D O T Y B L O G      

Eric Anderson, a Californian with connections to the valley, offered this note to the Mail Tribune letters page today...

Thank you Mike Wraight and Bill Horton.

There are two gentlemen that the Rogue Valley owes a huge thank you to. Both gentlemen are retiring after teaching at Phoenix High School for more than 20 years. Bill has been developing very skilled budding actors and Mike has been creating extremely talented musicians.

My wife Carol and I were fortunate enough to see their final collaboration together, the wonderful musical "Oklahoma" May 20 in the Phoenix High Theater.

I would like to thank Bill for many years of enjoyment while we watched his pupils perform wonderfully. And to Mike, I’d like to thank him for all the music students he has taught to become great musicians and great members of our society.

Mike, thank you for teaching me to play the French horn, ride a bike, swim and for helping me to be a better person. You’re the best.

Mike and Bill were focal parts of my high school career, Mike moreso at the time, but Bill's influence was more lasting.

I spent 3 to 4 periods a day involved in performance music during high school. Mike Wraight's band brought me the greatest successes of my youth. Concerts, parades, field shows, and playing in the stands as the Pirate football teams reached three state finals and the basketball teams earned their first state berths in years. I started as a trumpeter, but braces forced me to a larger mouth piece - baritone for marching, but to stay in jazz band, I needed to learn the slide positions of a trombone and bass clef. The Pirate band was on the road to SoCal and to DC during my tenure.

Horton's impact was briefer, but more lasting. One semester of sophomore English, then one play spring term of my senior year... not the usual broad impact one would expect, but that taste of time on stage led to my choice of major in college. Theater became a great passion for me. Upon my return to the valley, Bill was one of the very first people I looked up, and Phoenix's theater department was one of the places I made certain I continued to visit regularly.

Best of luck to both with their next endeavors, and best wishes to the actors, technicians, designers, and musicians at Phoenix in helping the new teachers find their footing and stepping into these enormous shoes.

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