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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Bob Gomez, a 40-year veteran of CHS, will retire in June.
Gomez bids district a fond farewell after 40 years
By Michelle Alaimo
Cupertino High School Band director Robert "Bob" Gomez will retire this June after helping students fill the halls with the sounds of music for almost 40 years.
"It's time to retire and give someone else young the chance to have fun," Gomez said.
Whoever replaces Gomez will have some big shoes to fill. Gomez not only is the CHS band director, he also is chairman of the music department. He founded all three school bands, jazz, orchestra, and concert, and in 1989, founded and still directs the Cupertino Symphonic Band for adult community members.
"He's pretty much devoted his life to music," said CHS principal Barbara Nunes.
Life for Gomez is filled with day and evening rehearsals, performances, competitions, parades and judging other musical events.
Gomez, an oboe player, said he has had a great love of music since childhood. Gomez played in the Fremont High School band and credits his high school band teacher for encouraging him to study music. Gomez earned a bachelor's degree in music from San Jose State University in 1962 and began teaching at CHS in 1965.
Nunes said that students love Gomez. Some former students have even gone to great lengths to surprise him.
In 1989, during a spring preview concert, 120 alumni band students honored Gomez with a surprise tribute. Nunes said the band members secretly rehearsed during the week. Gomez said the alumni even went as far as placing everything back exactly where it should be so he would have no hints that anyone had been using the band room.
During a break in the spring preview concert, the alumni sneaked into the gym and waited for Gomez to return from intermission. He said he certainly was surprised when the members then played with the high school band.
"The students have had a great impact on me," Gomez said.
After that surprise performance, Gomez formed the Cupertino Symphonic Band, consisting of many adults of his former band students. The band plays at events throughout Cupertino.
Gomez also traveled a lot with the CHS band. Over the years, the band performed in the Rose Bowl Parade, at the Cotton Bowl, San Francisco 49er and Oakland Raider football games and for three American presidents.
Gomez said he would never forget the Cotton Bowl Parade in Dallas, Texas. "It was 13 degrees below zero on the day of the parade," Gomez said. "We had to keep the buses running because we were afraid they wouldn't start again." The parade only lasted a block because band members started suffering from frost bite, he said.
One of Fremont Union High School District's biggest band fundraisers also was born in Gomez's office. In 1971, Gomez said, the band was trying to figure out a way to raise $9,000 to go to the Rose Bowl Parade. A parent suggested holding a tournament at which the school would charge admission to the evening field show. The Cupertino Tournament of Bands was born.
"It just keeps growing and growing," Gomez said. Almost all schools that apply to be in the tournament are accepted. The last tournament featured 27 bands, judged by 15 music specialists. Gomez said the evening show features a maximum of 15 bands performing 10-minute shows. Money raised from the event is split between the district's five high schools.
Fremont Union recently honored Gomez at the district's 75th anniversary musical celebration, held at the Flint Center at the end of March. Superintendent Joe Hamilton surprised Gomez by calling him out onto the stage and presenting him with an engraved rosewood conductor's baton.
Gomez credits students, parents and administrative staff for his success and said he is fortunate to be in a teaching position that earns a lot of recognition.
Even the pairing of Gomez and his wife was a musical event. Gomez was performing in the band at a SJSU musical where Yvonne, now his wife, was an actress. He said they met backstage after a dish that was supposed to break when she threw off the stage ricocheted on the floor and hit him in the head. The two went on to marry and have an adult daughter named Erica.
Although Gomez will retire from teaching in June, music will still be a big part of his life. Yvonne recently bought her husband a new oboe, which he plans to practice in preparation forjoining the Maui, Hawaii, symphony. The couple own a condo in Maui and will spend part of the year living there when Yvonne retires next year. The couple also plans to travel and visit relatives in Spain.
"He's just been one of the mainstays in the spirit of Cupertino for many years," Nunes said. "It will be very difficult to replace him."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
