1 of 2
Photo courtesy of Bob Fitzgerald.
Jim Duren served as the first director at Oak Mountain High School beginning in 1999 until his retirement in 2012.
2 of 2
Photo courtesy of Bob Fitzgerald.
Jim Duren served as the first director at Oak Mountain High School beginning in 1999 until his retirement in 2012.
Described by many as a legend in the band community, Jim Duren taught and inspired thousands of students his 39-year tenure as a band director.
He spent more than half his life at the three schools where he was band director. His career began at Mountain Brook Junior High in 1973. Five years later, he moved to Mountain Brook High School, where he worked until 1987.
Duren then headed to Shelby County, to Pelham High School, where he was the Director of Bands from 1987-99. Following that, he became the founding director at Oak Mountain High School when it opened in 1999.
In a 2012 interview with Cliff Brane (The Voice of the Spirit of Cahaba) Duren said when he and his wife Sharon moved into their house in 1981, their desire and prayer was there would be a school close where he could teach.
“After the Pelham experiment turned out so well and they started talking about building Oak Mountain, it just seemed to be a logical fit. It was something I wanted to do. The opportunity to start a program from scratch, put everything in place and watch it grow.”
Duren remained at OMHS for 13 years until his retirement in 2012, after which the OMHS band room was named in honor of him.
He stayed away for a bit, until all his students had graduated, so the new Associate Band Directors, Kevin Ownby and Travis Bender could settle into their roles.
From 2015-20, Duren was still actively involved in the OMHS band program, leading rehearsals, directing concerts and pouring into the students as he did throughout his career.
Duren grew up in Gordo, and knew early on he wanted to be a band director and said it would be a “no brainer” for him to attend college and major in music at the University of Alabama. As a music education major, Dr. James Ferguson the band director would pick several to be student directors, and Duren was chosen as one.
“His confidence in me to let me do that was overwhelming, I can’t thank him enough for that opportunity,” Duren said in 2012.
Some of his accolades include being the recipient of the John Philip Sousa Legion of Honor Award (1996); being named Honorary Conductor of the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble (1999); being awarded the Outstanding Band Director of the Year award for the state of Alabama by Rho chapter of Phi Beta Mu Band Director’s fraternity (2011); being named Outstanding Alumni at the University of Alabama (2011); and being inducted into the Alabama Music Educators Hall of Fame (2015).
Duren was also a member of the Alabama Bandmasters Association (ABA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the National Band Association and Phi Beta Mu.
A teacher who genuinely cared about his students, and followed them after they graduated, Duren even sent happy birthday wishes to them via Facebook over the years.
He passed away unexpectedly from complications from COVID-19 on Nov. 5 at the age of 70. His life was celebrated several weeks later at Hunter Street Baptist Church, where he was a member, played trombone in the orchestra and served as guest conductor. During the service, those who knew him through band were asked to raise their hands, and almost the entire room did so.
280 Living spoke to four people who were close to Duren to find out what he meant to them and the effect he had on their lives.
JOE TERRY
Joe Terry, former band director at Vestavia Hills High School, said he and Duren, who he called JD, had been friends for over 40 years. The two met during Duren’s first job at Mountain Brook Junior High.
Terry and Duren became friends around 1979 when they took students to honor band at Ole Miss. Terry said it was while they were there, sitting in the auditorium, that Duren first heard what would become his signature piece, “Salvation is Created.”
“He was playing music at MBJH that was very difficult high school literature,” Terry said. “Nobody was doing that. He was pretty well known when he first got started.”
Due to an automobile accident, Terry retired in 1989 but continued volunteering for many years, some of those with his friend at Oak Mountain.
In 2018, Duren took Terry’s testimony about his accident and made a presentation to Phi Beta Mu, asking them to induct Terry as an honorary member. In all the years, it had never been done, but after Duren spoke, it was a unanimous vote.
“That’s just the kind of person he was,” Terry said. “He was very humble, very unassuming and a phenomenal director. If you ask every band director in the state the top five who have ever taught in the state, he’d be on the list.”
Terry said one thing they both agreed on was to love the kids first, more than you love the job, and if you do, the rest of it would take care of itself.
KEVIN OWNBY
Kevin Ownby, director of bands at Oak Mountain High School, began his mentorship under Duren in 1997 when he provided percussion instruction for the Pelham High School Marching Band. Prior to becoming director of bands at Oak Mountain upon Duren’s retirement in 2012, he was the associate director of bands and percussion specialist there for eight years.
Ownby said there are certain people who God places in our paths because He wants us to experience what true relationships are designed to be like and that Duren had a way about nurturing those relationships with everyone he met.
“He believed in me so many times when I didn’t even believe in myself,” Ownby said. “He helped me to meet every challenge and success in life in different ways. No matter what was going on, I knew that I could always pickup the phone and call, text or email him, and he would respond with a meaningful response. I normally chose the route of walking into his office or, in these later years, calling him into my office and us just sitting and talking. What a blessing those conversations are to me.”
Ownby said to say that Duren treated him like a son and helped him find his way is a huge understatement. He describes Duren as humble, yet competitive, never taking an ounce of credit for any success.
“Just love the kids, and everything else will work itself out, was his teaching philosophy,” Ownby said, “and the end of his reach among his students can’t be found.”
TRAVIS BENDER
Travis Bender is the associate director of bands at Oak Mountain High School, where he has been since 2012 after Duren’s retirement.
“When he retired in 2012, he got a part-time assistant position at Homewood High School and worked there for the next four years just to keep his distance from us so Kevin and I could make the program what we wanted to be without his influence,” Bender said. “Once his former students graduated he asked us if we had any interest in him helping us and having his expertise was a big bonus.”
Duren came back to work with the Spirit of Cahaba band in the fall of 2015 and did so up until early 2020. After the band’s spring trip to Disney World, Bender had planned to see Duren when they returned, but schools closed due to COVID-19.
“As a result, I didn’t get to see him again,” Bender said. “We talked several times over the summer about meeting up and we were waiting for the numbers [of cases] go down and never did.”
Bender said Duren was the kind of teacher that would take an interest in learning about each kid that he taught and develop a personal relationship with them.
“When working with us, between classes, he would always go in the hallway and greet students and tell the ones who were leaving goodbye,” Bender said. “He was kind of like a fatherly figure to so many kids in the way he treated them. He also tried to be a very good role model to his students and was very good at telling stories and teaching life lessons through band. If you ask any of the students he taught over his 39-year career, they would say that’s what made him so special.”
Bender said the biggest thing he learned from Duren was to maintain extremely high expectations, potentially higher than he even thinks are possible for his students and by holding them to that highest possible standard, they will rise to the occasion to meet those expectations as long as the relationships he has with them are strong.
MELINDA PONDER GOODE
A former student of Duren’s, Goode was in one of his first classes at Mountain Brook Junior High and had him as her band director from seventh through 12th grade. She also spent time babysitting his son.
“He was just awesome,” Goode said. “I don’t know how he managed, the way he could teach kids, he was just a master at it.”
Goode said Duren had a way of making kids want to be around him and described his personality as magnetic. She said he was able to find something in everyone to make them feel special or important to him.
“I bet every kid in the band had a nickname or personal joke with him,” she said. “I never had that with another teacher.”
Goode also got to experience being a band parent under Duren. All four of her sons were part of the OMHS band program during his tenure. She had a student in band for 11 years straight. Her youngest son, Sam, became a band director because of Duren and currently serves as the assistant band director at Pleasant Grove High School.
“He could teach music but he could also teach respect,” she said. “It was so much fun watching him doing it again. He taught generations. He made it a family, and it gave people a place to belong to and feel important and he made sure that everybody that stepped in that band room felt needed and respected and wanted. There’s not a doubt in my mind when he got to heaven, God said, ‘Job well done.’”
James Harvey Duren Jr., known as Jim or JD to friends and family, is survived by his wife of 47 years, Sharon Duren, his son, Jason Duren (Bashan), and granddaughter Ellee Kate Duren.
