John DeHaan – Choir Master
Recollections from “A. Nonymous”
John DeHaan was the master and the most talented teacher many of us ever had.
Choir was every day 5th period Juniors and Seniors. The room was big and filled with every single kid imagined who could have walked off a John Hughes movie just like in The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles…you remember? There were the smart kids, the popular kids, the rich kids, the jocks, the mean girls, the geeks, the cheerleaders and more. The kids came from every walk of life and clearly many a writers muse as where else would we have gotten the likes of Pitch Perfect, That Thing You Do, Glee, Sister Act II, School of Rock, Joyful Noise, the High School Musical movies and many more.
Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen year olds with raging hormones and teenage hourly changing angst filled this classroom with Mr. DeHaan every day. How he was able to take over 120 students and turn them into a choir with 8 part harmonies, in foreign languages, often without accompaniment, with a sound most choirs never achieve…may never be known. He did it year after year after year. He worked with us every day, before school, during school and after school. We sang in what could have only been every single church in Clinton and those in attendance can most likely still sing their part in the Messiah during the holidays as he had us practice it and perform it again and again until we could do it in our sleep.
Mr DeHaan did not stand for anything less than perfection. If he yelled at someone while we were on the risers, for say talking, kids tried not to laugh out loud as he yelled at them. The more they tried not to laugh the more he seemed to yell and the more likely their shoulders would start shaking and unfortunately it would end with them and others around them laughing out loud. Not laughing at Mr. DeHaan of course but out of simple embarrassment. Mr. DeHaan would have no time for it and would kick the kids out for the rest of the period. I remember this happening to many, to some more than once and one day a whole group including Jill Buikema, Gary Bowman, Steve Howes, Kevin Paaske and Angie Hjelmaas and more…some of the nicest kids in our class. The talent Mr. DeHaan drew out of his students year after year was amazing. At one time they said Mr. DeHaan held the record for the most students being selected to Allstate – often each year. The talented kids in our class Mr. DeHaan turned into great singers included Amy Lloyd, Janet Berry, Gary Bowman, Tim Mullins, Kevin Paaske, Jim Luebe, Jeanne Houser, Rob German, Peggy Messerli, Brent Enwright and so many more.
Through the years I have thought of Mr. DeHaan from time to time like when I hear a talented singer or a group of talented young singers in church or in the community and on network television with The Voice and American Idol. I also thought of Mr. DeHaan every time I would see a Bishops restaurant attached to an orange roofed Howard Johnson’s. It was a place Mr. DeHaan could not pass up when we were traveling and performing. Was it the pie?
Every year Mr. DeHaan produced a record album of the music we performed that year which he gifted to us. I found the albums this summer sitting on a shelf in the basement between Duran Duran and Prince. Unheard in probably 36 years. I have not owned a record player in probably 16 years. I wanted to hear the music again. I took the record albums to a friend who has a recording studio. He was able to digitally re record and enhance them as best as possible.
The music sounds just like it should. It’s us. If you listen close enough you can actually hear the individual voices of some of those talented kids rise above the choir most have not heard in all these years. For those of you who passed through choir I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. For the kids who never knew or cared in our youth…take a listen. Again, remember these were kids who most likely did not know how to sing at first let alone in foreign languages, in 8 parts, without accompaniment for the most part and he taught us.
Mr. DeHaan, the master director, turned a bunch of us into a national Gold Medal winning choir and they sang for the President of these United States and they were from Clinton High School in Clinton, Iowa – the Class of 1980.
For Mr. DeHaan and those kids who are no longer with us May the Lord Bless You and Keep You…and to all of you…I hope you can go back in time if only for a moment and enjoy these recordings and just how good you were. Well done.
Do you have a memory from those hazy-lazy school days?
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