Students, colleagues remember Jackson's 'Mr. Music' Nick Leist

Colleagues and students of former Jackson High School band director Nick Leist are remembering him as a magnetic and kindhearted leader, passionate about sharing his love for music with his students and the community.

Leist, a musical legend in Jackson, died Sunday at age 74.

Leist had been a music man since the early 1960s. After moving around for a few years among high schools in Advance, Hayti and Caruthersville, Missouri, Leist found his home at Jackson High School.

From the time he began teaching there in 1968, Leist captivated classes and helped bring Jackson High School's band to an all-time high until his retirement in 1998.

Pat Schwent, a retired woodwind director, was by Leist's side for 27 of his years at the high school.

"Together we built the program over there, second to none in the state of Missouri. And Nick's influence in dealing and working with people was a gift from God. He had a gift from God to be able to work with people," Schwent said.

Among Leist's students was Scott Vangilder, who eventually also came to work alongside Leist and Schwent as a fellow band director at Jackson High School.

Vangilder said Leist was a one-of-a-kind person who cared about keeping music an important part of the community.

"He is Mr. Music of Jackson. That's what most people would say about him," Vangilder said.

Vangilder described Leist as an "excellent human being" who was a great family man with strong moral standards and a love for putting others first.

As a former student of Leist, Vangilder viewed Leist as a role model, and said that other directors around the area also looked to Leist on a regular basis for advice.

"His opinion was very valued and very highly sought after by area band directors. *... He was everybody's teacher," Vangilder said.

Vangilder said Leist was a man who left a lasting impression in the Jackson public school system by implementing a system called the "team teaching" program. This program involves assigning specific instrument-based instructors to teach different groups of students from the time they are in junior high until they graduate high school.

"It was his vision to start the 'team teaching' process. ... This situation is unique because all the directors teach through beginning band [in seventh grade] all the way through the high school," Vangilder said.

Along with starting the "team teaching" program, Leist helped develop the Symphonic Band at Jackson High School, and with it an entirely new opportunity for students to make music.

Schwent said one of her favorite parts about working with Leist was his myriad "crazy sayings," in particular him telling her she was "busier than a cranberry merchant." She said she wasn't exactly sure where he got the sayings from, but that they always explained the situation they were in perfectly.

"Everyone loved Nick; he was a fatherly figure to everyone," Schwent said. "Everyone was special, and they felt like they were special when they were with Nick."

One marching band formation in particular will stand out in Schwent's mind forever when thinking about her time working with Leist -- "the run on." This required members of the Jackson Marching Chiefs Band to separate evenly into all four corners of the football field with the drum line in front, and once the music started, all four corners would move together toward the middle and do a high step as they marched and crisscrossed across the field in unison. She said the fans would come to see this formation just as much as they would come to see the football game.

It was that sense of fun and tradition that helped Leist leave such a lasting effect on the students and Jackson community as a whole.

"Just his great personality, you know, and his infectious love of the students is carried across where they loved him back, and the music and the band," Vangilder said.

Leist's daughter, Susan Thomas, said he was once asked why he never composed a symphony.

"His response was, 'My students were my symphony,'" Thomas said in an email.

Along with making music with the high school band, Leist also dedicated his time to directing the Jackson Municipal Band for 42 years between 1968 and 2010. He also worked as a field representative for Shivelbines Music Store in Cape Girardeau for 12 years.

Throughout his life, Leist built up a list of achievements, from leading the Jackson High School Band to 27 straight years of 1 ratings, the best possible, in contest to having from 35 to 50 All District Band members each year.

He continued to succeed and gained esteemed awards during his career such as the Phi Delta Kappa outstanding educator award in 1992; the Otto F. Dingeldein award from the Cape Girardeau Council of the Arts in 1994; he won the Phi Beta Mu Charles Emmons award in 1996 for being chosen as the best band director in the state; he was chosen as one of the Heartland's Best Teachers by KFVS12 in 1998; and he was later inducted into the Missouri Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2007.

All the while, Leist remained humble, and gave all the credit for his achievements to the community, his colleagues and students.

"He's an icon. There's nobody like him. Never was anybody like him, and there won't ever be anybody like him," Vangilder said.

Leist is survived by his wife, Judy Leist, and his three daughters.

The visitation and funeral will be at St. Paul Lutheran Church at 223 W. Adams St. in Jackson. The visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. today and 9 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, with the funeral following at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Burial will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting mccombsfuneralhome.com.

Pertinent address:

223 W. Adams St., Jackson, Missouri