsh, Jack had, within a short time, established his own band competition. During the 27 years of his tenure with CHS, he spent a period of time gathering information from a national search and authored the well known books titled, "Band Director Burn-Out" and "The Band Director's Brain Bank," while accumulating a list of accolades too numerous to mention. Six months after his "final" retirement, Jack was encouraged, by years of band alumni, to form a community band, properly titled, "The Ontario-Chaffey Show Band," which continues to this day, close to 30 years after being established. As a sophomore at Chaffey H.S., and a member of the drill team, Jack encouraged me to take up an instrument and join the band. I choose the flute and he loaned me a student model, gave me a few lessons and a lifelong friendship. Now many years, several community concert bands and two flutes later, I'm still playing. A full body sculpture of Jack was commissioned for the city of Ontario. Unfortunately the gentleman promoting the project passed away, and although I was able to continue with the sculpture, the piece was reduced in complexity to a portrait bust. Jack received countless honors, and it was my honor and privilege to sculpt this portrait bust of him, which became my gift to the school. The portrait bust of this famous band director remained on exhibition at CHS for some time, although in recent years, it has been on display within the Chaffey Community Art Museum in Ontario. Please left click to view photos in a larger format.