Legendary director celebrates 100th birthday

In the spring of 1954 Purdue University was searching for a new director of bands to replace Paul “Spotts” Emrick who was retiring after 49 years. No one on the campus without a school of music felt qualified to make the decision. So Trustee J. Ralph Thompson sought advise from Harold Walters, of Seymour, Indiana, one of the best and most prolific band composers and arrangers in the nation. “We’ve got a stack of applications two feet high,” Thompson said. “What are we going to do?”

“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” Walters said. “You’re going to throw them all away and call a young man in Florida.”

That young man was Al Wright. He was 38 years old when he arrived at Purdue. He went on to grow the band program and create traditions that are still part of Boilermaker football Saturdays.

Wright marked his 100th birthday June 23rd in the best possible way: At a Lafayette Citizens Band Concert dedicated to him. Representatives from national band organizations he founded and led, along with friends from around the country, took part in the celebration.

“Turning 100 is an incredible milestone in the life of one of the greatest band directors of all time,” says Purdue Director of Bands Jay Gephart, who took part in the celebration. “Al provided a legacy that will continue for decades and decades. The Purdue Band Department is what it is today because of Al.”

It’s been 36 years since Wright sent his band members running onto the field at Ross-Ade Stadium, but the memories still light up in his eyes. When he first arrived on campus, Wright dropped the military marching style that had dominated the entire history of the band and introduced a show style. He repaired the damaged World’s Biggest Drum and marched it back into the stadium. 

He launched the expanded twirling unit, the Golden Girl, the Girl in Black, the Silver Twins, and high school band day. He took the band on performance tours in South America. He wrote the “I Am An American” that has been recited at every Purdue home football game and many of its bowl appearances since 1966.

“In addition to being renowned in music, Al was a visionary and marketing genius,” says June Ciampa Lauer, a Golden Girl and Girl in Black in the mid-1960s. “He had the ability to see what was right in front of him and turn it into a tradition and a legacy.”

Wright lives in West Lafayette with his wife of 63 years, Gladys, a director of bands herself. Sitting in the dining room with a view of wooded ravines, he is dressed in a black suit with an open-collar white shirt and still relishes telling stories about using toy, lead soldiers to chart halftime performances.

“It gives me a feeling of satisfaction that I was in a situation at Purdue where I could make so much happen,” he says. “I had a college band. It was a big band. And I did everything I wanted to do.”