On occasion when someone finds out my last name is “Cheek,” the person will invariably ask if I’m related to Raymond Cheek of Hollister. “Yes, I am,” I say proudly. “He was my father.”
After I inform them of this fact, I usually know what they’ll say next. “He was my music teacher back in high school,” they’ll say. And then they’ll gush about how “Mr. Cheek” was such a wonderful, kind-hearted man who taught so much more than mere music lessons. He taught people how to live and how to be better citizens of this world.
Judging from what former students tell me of their memories in my dad’s classes at San Benito High School, you’d think he’s in line for canonization as “Saint Raymond.” My dad was no saint, of course, but he definitely was a very good man who brought a lot of benefit to the South Valley community.
Writing this column, I occasionally receive letters and e-mails from readers who want to share their memories of my father. One of the nicest letters came from Hollywood a couple of years ago. No, it wasn’t a movie star who sent it, but Hollister’s famous Bob Valenzuela – one-time a popular columnist for the local Pinnacle newspaper and one-time one of my dad’s students at San Benito High.
Valenzuela told me he’ll forever be indebted to Raymond Cheek for helping hitch him up with his wife. Apparently, in his graduation year, the teenage boy wanted to go to the prom dance with a certainly lovely young miss. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any cash to rent a tuxedo.
My father heard about his predicament and, happening to have a penguin suit of his own, loaned it out to Valenzuela for the biggest social event of a high schooler’s life. A trim athlete geared up like a James Bond stud, Bob Valenzuela sure impressed his lady friend that night – enough to later tie the knot with her.
I love hearing the stories my father’s former students want to share. They tell me what a true gentlemen he was and how he made them better people with the little pearls of wisdom he doled out in music class.
Besides teaching at the Hollister high school, dad also instructed music students at the San Juan Bautista grammar school and at San Benito College, a fore-runner of what’s now Gavilan Community College. In fact, on the day of my dad’s funeral, Ralph Schroder, Gavilan’s first president, told me this anecdote. In the early 1960s, when there was a big debate about where to build the community college’s new campus, my father had been the first to suggest a compromise – put it close to San Benito County in southern Gilroy where foothill land was cheap.
Last month, while riding on Caltrains from San Francisco, I happened to meet a former music student of my father’s. I was chatting with a nice fellow passenger named Roxanne who said she lives in San Juan Bautista. I mentioned I’d grown up in Hollister.
Arthur Jackson, her friend, overheard my last name and asked if I was related to “a music teacher named Raymond Cheek.”
“Yes, I am,” I said proudly. “He was my father.”
“Oh, he was my favorite teacher!” Jackson exclaimed, and went into fond memory mode. “He use to play the violin. I remember he could play that instrument so sweetly.”
My father has written several books, and Jackson was interested in one published under the title “Treasure of Facts for the Violinist.” He said he wanted to read it if I have a copy. I promised I’d send one.
It’s a slim paperback printed in 1955 that sold for $2 back then. (On the Internet now, a well-worn copy costs $80 – a price that would have absolutely astounded dad.) The other day, I scanned through the book. The first chapter shares various violin trivia.
“Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned, but probably played the lute,” it said. “The ‘frog’ of a bow is not an amphibious animal.” (My dad, like his son, was a true connoisseur of corny jokes.)
Another chapter is titled “Why Study Music?” And in it, dad shares this bit of wisdom:
“America has the greatest system of free public schools that the world has ever known. This system is vital to the continued existence of the American democratic government. The tax paying public wants instrumental and vocal music to be available to every child as a regular part of the school curriculum. Music has an emotional appeal … that is likely to influence the student in his attitudes toward life.”
Reading my father’s words now seems so relevant today – especially with Measure E’s failure to pass in Morgan Hill in the last election. The measure would have created a special education parcel tax for five years to fund the city’s public schools. Among Measure E’s priorities was the restoration of music and art programs so vital to a child’s well-rounded education.
My father was famous for penny-pinching, and I doubt, like anyone, he looked at any increase in his tax bill with much glee. But IÂ believe he would have voted for Measure E. At $96 per year per taxable parcel, he’d probably think it a pretty fair price to pay to enhance the lives of many young people with the gift of music.
In November, Morgan Hill voters will be offered a second chance to vote on the education parcel tax measure. I hope they give it the two-thirds majority it needs. The entire South Valley community will benefit in many ways from the blessings it brings.
The restoration of music classes for children in the Morgan Hill district, I believe, would be a Father’s Day gift my dad would truly appreciate. I’m sure one of Raymond Cheek’s former students would agree with me.
As Arthur Jackson told me of my dad: “He was not only a teacher, he was a friend and an encourager of students.”
