Mr. Gentry's Retirement 1976, at age 84

Herbert Gentry Oshawa This Week 26 May 1976

Oshawa Music Teacher Retires at age of 84

Oshawa Catholic High School's senior band played a farewell concert last Wednesday for the man who first showed them how to breath life into their instruments.

Herbert Gentry, head of the music department of the school for the last ten years is 84.

Still looking extraordinarily fit and energetic, Mr. Gentry tells Oshawa This Week that in retirement, "I'm just going to take it easy, take care of myself and play the trumpet."

It was under Mr. Gentry's guidance that Oshawa Catholic High School first introduced a music program for students up to grade 12 in 1966. He notes, that with a gift of $10,000 from the estate of R.S. McLaughlin, the school was able to buy enough wind and percussion instruments for a junior and senior band.

This year, the senior band won a first prize in the Kiwanis Music Festival and was second in 1975. Senior band soloist Joan Wehren (clarinet and accordion) won a second prize this year and vocalist Monica Cotton won a first prize.

IN THE BAND

Mr. Gentry was born in Woolwich England in 1891. As Woolwich was the home of Her Majesty's Royal Artillery Band, he was able to develop his natural ability and love for music at an early age.

In addition to his school studies at the London County Council School in Woolwich, Mr. Gentry began studying violin at seven and some years later, the trumpet.

His teachers were members of the Royal Artillery Band, which was both an orchestra and a military band and required those playing in it to play two instruments; so he too was encouraged to develop his skills on more than one instrument.

Leaving school at 14 (the legal age in England then) he went to work in the Royal Arsenal to begin his first career as an auditor. At that time, he was also pursuing his interest in music for the Salvation Army Band in Woolwich.

Just prior to World War One, Mr. Gentry followed his girlfriend (later to be his wife) to Oshawa where she had moved with her parents.

He recalls that, on first arriving in Oshawa, it was a town of wooden sidewalks, no indoor plumbing, surrounded by forests and farms.

He got his first job here working at Pedlars, earning $10 a week. Layed off after a few weeks, he took employment at Williams Piano Works when still in existence was located on the site now occupied by the Durham Regional Police Headquarters on Center Street North.

His stay here was called short, however, as the war had begun, and in 1915, Mr. Gentry was called back to England to work in the arsenal. During the war effort, the arsenal was producing all of the ammunition for the British forces.

He remained in England for 10 years returning to Oshawa in 1925. While still in England, his girlfriend came to join him and they were married before returning to Canada.

Soon after returning to Oshawa, Mr. Gentry began his second career, this time in the automotive industry, then just in its infancy. The huge General Motors of Canada plant in Oshawa was at that time, of course, still known as the R.H. McLaughlin Carriage Works.

His involvement with R.H. McLaughlin and General Motors spanned a 35 year period, from 1925 to 1960. During his years with General Motors, Mr. Gentry was group leader of a 21 member sub-assembly team.

He was also very active in local sports, playing with the Oshawa Cricket Club for 25 years and also some soccer.

Mr. Gentry server for many years as teh bandmaster for the Oshawa Salvation Army Band and 15 years, played first violin for the Oshawa Symphony.

Shortly after retiring from General Motors, Mr. Gentry was asked to introduce a music program and start a band at Anderson Collegiate in Oshawa. He spent four years teaching brass and woodwind instruments to the students there, and three summers obtaining his teaching certificate at Riverdale Collegiate in Toronto.

MUSIC

In 1966 Mr. Gentry undertook the music education program at Oshawa Catholic High School. Prior to the McLaughlin grant, he formed an 80-member girls choir as the school was not supplied with even a clarinet.

Mr. Gentry admits that he has had an active life far longer than most people and attributes his health to "living a good clean life".

"I take very good care of myself" he says, "I don't smoke or drink, or take drugs of any kind. It's very simple, really."

He recalls that as a boy in England, one of the members of a band was a doctor: "He answered all of my questions about the mind and body and I have lived according to his advice ever since."

The fact that his life spans so many generations has provided Mr. Gentry with a unique insight into the world as we know it. He isn't much in favour of big unions and doesn't think the government is doing much to help the country out of its economic woes.

STUDENTS

And unfortunately, he sees this as having a detrimental effect on the students today.

"Kids today do not have the same urge to learn as they once did," he says. "It is much harder to to teach today because young people feel there is little for them to strive for. Unemployment rates are so high now, many students get the impression that education is a waste of time."

Apart from these observations, Mr. Gentry has had few problems developing the musical abilities of his students. Maintaining that everyone can learn and instrument if taught properly, he has had only two or three students he has had to completely give up on.

Although he feels that with the rising popularity of music among the your, kids are more musically inclined, he confesses to a dislike of what they listen to. His personal music tastes remain with the classics.

His main criticism of the outlandish, discordant music of today is that few people know how to write a good melody.

Mr. Gentry plans to do some travelling when he retires. Mr. Gentry has two sons, both living in Canada. One, a Baptist Minister, lives in Renfrew and the other just recently moved to Mississauga.

Mr. Gentry is shown above, acting in a comedy skit. He died in 1987 at the age of 96.