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News Release

Last modified: Friday, September 11, 2009

Former Marching Hundred director turns 100

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 11, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Gerald Henderson Doty, a violinist and former assistant professor of music and Marching Hundred band director at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, will turn 100 in his Missoula, Mont., home on Oct. 3.

While a group of Suzuki students will perform in Doty's honor on that day, his100th birthday will be celebrated again during the University of Montana's Homecoming parade Oct. 10.

"Dad is to ride in an antique Ford Model T that day," said Gerald's son, Philip Doty. "The car will be in front of several flatbed trucks carrying string students taught by a former student of dad's, Kirk Easter."

Born Oct. 3, 1909, in Fort Wayne, Ind., Doty attended DePauw University from 1928 to 1929 and Northwestern University, from which he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1931. He received his Master of Music degree from Northwestern University in 1936 and his Doctor of Education from IU in 1962. For the next 10 years, he taught in Fort Wayne, Steuben County and La Porte, Ind., as well as Louisville, Ky. From 1936 to 1937, he was principal violist with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra.

Doty joined the Jacobs faculty in 1941as a director of band music, which included directing the school's famed "Marching Hundred" band (1941-1948). He remained at IU until 1958, the same year he was elected president of the American String Teachers Association.

Doty was chair of the University of Montana Music Department for one year in 1958, and taught there until 1976, when he retired. He was a charter member of the Montana String Quartet and has served in the past as a visiting professor in the School of Fine Arts at Montana State University.

Doty has judged many school music contests and served as a guest conductor for several clinics. He is a past secretary of the College Band Directors National Association and has served as treasurer of the American String Teachers Association. He has also served as clinician and adjudicator in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Montana.

As his centennial birthday approached in September, Doty reflected with satisfaction on his career. "Music has always been at the center of my life," he said.

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