Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell

About Terry Lee Marzell

Terry Lee Marzell holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Cal State San Bernardino. She also holds a certificate for Interior Design Level 1 from Mt. San Antonio College. She has been an educator in the Corona Norco Unified School District for more than 30 years.

Teacher, coach, and former pro football player Herb Banet

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Teacher, coach, counselor, and former professional football player Herb Banet

When I think of chalkboard champions, I never forget all of our nation’s talented coaches. These dedicated professionals work many long hours with our young people, teaching them the value of self-discipline, healthy competition, fair play, and teamwork, and helping them to choose a healthy, active lifestyle. One such chalkboard champion in Herb Banet, a high school teacher, basketball coach, and guidance counselor from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Herb was born in 1913 in Fort Wayne. As a high school student, he was a gifted athlete.  At 6’2″ and 200 pounds, he earned All-City Honors in both football and basketball. After his graduation from Fort Wayne South High School in 1933, he attended Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana, where he played collegiate football. While at Manchester, Herb played All-Conference Football and All-State Football in 1934, 1935, and 1936. During the 1937 season, Herb played in the National Football League with the Green Bay Packers.

As if all this were not enough, Herb was also a war hero. When World War II broke out, he served his country in the US Navy.

These experience served him well during his eighteen-year career as a coach at Central High School in Fort Wayne. While coaching there, his team made one trip to the Final Four in 1960, where they were defeated by just one point by East Chicago Washington. Later in Herb’s career he served as a guidance counselor at Northrup High School. This talented educator retired in 1979. In recognition of his illustrious career as an athlete, he was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

Herb Banet passed away in 2003 at the age of 89 and is buried at Falls Memorial Gardens in Wabash, Indiana. It is certain that his efforts as a gifted teacher, coach, and counselor will always be well-remembered.

Tisha: The true story of Anna Hobbs, a pioneer teacher in the Alaskan wilderness

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One of my favorite “teacher” books of all time is Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness. The volume is the memoir of pioneer teacher Anne Stevenson Hobbs, as told to masterful chronicler Robert Specht.

I absolutely love this action-packed true story about a young teacher who travels to the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920’s to teach in a frontier school. This book is as much an adventure story and a romance as it is a chronicle of early Alaskan history.

At the age of 19 in the 1920’s, Anne Hobbs, a plucky young lady, travels from her home in Colorado to the Alaskan wilderness with the intention of setting up a frontier school. She knows nothing about Alaska or living in the wilds, and she is completely naive about the social conditions or customs there, but she is full of a desire for adventure. She certainly finds it when she lands in a small village called Chicken. Besides encountering the expected lack of teaching materials and frigid temperatures, Anne heroically battles prejudice against the Native Alaskans when she falls in love with one of them.

If you haven’t read this book yet, run—don’t walk—to your nearest brick-and-mortar bookstore and buy it right away! You can also order Tisha on Amazon.com, but don’t wait too long to read this exciting story. This tale will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Celebrated musician Conrad Johnson chooses teaching over fame and fortune

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Talented musician Conrad Johnson gives up fame and fortune with international orchestras to pursue a career as a music educator.

If you are a music teacher or a jazz aficionados, you have no doubt heard of Conrad Johnson, Sr., a music educator from Houston, Texas. In addition to his role as a remarkable educator, Conrad was a phenomenal musician.

Conrad once played with the legendary Count Basie, and Erskine Hawkins once tried to persuade him to join his orchestra. But Conrad declined the fame and fortune he was offered because he didn’t want to leave his family or his give up his career as a  teacher. “Conrad Johnson is one of Houston’s unsung cultural heroes,” says Rick Mitchell, former pop music critic for the Houston Chronicle. “He could have made a national name for himself with his two big bands. Instead he chose to devote his career to educating Houston’s future musicians. He is retired from the school system, but he’s still hard at work as an educator.”

Born in Victoria, Texas, the young Conrad was nine years old when his family moved to the port city of Houston. After graduating from Yates High School, Conrad attended Houston College for Negroes, and then Wiley College in Marshall in eastern Texas, where he graduated in 1941. He started his career as a music educator at Kashmere High School that same year.

Conrad made a lasting contribution to music when he formed the Kashmere Stage Band, an internationally-known school orchestra that won a number of awards during its decade-long existence. His kids always called him “Prof.” Under Prof’s tutelage, the student musicians in the Kashmere Band won forty-two out of the forty-six competitions they entered between 1969 and 1977. They recorded eight albums featuring more than twenty original compositions by Conrad, and they went on tour throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe.

In 1978, following a thirty-seven-year career, Conrad retired from his position at Kashmere High School. In his retirement, he continued to remain active in shaping music in Houston by conducting summer programs and in-home tutoring. In 2000, the talented educator was inducted into the Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame. The Conrad O. Johnson School of Fine Arts, a magnet school at Kashmere High School, is named after him. This wonderful teacher and musician passed away in 2008 at the age of 92.

To learn more about this chalkboard champion, click on this link: The Conrad O. Johnson Music and Fine Arts Foundation.