Longtime Santa Fe High band director dies at 76

It was three days before school started in the fall of 1967.

Clark Pontsler was about to start his second year as assistant band director at Santa Fe High School when he found out that director Bob Penn had decided not to come back for the coming school year.

Pontsler took over for Penn, much to the surprise of Penn’s students.

“Where’s Bob Penn?” the students asked when they got to school. Pontsler told them he’d gone.

“Well, who’s boss now?” they asked.

“I am,” Pontsler said, “and don’t you forget it.”

And so Clark Pontsler became “Boss,” a nickname that stuck with him through his 23 years in the Santa Fe Public Schools and until he died Sept. 1. He was 76.

A slight man with a buzz cut, Pontsler was the face of Santa Fe High’s band program from the late 1960s until he retired in 1989.

Under Pontsler’s direction, the school’s band program thrived. Hundreds of students participated. He also served as music coordinator for the entire school district.

Pontsler, who was in the 371st Army Band in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., during the Korean conflict, brought with him a military demeanor and discipline that students were wary of at first but soon came to respect.

“They were probably scared of him,” said Mark Clark, a former student and professional drummer. “He was real stern, real direct.”

“Boss” commanded so much respect, Clark said, that a room full of band members would go from total chaos to “forest quiet” as soon as Pontsler stepped on the podium and raised his baton.

And if a section of the band was acting up, it didn’t take much to settle it down. “The drum corps is notorious for being a little bit rowdy,” said Valerie Ingram, who played in the band during the early 1980s. “He certainly could silence them with a look.”

Pontsler also expected a lot of his students, Clark said, and didn’t give out compliments easily. Because of those expectations, he said, kids wanted to please him and were pleased with themselves when they did.

“When he smiled at you and said, ‘Good job,’ it was the best thing you could ever be told,” recalled Laura Hill, another former student.

Pontsler made a concerted effort to spread music throughout Santa Fe, taking his bands to play at any event that would have them, including parades, store openings and ice-cream socials at the local Dairy Queen.

In addition to his love of music, Pontsler was an advocate for students. “He’d get you out of hot water, then he’d take care of you in his own way,” said Clark, adding Pontsler might ask students to polish instruments to pay for their indiscretions.

His hard work, sincerity and self-sacrifice — he worked long hours practicing, raising money and taking bands to competitions — also earned students’ admiration. “As strict as he was and (as much as he) demanded respect and discipline, I knew that he cared about me,” Ingram said.

Students still vividly remember summer band trips that Pontsler organized. He took them to competitions in Germany, Greece and Hawaii, among others. The trips were the first time for many students to see the world. “It was sort of my first taste that there was more to the world than Santa Fe,” Ingram said.

During his time in the schools, Pontsler played at the Palace Restaurant with the Clark Pontsler Trio.

Pontsler also taught at Hummingbird Music Camp and took his bands there. “He was a master teacher, there was no doubt about that,” said Wanda Higgins, whose husband, Kenneth, started the camp and whose family has run it for nearly 50 years.

“My husband always said that one of the greatest talents he had was making kids want to learn,” Higgins said.

“He just had an enthusiasm for music,” said Pontsler’s daughter, Nancy Engle. “He brought people in and overwhelmed you.”

After retiring from Santa Fe Public Schools, Pontsler and his wife, Joan, spent winters in Apache Junction and Mesa, both in Arizona. There he played with the Mesa City Band and the Mel Eidsmoe Tenor Band, and he directed the Swinging Resorters.

High-school sweethearts who moved to New Mexico after nine years of teaching in Illinois, the Pontslers spent the last four years in Rio Rancho.

“To me, he was wonderful as a husband,” Joan Pontsler said. “I was probably his greatest admirer.”

Joan Pontsler said her husband was a quiet, shy man, who “did not believe in shouting” and “did not believe that he should be the show,” instead deferring to students or fellow band mates.

He continued his involvement in music right up to the end, directing a Bell Choir and singing in the Chancel Choir at Rio Rancho Methodist Church. And his Swinging Resorters group performed as recently as last March.

Joan Pontsler said her husband was modest and wouldn’t expect to be featured in the newspaper. “He would be embarrassed,” she said. “Myself, I think he deserves it.”

Pontsler is survived by three children, Gary Pontsler, Nancy Engle and Melody Lee, four grandchildren and one grandson.

A memorial service for Pontsler is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Santa Fe. His ashes will be buried in the Rose Garden at Hummingbird Music Camp in the Jemez Mountains.

Contact John Sena at 986-3079 or jsena@sfnewmexican.com.