By Jill Cueni-Cohen

Leaving a school administration job to return to the classroom isn’t a career path educators normally take. Some would call it a step backwards. But that’s just what Robert Dell did when he left his principal’s position at Chartiers Houston to teach music and rejoin the Peters Township marching band he started some 30 years prior.

“I chose the road less-traveled, and people tease me about that,” said Dell, who left a promising future at Chartiers-Houston in 1998 to return to Peters.

“I received a call from a [Peters Township] board member wanting to know if I knew of anyone who was interested in the band director position at Peters,” said Dell, explaining that board members occasionally called him for advice because of his administration background and his roots in Peters Township. “I told them I’d think about it and call them back. Then I threw my hat into the ring, which was kind of shocking, but I wanted to come back to Peters, even though I loved Chartiers.”

In the seven years since he picked up where he left off, the band has again grown in numbers, after shrinking during the years that Dell had been away. “A number of different directors had come through, and the band size had dropped a bit,” he recalled.

His quick wit and sincere involvement with the kids has made joining the band a very cool extra-curricular activity.

“He includes everyone, no matter who, and he doesn’t care whether you’re the best player or the worst,” said Lisa Herring, 18, a recent graduate of Peters Township High School and a former band member since the eighth grade. “He’s made the program what it is today.” In fact, the number of instrumentalists has gone from 46 to over 120 since he’s returned.

But more than just attracting kids to play in the band, he’s also inspired some of them to choose a career in music.

“He’s the reason I'm going into music education,” says Herring, who will be attending Mercyhurst College in Erie in the fall. “He’s the first person I met when I came to Peters Township and a big reason my family moved into the district.”

Students like Herring represent another full-circle accomplishment for the kid who got so much out of performing in the North Hills School District’s marching band when he was in high school in the early 1960s. “My inspiration was my high school band director, Warren Mercer,” recalled Dell, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday. “He had a wonderful program, and I got the bug and decided that’s what I wanted to do with my life. He gave me maximum support along the way, and I’ve had a wonderful career.”

After graduating from high school in 1963, Dell attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated in 1968 with dual degrees; a bachelor of the arts in music and a bachelor of fine arts in music education.

His first job out of college was teaching band, general music and guitar classes at the middle school level in Peters Township, and with much urging and support from school administration, parents and kids, he formed Peters Township’s first marching band in 1972.

“The superintendent was Dr. Howard Jack, and he approached me to do this because he knew that I had marching band experience and was a drum major at North Hills,” Dell recalled. “That year, I had 42 kids who didn’t know their left from their right, and I can still remember every one of them. The band mushroomed from there and grew every year. Then I got the administrative bug and left [the district] for 12 years.”

While teaching the first time around at Peters, Dell took a sabbatical in 1984 and got his masters degree in educational administration from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1986, he became acting principal at Chartiers, and it looked like he was on the fast track to eventually becoming a superintendent until that fateful call in 1998 reawakened his need to hear the crash of cymbals and the thump of drums on a daily basis.

Did he forget all he knew about music during the 12 years he spent away from the classroom? “No, you don’t forget those things,” said Dell, pointing out that he was always actively involved in and supportive of the music department at Chartiers.

He lives in McDonald with his wife, Janet, and received his doctorate from Pitt in 1993, effectively putting himself in the position to be qualified to take on the title of superintendent. However, he seems content to stay where he is.

“I will probably finish my career here in Peters,” he said, the excitement in his voice palpable when he talks about how successful the band has been since he took back the reigns. “The marching band is growing, and this will be our eighth straight year of numbers increasing. This is one of the goals we look at, because every year we’re losing seniors and gaining younger kids.

“Now that we’re growing, I tell the kids that size isn’t everything; there’s got to be quality along with it,” added Dell, who’s proved his mettle by turning out an award-winning band that has received superior ratings from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association for the seventh straight year in a row.

“I believe that educationally, kids need to be well-rounded, and it’s important that they get involved in music as well as academics, because these days they’re so challenged academically. Balancing things out with a performance education keeps them on an even keel, and there are a lot of social aspects in that as well,” he said. “You have to try to open as many doors for them as you can.”