Bruce Lantz came to Whidbey Island for the weather but he stayed for the students.
After 31 years of teaching music for the Oak Harbor School District — the majority of it as band director at the high school — Lantz is retiring.
It’s difficult to measure the impact of one person on years of students. By all accounts, Lantz created an environment that allowed his students to follow their musical dreams and grow as people.
“I would have turned out differently if he hadn’t been a part of my life,” said Christy Wans, a trumpet player and 2005 graduate who is finishing her doctorate in musical arts.
Music and specifically Lantz’s classroom gave Wans the grounding she needed to be successful.
“I grew up without a dad and he pretty easily filled that father figure for me,” she said. “I could talk to him and that was helpful for me.”
While many schools focus on competitive marching band, Lantz instead had his students focus on “playing good music in a concert setting,” she said.
Lantz’s greatest strength is the positive relationship he forms with students, said Principal Dwight Lundstrom.
“Bruce will leave a huge hole in student lives at OHHS,” Lundstrom said. “He is a safe place for so many of our kids that count on his steadiness and care.”
Lantz grew up in Iowa and started playing the trumpet in fourth grade. He earned a degree in music education from the University of Northern Iowa. He taught his first three years in Minnesota but quickly came to hate the barrage of snow and bugs. Washington state looked like a nice place to settle.
At age 32, he arrived in Oak Harbor, first working at the former junior high before moving to the high school three years later.
“I really liked the school district,” he said. “It had the ethnic diversity without the big city to go with it. I loved the military kids and the knowledge they brought from all over.”
Lantz also plays the electric bass and for years he’s played casinos and nightclubs around the Northwest as part of a band called the “Midlife Crisis and the Alimony Horns.”
He married the mother of one of his students who gave him a tough time at an open house. Meredith Ellis, his step-daughter and former student, described Lantz as the teacher all the students wanted to visit at lunch.
“He always made you feel like you could do it,” she said. “You could do the solo, you could advance in chairs, you could pursue those musical college and career aspirations. Band wasn’t just a class, it was a family.”
Lantz said he plans to spend his retirement relaxing with his wife Lora and playing in his band.
“Teaching is about the kids,” he said. “It’s trying to support them, teach them about music and also how to be good humans.”
