Longtime teacher, church choir director dies at age 71
by Cody Calamaio on Jul. 08, 2008, under Education, Local
Tommy Harper served as choir director at Emmanuel Baptist Church for 36 years.
On Father’s Day, Tommy Harper told his granddaughter Ashley, 13, he was sorry he wouldn’t be able to finish the piano lessons he had been giving her.
The beloved church choir director and educator lost his three-year battle with melanoma early Sunday morning. He was 71.
Mr. Harper served as the choir director at Emmanuel Baptist Church for 36 years and made a name for himself with the diverse music he brought to the church. Over the years he did everything from contemporary music to the traditional gospel hymns of his childhood to fun jazz renditions of “When The Saints Go Marching In.”
It’s not just the music that will resound in the hearts of his friends, but Mr. Harper’s lifetime of kindness.
“He played the piano like an angel and would go out in the parking lot afterward and pick up cigarette butts,” Emmanuel Baptist church administrator Karen Moss said. “You could talk to a thousand people and they would tell you he was one of a kind.”
Mr. Harper started taking piano lessons as a child in Shreveport, La., and continued taking them until this year, Moss said.
“He always thought he had something left to learn,” Moss said. Mr. Harper played piano in both of Moss’ daughters’ weddings.
He moved to Tucson in 1958 and worked for Tucson Unified School District until 1999.
He taught English at Catalina and Pueblo high schools and what was then Roskruge Junior High.
He retired as director of curriculum for Tucson Unified School District in 1999.
He then worked for eight years at Salpointe Catholic High School and spoke at its graduation ceremony in May.
“Tommy was the most generous person I’ve ever known,” Moss said. “His generosity of spirit was unparalleled.”
He donated his time, his energy and whatever money he could to helping people, she said.
Mr. Harper kept up with hundreds of students from as long as 40 years ago. When he found out he was approaching the end of his life, he invited everybody he loved to visit, Moss said.
About 400 former students, choir members and friends came to visit him during his month-long home hospice care.
“That tells you a lot about how many people he touched,” former choir member and former Catalina High Magnet School student Darin McDaniel said.
Mr. Harper worked full time at both the church and his school, and always still made time to decorate his Winterhaven home with holiday cheer, McDaniel said.
“How he got it all done is beyond me,” he said.
“We used to joke that God gave Tommy more hours in a day,” Moss said.
McDaniel said that Mr. Harper kept pushing him to keep learning long after he had graduated college.
“One of the first things he said to me was, ‘Have you read any Thomas Hardy?’ ” McDaniel recalled about seeing his teacher years later. “I never had a chance to read it in high school. It was something individual he knew about me.”
Mr. Harper is survived by his wife of 49 years, Carol Harper; his brother Jimmy of Shreveport, La.; son Marty of Dallas, son Jeff of Tucson and five grandchildren.
Services will be held Sunday at 4 p.m. at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 1825 N. Alvernon Way.
The family asks attendees to wear brightly colored Hawaiian shirts, a style he was known for, to celebrate his life.
Moss said Mr. Harper was involved in planning the service.
” ‘It sounds like it’s going to be very fun. I wish I could be there,’ ” Moss recalls Mr. Harper saying.
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