Jesse Suggs, Jr. - Class of 1964

 A deeply religious man, orchestra instructor Jesse Suggs once asked God to make him a very competent teacher.

"His answer was to give me 13 schools to teach at in Greensboro," Suggs said with a chuckle.

 Suggs has  retired  from teach­ing in the Guilford County Schools. He was orchestra director at Jackson . and Jamestown Middle Schools and at Smith High School.

Fresh out of college, Suggs taught for half of a school year at Frinke High School in La Grange before coming to 'Greensboro in 1970 for the Greensboro Public Schools. For that first year he traveled to various schools doing rehearsals with orchestra sections that needed help.

    It meant that he worked with some of ih'e most challenging students and kids with the worst discipline problems.- Though he wasn't aware of it at the time, Suggs said that position turned out to be one of his greatest blessings. It also became a learning process for        mm. Having studied the clarinet and violin, he was able to tackle a couple of new instruments while teaching his students.

    "Over that first year's time, 1 taught a multiplicity of students and got to learn to play the viola and cello," he. said. "This experience made me a better teacher; When you get a chance like that for a year, you are going to come out ahead," he said. And come out ahead he did. When..he leaves, many will miss this teacher who has made" an impact on the lives of students he's taught, parents he's got            ten to know and teachers and admini­strators with whom he's worked. .

    "I don't want him to retire" said.Judy Strawn, whose children have studied under Suggs. "I told him, 'You've got to see Austin through.' Strawn's son Austin is a junior at Smith High School and studies the double bass.                Her son Logan, who is a sophomore viola perfor mance major at UNCG, also stud­ied under Suggs. Strawn and her family first met Suggs the

summer before Logan began the sixth grade at Jackson Middle School. Logan had played the trombone in elementary school but decided it was not for him.

"That summer before sixth grade he told me he felt a need to explore something," Strawn said. "I told him I still felt it was music;"

During an open house at school, Strawn and Logan walked into Suggs' classroom and introduced themselves. 'It was like we'd known him forever," Strawn said. "We felt an immediate connection."

Suggs immediately directed Logan to play the viola and then praised him when he saw how Logan automatically held the viola correctly for his first lesson. "With a smile he said, 'How long have you been playing the viola, Logan? Do you know it usually takes me a good year to teach a child how to hold an instrument correctly?' "

That first meeting led to a love of the viola for Logan and to the opening of many doors. Logan was able eventually to play with several professional groups and instrumentalists an': decided to study the viola at UNCG.

"I wouldn't be a music student if it was not for him," Logan .Strawn Said. ."He made me want 'to play the best that I could, not only to please him and bring honor to my school but for myself as" well."

Logan said that Suggs pushes all of his students to do well.      .

"He's very goal-oriented, and he doesn't accept anything but what he knows you can do," Logan said. "Jesse Suggs was a true blessing for Logan's life as well as a blessing to our whole family,'  Judy Strawn said.

Jerry Hairston, principal of Andrews High School in High Point, has known Suggs for 23 years. Hairston served as Suggs' assistant princi­pal and principal at Jackson Middle School for several years. He also laments Suggs leaving the     school system.                 .                                               "

"It's very hard to replace good teachers like Jesse Suggs," "Hairston said. "His love of teach­ing and music carried over to his students; teach­ing was not just a job to him."

Hairston describes Suggs teaching style in a single word - caring. He goes beyond his teach­ing duties to do the little things that make a dif­ference in students' lives. . Such things as helping students who might have been having problems at home or working until 8 o'clock some nights repairing instruments for kids who couldn't afford to buy new ones.

Hairston also describes Suggs as being firm with students. "He expected excellence and didn't accept mediocrity," Hairston said. "He expected top performances and got it." Suggs has made an important difference in his students' lives, Hairstpn said.

"He taught them about music appreciation and helped them understand they can accomplish any­thing if they are willing to put the work into it,"  Hairston said

Among his successful students is Suggs' daugh­ter, Tonya, who studied violin under her father from the fourth to the 12th grade. She recently completed a second degree in music education at East Carolina University. She plans to follow in her father's footsteps as an orchestra teacher. Encouraging his own child and other students to work hard and set high goals is something Suggs has perfected over the years.

He has help Smith students to raise enough money to travel with the "orchestra to Hawaii, Jamaica, Australia , and this year; Singapore. His student's raised $75,000 over the last two years to travel to" Sin­gapore June 16-26.

"The hardest part about teaching now is getting students to dream and step out on a limb," Suggs said.

Suggs gets his rewards, too: see­ing student accomplish their goals. Whether the goal is. a special accomplishment with their instru­ments, or working in the neighbor­hood raising money to participate in an-International trip, it's all important to Suggs' process of edu­cating  students.

. "Hove to see them bubbling over  with joy, saying they are glad they stuck with it and didn't give up."

Suggs said his teaching philoso­phy is hard to describe and has changed over the years as society has changed.

"try to ignite a passion for music in students, have them pur­sue it and be successful," Suggs said. "I used to think 1 was going to create  a passion or music in every­one and everyone will learn:" He's come to realize that being a musician is not for everyone.

       Suggs first realized that music was for him when he was a fifth-­grader in his native Durham. Rid­ing a bus through downtown Durham, he heard a group of musi­cians playing at a local barber  shop. "I was amazed," he said.

The sounds thrilled him and the thrill never subsided. Soon he was joining a school band and learning to play the clarinet.

The love for music continued as he grew older, and he added the saxophone and string bass to his list of musical accomplishments, His high school days included play­ing in an R&B group.

Suggs: skills in music were noted  by a record company that offered him an opportunity to write and record in 1967 while he was still in ­school.

He nixed the opportunity. "I chickened out," he said. "I had seen so many broken lives." Already he seen the negative sides of some

Musicians lives - failed marriages and drug problems.

"Their personal lives was not what I wanted, so I opted for some­thing safe: teaching," Suggs said. "Little did I know that was what the Lord had planned for me all along." Suggs graduated from N.C. Cen­tral in 1969 with a degree in music education and began his career as an orchestra teacher.

Even his love for music and his delight for teaching haven't  been a Pied Piper fantasy. Suggs, like most teachers trying to turn on an educational light for young people, has had his moments of discourag­ment through the years. A growing lack of parental support and disci­pline problems have been major discouragements, he said.

His stick-to-it and keep-on-trying attitude has been fostered by stu­dents who persevere and really want to learn. "I've seen kids stay out of school with the flu, yet come to orchestra class and then go back home," Suggs said.

"That has kept me going; it's the real turn-on to teaching," he said. "It's better than any salary J could. make with a record company." Initially, Suggs said fourth grade was his favorite to teach. "At that age they have no inhibitions about learning and are totally excited," Suggs said. "That's the best pay you can get, to see that sparkle in a student's eye."

Over the years he has come to look forward to finding that sparkle in the eyes of as many of- his stu­dents as possible.

"I think what I'm going to miss most about teaching is passing out music -during week one, hearing how awful the students sound and then witnessing their performance in week 10, the people clapping for them, the gleam in their eyes and them being a success."

As for his plans for retirement, Suggs is still considering several ideas. One involves a dream he has always had: putting together a jazz group and going on the road.     I’m not sure how my wife would feel about that, though," Suggs said with a laugh. He also is contemplating chang­ing his professional tune altogether - by becoming a chef. Suggs is thinking about going to cooking school, becoming a chef and open­ing a custom gourmet come-to-­your-home cooking service. His biggest dream he said, as he folded his arms above his head and stretched back in his chair, is to open a multimillion-dollar learning complex that would incorporate guidelines from the 1950s and 1960s.

"I'll do that when I win the lot­tery," he said with a chuckle.