Former Hoover band director to be inducted into Hall of Fame

A former Hoover High School band director has been selected for induction into the Alabama Bandmasters Hall of Fame.

Harry McAfee, who served as Hoover’s band director from 2001 to 2010, is set to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on April 28 at the Alabama Bandmasters Association All-State Festival in Huntsville.

Steve McLendon, a former longtime band director from Dothan High School and Hall of Fame inductee who nominated McAfee, said McAfee is most deserving and should have been inducted a long time ago.

McAfee served as president of the Alabama Bandmasters Association from 2007 to 2009 and was the group’s executive secretary/treasurer for several years after he retired. He was a band director in public schools in Alabama for 37 years and developed some very strong band programs, McLendon said.

“Everywhere he’s been, he’s been highly successful. He’s just a fantastic teacher,” McLendon said. “He’s just been a very active teacher and mentor to many other directors in the state.”

After graduating from Woodlawn High School in Birmingham in 1967 and getting a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Montevallo in 1972, McAfee got his first job as a band director at Calera High School.

After one year there, he became the band director at Bottenfield Junior High School in Adamsville for 11 years, team teaching with Minor High School band director Johnny Jacobs, and then he took over at Minor High School for four years after Jacobs retired.

McAfee then spent one year at Gardendale High School before taking over a fledgling program at Shades Valley High School. Over 11 years at Shades Valley, McAfee grew that program from 29 students to about 230 students.

In 2001, McAfee interviewed to become the first band director at Spain Park High School but ended up taking over for Pat Morrow at Hoover High, when Morrow became the Hoover school system’s public relations coordinator. He stayed nine years as head of the Hoover band program before retiring in 2010.

Since retiring, McAfee has continued to teach on a part-time basis at schools that included Simmons and Bumpus middle schools, Homewood Middle School, Pizitz Middle School, Thompson High School and Thompson Middle School. For a while, he was teaching four days a week, but after the pandemic, he cut back to two days a week at just Simmons and Bumpus middle schools, he said.

He also has done a lot of judging, serving as a head judge for the Alabama Bandmasters Association at music performance assessments and judge at marching band competitions.

In January 2020, McAfee was inducted into the Alabama Music Educators Association Hall of Fame, which is a broader group that includes choral directors and elementary music teachers.

Now, in addition to teaching part-time, McAfee conducts the Birmingham Community Concert Band and plays in two other bands (the Alabama Winds and Celebration Winds).

He previously played for 26 years with the 313th Army Band of the U.S. Army Reserve and has occasionally been an extra with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. He remains active with the Alabama Federation of Musicians union.

McAfee said being inducted into the Alabama Bandmasters Hall of Fame means a lot to him. There are many strong conductors who are in that Hall of Fame, and it especially means a lot that a good friend — former longtime Monroe County Band Director John Bradley — is being inducted into the Hall of Fame with him, McAfee said.