People who touch our lives

It’s proverbial to say that people come into our lives and make impressions upon us both good and bad. One such person that made a great impact in my life and on our little community was honored last weekend. George Gardner was a music guy who worked in the schools and the community college, in our church and as a friend and with his amazing family. He also left our midst too soon, passing away in 2003 at the age of 67. He was a mover and a shaker in many ways and I was one who was very benefitted by the music that he produced while he lived in Happy Holbrook.

The Gardner family moved to Holbrook in 1967 when George became the music person in the schools. He worked wonders with choir and by the time our family came to Holbrook in 1975, the "Swing Thing" choir was becoming one of the top performing groups in any Arizona High school. They were amazing and George was the driving force.

Among the things George did in music were productions in our LDS Stake, Christmas music, productions of the Messiah, participation in community parades, the organization of a yearly Northern Arizona regional school choirs performance, tours of groups to Hawaii, a community choir and other kinds of music oriented activities. He made events a lot of fun.

We have needed a performing building in our community which George had really wanted and had never had. Some individuals have been pushing for several years to build such a building here which has finally happened at our High school - the George Gardner Performing Arts Building. The school held a dedicatory event last weekend with many former residents of the community coming back to visit. The building is gorgeous and I was impressed with many things about it. . It was a nice touch for the superintendent to call local artists to display artwork for the dedication in the gallery area of the building.


I painted something special for the occasion, a collage of many of the groups he had touched, called "Gardner Traditions". His mother, Helene was a marvelous piano player and their family played for many dances. There is a representation of the community choir, the Swing Thing, the High school jazz band, a reference to the trips made to Hawaii and a representation of George’s wife, Marie and their 8 lovely children. I appreciated George Gardner so much for all of the music in which I participated and for his positive attitude. One time when I was feeling weighed down by the responsibilities I had in a particular event, he commented that they weren’t problems, but opportunities. He developed so many opportunities in our midst and he has been missed.