In depth: The man with the band

CLOVIS — If you want to know about the character of retired Clovis High School Band Director Norvil Howell, ask a former student.

Jerry Large, now a Seattle Times newspaper columnist, remembers the time Howell stopped in to visit Gattis Junior High band students about 1967.

"I was playing something wrong so he started playing my horn and talking me through it," said Large, an African-American. "I was surprised he put my horn's mouthpiece in his mouth. At that time, that was not something you would expect."

Only four years before, Large said, restaurants, theaters and swimming pools could legally bar entry to black people. Many stores wouldn't let black people try on clothes or hats.

Howell was ahead of his time in the struggle for racial equality.

"He stood up for African-American band members when there was still segregation," Large said. "There were times they'd have problems on trips, and he wouldn't back down."

• • •

Howell, 86, sat with Elaine, his wife of 53 years, and their two small dogs in their Clovis living room adorned with family photos last month. He matter-of-factly confirmed Large's anecdotes and shared others.

"When I started teaching at Muleshoe there was no music at the black school. They had a two-room school in the cottonseed yard across the railroad tracks," Howell said.

"I asked the superintendent, 'You know I'd like to teach the kids over at that school music and I've got a free period. Can I go over the railroad tracks and teach them?' And he let me."

Later, two of those students played for Howell in the CHS band.

"Once our band was in Enid, Oklahoma, at the Wagon Wheel Café," Howell said. "Charles Love was one of three or four black kids in the band and he came up and said, 'Mr. Howell, they tell us we have to eat in the kitchen.'

"So I got up and said, 'Band, we're leaving.' The manager came running up to see what was wrong. I told her one of her waitresses said my black kids had to eat in the kitchen, and had hurt my kids' feelings, so we're leaving. We loaded up on the bus and went to another restaurant."

Howell, who was involved with Clovis school bands from 1956 to 1997, said he worked with black, white and Hispanic musicians through the years, and "making music was all that mattered. I never thought about the color of their skin."

Large said he considered Howell "tall and intimidating" when they first became acquainted. But he came to know him as a caring teacher.

"That was pretty cool because he had a reputation as being a hard-driving guy, yet he was also gentle and took time for someone like me who was never going to be a great player," Large said in a telephone interview last month.

When Large began working as a reporter for the Clovis News-Journal in the mid-1970s, Howell would stop by the office.

"I would hear him talking to the managing editor and it just struck me how smart he was and that he had a broad interest in the world outside of music," Large said.

"To this day, he allowed me to see the possibilities — to understand that not everyone agreed with segregation. That helped me to look for that in other people."

• • •

Norvil and Elaine Howell met at Marshall Junior High when she was teaching English in Room 19 and Howell was on his way to visit another faculty member.

When she stepped in the hallway, she saw him and said, "Hi, how are you?"

Later, Elaine Howell said, Norvil asked mutual acquaintances if she were single.

"And then when I met his specifications, he called for a date," said Elaine Howell.

They dated from 1961 until getting married in August of 1964.

Their son John is principal of Clovis High School's Freshman Academy.

This summer they lost their 43-year-old son Mark, a Nevada educator, to brain cancer. At his service at St. James Episcopal Church in Clovis, the room was packed with friends and flowers.

"We just lean on Scriptures to get through," Elaine Howell said.

• • •

The Howells have enjoyed quite a ride together — sometimes literally.

In 1969 the CHS band was one of five high school bands selected to perform at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.

They could not afford to fly, and were turned down by the Santa Fe railroad company to let them travel in two chair cars and a baggage car for their instruments.

"A gentleman by the name of Clyde Marsh was a custodian for the band building and cafeteria," remembered Norvil Howell.

"His brother Ernest 'Maggie' worked his way up to being president of the Santa Fe rail system with offices in Chicago. Clyde and I smoked cigars together."

Clyde contacted his brother, and within days he received a letter informing him the trip for CHS had been approved.

"It just shows you to always treat everyone with respect," said Howell about his friendship with the custodian.

Elaine Howell said the Chicago Seven were on trial at the time for disrupting the Democratic National Convention.

"As we toured the city we would run into people protesting the trial," she said. "I remember walking through the crowds and telling the students not to talk to or touch anybody. The protestors would say, 'They're the middle class, they pay taxes, they fight wars.'

"But, privately, I was anti-Vietnam."

That was not the only protests the Howells experienced.

The band was invited to perform at halftime of a 1963 Rams football game in Los Angeles Coliseum the same weekend President Kennedy was assassinated. Police lined the field because protestors tried to stop the game from being played.

They returned to the Coliseum to perform in 1973 with Pat Boone.

The band played in Albuquerque for the arrival of President Nixon and his wife on Air Force One during a campaign stop. Protestors surrounded the band, yelling at Nixon while Howell was trying to conduct.

That led to the band performing at Nixon's second inauguration at the height of the Vietnam war. Once again the band was surrounded by protestors.

"You have to remember, I didn't grow up in eastern New Mexico and I'm more liberal-minded. I became a Democrat when I was in college," said Elaine Howell, 78, who grew up in the Texas Panhandle, the daughter of a junior college president.

"I was a Republican at that particular time," Norvil Howell said with a twinkle, but Momma (Elaine) told me the errors of my ways and got me changed over to a Democrat. I wanted to keep peace in the family so I changed from Republican to Democrat."

The Howells were active in the 2008 general election, leading to Sen. Tom Udall and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, both Democrats, visiting their home.

During that time they hosted 33 Democrats at a meeting.

"I was so sick of band directors and teaching English; we had so much fun," Elaine Howell said.

"My grandson is going on 18 and thinks the idea of Grammy being a Democrat is like they just let her out of jail and we don't want anyone knowing she's a convict.

"We'd put a Hillary sign in the yard during the day, and would take it up at night so no one would steal it."

Both Howells said they've lost friends after revealing they were Democrats.

• • •

Norvil Howell, an only child, moved to Artesia in the seventh grade from Sedan, Kansas, where his dad, a World War I veteran, bought him his first horn for $25. He became interested in music from church, and also sang at rodeos.

While at Artesia High School, he began playing "Taps" for veterans' funerals, a practice he continues — as well as playing gratis at birthdays and other special occasions.

The list of awards Howell and the CHS band won during his tenure would fill a fat resume, and include him being named New Mexico Music Educator of the Year, induction into the New Mexico Music Educators Hall of Fame and receiving an ENMU Distinguished Service Award.

The band won numerous state, regional and national awards. On CD recordings from Howell's era, the band is indistinguishable from a professional orchestra.

"Norvil is a music educator of the highest order, admired and respected by all lucky enough to know him. In short, Mr. Howell is a New Mexico treasure," said Dustin Seifert, ENMU band director.

Howell said his advice to young band directors is to "spend more time with your family. My kids remembered me with a briefcase and a horn case going out the door on a trip somewhere. But my wife was always understanding."

Howell looked adoringly at Elaine.

"My greatest memory is meeting this little gal, and the little success I've had is due to this little lady sitting right here."