Peter Tork of the Monkeys fame was also a teacher. Photo Credit: UK Music Reviews

Former teacher Peter Tork didn’t Monkee around. But there was a time in his life when he did.

In the mid-1960s, a pop band known as the Monkees hit the music scene with a few songs and a zany television show aimed at American teens. The band became, literally, an overnight sensation. Peter Tork, who played bass guitar and keyboards, was a member of that band. The other three members were Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith.

Over the next five years, the group attempted to keep up with a whirlwind schedule that included weekly television sitcom episodes, studio recording sessions, national and international concert tours, and a full-length feature movie. The hard work paid off. Since they first hit the scene, the Monkees have sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making them one of the biggest selling groups of all time. Their best known songs are “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Daydream Believer,” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”

But the work schedule, creative differences with producer Don Kirshner, and infighting among the band members left Peter exhausted. In December, 1968, he bought out the remaining four years of his contract and left the Monkees. For the next few years, Peter drifted from one gig to another and spent or gave away all his Monkees earnings. By 1975, he’d hit rock bottom.

That’s when, even though he had dropped out of college, Peter accepted a position as a teacher at Pacific Hills School, a private secondary school in Santa Monica, California. He was hired to work there by Dr. Penrod Moss, the school’s director, because Moss was so impressed by Peter’s interview. “I like to hire people who are independent and creative,” Moss explained. “I was impressed by his personality and his ability to talk.” For Peter, a career in the classroom is not so odd when you consider that his father was an economics professor at the University of Connecticut for many years. At Pacific Hills, Peter taught many subjects, including English, math, drama, history, and music. He also served as a baseball coach at several schools. In all, Peter’s career as an educator spanned three years.

In 1986, the Monkees got together again to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. The following year they released a new studio album which earned measured success. Since then, Peter participated with fellow Monkees in numerous reunion shows and tours, until band member Davy Jones passed away in 2012.

In March, 2009, the former teacher was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, and later that year underwent extensive surgery. Despite being declared cured, ten years later the cancer recurred, and he succumbed to the disease on February 21, 2019. He was 77 years old.

Many times talented entertainers find their way into classrooms, influencing impressionable young minds to pursue similar interests in the performing arts. One of these was Ernest “Skeeter” Hubbert, a singing cowboy who became a popular music educator in Riverside, California.

Ernest was born on July 10, 1924, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was musically gifted as a child, and when he grew up, he studied at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and the Sorbonne in France. Eventually he enrolled at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he earned his Master’s degree in Music.

In the mid-1930s, Ernest landed a position in the band of Stuart Hamblen, and he also played rhythm guitar and trumpet on commercial recordings with Texas Jim Lewis. When WWII erupted, Ernest formed his own group of Western musicians which he dubbed Skeeter Hubert and his Cowboys. The Standard Transcriptions Company created approximately 40 recording with this group. These recording received widespread national airplay, earning Ernest a reputation for being the most popular singing cowboy on the air. In addition to performances as a musician, he also worked as an extra in many Western movies.

After the war was won, Ernest earned a living teaching music and directing choral groups in the Los Angeles area. Eventually he relocated to the city of Riverside, located in Southern California’s Inland Empire. There he accepted positions as a music teacher, first at Chemawa Junior High School, and then at Matthew Gage Junior High School. Next he taught music at Alcott Elementary School for two years before returning to Gage. He also directed civic choral groups in the area. Eventually, the former singing cowboy retired from the teaching profession.

Ernest passed away on Oct. 12, 1989. He was 75 years old. But the impact he made on young student musicians lives on to this day. To read more about Ernest “Skeeter” Hubbert, click on this link to an article written about him from his former student, Steve Lech, published on Dec. 18, 2022, in the Press Enterprise.