Milford students will say goodbye to band director Phil Goddard at the end of this school year.
Goddard announced his retirement on Dec. 29, effective at the end of the 2023-24 school year. After teaching band and other related jobs since 1989 and at Milford since 2001, Goddard said he and his wife have been planning for full retirement and he wants more time to spend with his family.
“Over the last five years, as I was approaching pension eligibility, my wife and I have been planning the next epoch between now and full retirement in the next decade,” he said. “I have a daughter in college and one in high school. I will enjoy having a bit more time to be a larger part of their lives and to explore other areas of endeavor.”
Goddard said his time with Milford Public Schools has been great and he will have a tough time leaving.
“My time here has been an absolute joy and parting will be difficult,” he said. “It’s just the next right move for me and my family right now.”
Goddard said he was interested in music and being a band teacher after he was inspired by his band director at Imperial, Mike Bogard.
“I knew nothing about music and started band in fifth grade like everyone else,” he said. “I had a knack for it and our director was popular, so it turned out to be a way for me to succeed and be recognized.”
At the end of his freshman year, Goddard said his band teacher asked him if he’d like to lead the band as a drum major, which gave him his first taste of directing a band.
“The next fall I got to experience what it’s like to direct a large group. I was instantly hooked,” he said. “I thought, ‘If I could get paid to do this…’”
Since graduating from Hastings College in 1989, Goddard had multiple jobs including one teaching band at Smith Center, Kansas, for two years, a non-teaching job in Washington, D.C., a utility substitute job for Lincoln Public Schools, a six-week substitute position at Bishop Neumann in Wahoo while its band director was on maternity leave, a teaching job at Elmwood-Murdock Public Schools for seven years and teaching conversational English in a public school in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
A year after Hong Kong in 2000, Goddard and his wife decided to return to the United States and the Milford job was available.
“I interviewed for the position in my pajamas, sitting on the edge of my bed at 1:30 a.m. in Hong Kong,” he said. “It was a conference call with Alan Katzberg, Dennis Isernhagen and Penny Jans,” former MPS administrators.
Goddard said there are many aspects he loves about the Milford community.
“Schools and towns have a character and a culture. I could talk about Roger Wittrock and his decades of support with our Pizza Kitchen Card program,” Goddard said. “I could talk about how Sandra Meisman randomly gives other teachers small gifts. I could talk about how our percussion specialist, Jim Krutz, popped out to JR Welding to have them make something for us and, when they found out it was for the band…refused payment. I could talk about Tim Curtis and the construction of pirate ships, rolling boulders and all of the other things he and his boys did for our concerts. I could talk about supportive parents and grandparents, incredible kids and our staff and administration. I got to teach with Tim Fichtner, for goodness sake. When you’re in a place like that, what’s not to love.”
Goddard said he hopes he can use the remainder of his time at MPS to thank the community and continue as normal with what the band does.
“For our big February ExtravaBandza, I’m selfishly choosing some of my favorites from over the years,” he said. “But, other than preparing for my successor, it will be business as usual. We’re not taking our foot off the gas.”
