RICHWOOD, W.Va. — There’s sadness among the The Pride of Nicholas County: The Lumberjack Express with this week’s death of longtime Richwood High School Band Director Greg James.
James, who was in his early 70s, was a teacher in Nicholas County for 50 years. He took over the Richwood High band in the early 1980s.
Richwood High Assistant Principal Hillary O’Dell said James just completed another school year. She last saw him on Tuesday. O’Dell, a Richwood High grad and former band member, said there was no one like Mr. James.
“His students absolutely love him, trust him and his relationships with them extend past graduation–he keeps in contact with his students across the country. He has really impacted a lot of lives in his 50 years,” O’Dell said.
O’Dell said James, who drove from his home to Glenville to Richwood all these years, hasn’t been in the best of health recently but that didn’t stop him.
“He goes on every band trip, every competition and never asked help from anybody,” she said. “He just kept going and he really was private and didn’t want us to know the extent of how ill he was. He just said, ‘I’m fine and I just keep on moving.'”
O’Dell said when other schools have struggled keeping a marching band going, James was able to keep interest at Richwood.
“The band was a place for everybody,” she said. “Even kids that didn’t have a place and kids that did have a place, the band wasn’t just ‘band kids,’ it was athletes and kids from all walks of life and when you walked through the doors of that band room you were a family, you were all on the same level.”
She said it’s about consistency.
“He was exactly the same Tuesday as he was when I was 12-years-old and entered junior high and started in beginner band—his expectations never wavered,” O’Dell said. “I think that consistency in what he expected of his students really kept the band program being as successful as its been.”
James graduated from Glenville State in 1976 and begin as a traveling band teacher in Nicholas County that fall. He soon became the assistant band director at Richwood before moving into the lead position, O’Dell said.
“He treated everybody the same. He expected excellence and he made you rise to meet his expectations.” O’Dell said.