Choral director has given 40 years to students throughout Kansas

By Angelique McNaughton

 

Early in her teaching career, a former student gave Pat Harry a Precious Moments music box with a girl sitting at a piano. It played “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”  The keepsake was appropriate for Harry, 63, who was just starting out as a music teacher.

“I’ve always thought of that as my personal motto,” Harry said, adding she meant in a smaller realm. “… My world was here; my world was Fort Scott. And … maybe, maybe I could make a musical difference with the generations of kids that have grown up here.”  And make a difference she has.

In her 40 years as a music teacher and middle and high school choral director, the latter with USD 234, Harry has encountered at least 5,000 students throughout Kansas.  One student whose life she definitely impacted is Winfield Scott Elementary School music teacher and former student Mary Jo Harper.