Ronald George "Ron" Schroer

Mr. Ronald G. Schroer - a wonderful husband and father, incredible band director, and the greatest friend. I always thought his middle initial G stood for GREATNESS. Because that´s what he was. The best of the best.

They say that great leaders and great teachers have a way of getting you to work extra hard without you even knowing it. Actually, making it enjoyable. Mr. Schroer did that with ease.

I was 10 years old when he put a pair of drumsticks in my hands, and every day after, I couldn´t wait to see him again.

He had a way of making us band kids feel special, like anything was possible. He cared about us. He knew where we lived, our parent´s names, where they worked. He asked questions.

But it went deeper than that. My goal was to never disappoint him, and I think my fellow bandmates would say the same. Individually, we all worked hard on our instruments with a common goal; to please Mr. Schroer. And when we played together, as a band, the beautiful music we created was the byproduct.

And that was his genius.

And through all the work, he kept us entertained with his witty "Mr. Schroer-isms" "Grandma was slow, but she was old" or "Please arrive bright-eyed and bushy-tailed". He wasn´t like the other teachers; he was one of us. He was in the band.

I often reflect on my high school band years and realize how lucky we were to have such a vibrant music program in our small community. How extremely lucky we were to have such a wonderful man give the gift of music to so many. He filled the Norwood-Young America community with excellent musical performances for almost 3 decades. I was there for 7 of those years, and we were great. Really great.

We traveled far on incredible band trips because he knew it would make us better musicians, and better people. Winnipeg, Colorado, Washington D.C... I was in a band and on the road, so cool! I can´t imagine how much work it must´ve been for him, but as always, he´d just roll up his sleeves and get it done. We won many awards and were recognized with the highest achievements in State competitions. As I mentioned, we were great, because he was the greatest.

My 10-year-old self probably couldn´t imagine what was in store for my future, but of all things, I´m very thankful for my beautiful lifetime friendship with Mr. Schroer. He and Bev attended my wedding in California, they came to my first book launch party in Hollywood, he even got to see me play drums with a Beatle, Ringo Starr. I was actually more excited that Mr. Schroer was there that night than I was playing with Ringo. I was proud to show him how much he affected my life.

Thank you, Bev, Lisa, Kari, and Mark, for sharing your amazing husband and father.

Mr. Schroer, you gave us the performance of a lifetime, the final curtain is closing, but we will never forget. Thank you for everything, dear Sir. I love you and will miss you.

Mr. Schroer was our "Mr. Holland's Opus". He taught every single instrument for public school pay and he brought our tiny town to state competitions all the time. He would stop the whole band if you were out of tune, point at you and tell you what to do to tune up. If you were sharp or flat, he taught you how to hear that and remedy it. Then, we went right back to it. An amazing amount of his students won state competitions and/or went on to be very successful like Rob Shanahan who posted this tribute (thank you, Rob!). I didn't do too badly either. I played oboe, clarinet but ended up focusing on singing. Sometimes, I wish I'd have done what Mr. Schroer suggested with going to college as a music major with a focus on oboe and then going professional with oboe... but... hindsight is always 20/20 and I still love singing. I'm still doing pretty well with that too. Our small town only had a population of about 2000 at the time so it's truly amazing with what Mr. Schroer accomplished with such a tiny school. Rest in Paradise, Mr. Schroer and thank you for making such a huge, wonderful difference in so many lives.