Arthur Means Jr. was founder of Birmingham’s Carver High School marching band and patriarch of the modern Miles College marching band.Alumni from Carver High School and Miles College are honoring the legacy of a stalwart music director at both institutions.
Means’ life will be celebrated at a funeral Saturday at noon from Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in BirminghamMeans became director of music when Carver High School opened in 1959 and served for 37 years.“We all became teachers just because of him. He was always professional,” Benton said. Several of the early band members were his former students from Carver, Means told The Birmingham News in 1996.“We march in purple jogging suits but that hasn’t been a deterrent,” Means said in the 1996 Birmingham News article. “And our size is deceiving. We have a band that sounds twice as large as it actually is. We’ve gone up against bands two and three times larger than ours this school year, but we have more than held our own.
Means’ presence still remains large at Carver High School, decades after he put down the maestro’s baton.