Tony Gibbs was born in Monahans, Texas, in December, 1958 to parents Dan and Shirley Gibbs. Dan was a band director and Shirley was a secretary, homemaker, and band director’s wife. Tony’s music education started a few weeks after birth and proceeded through most of the following years. While trying to fall asleep at night, young Tony frequently listened to band recordings emanating from the very large reel to reel tape deck that often sat atop the console stereo record player which was flanked by two enormous double record racks that held all of the band music recordings in the universe. By age three he’d heard them all twice. When old enough (around age five) he went to football games and sat with the band in the stands, mostly with the percussion section because, well, you know why. He rode yellow buses to out of town games and this was an absolute delight, and he was the envy of all his friends. After home football games, the directors and their wives would come to the house and bring the suit-case sized video recorder that was hooked into the back of the TV and everyone got some snacks prepared by Mom and watched the halftime show. After that they watched the halftime show… then they watched the halftime show again--always with grave concern about people staying in straight lines along with worry about precision and balance. Many Saturdays included trips to May and Duncan music store in Odessa and Sunday afternoons often found Dad at the kitchen table writing marching drill to be performed the next week. Tony grew up believing all of this to be normal human behavior. So, in high school he was a member of The Big Green Band always standing in straight lines in a precise manner playing with proper balance. He was first chair trombone in his Dad’s second Honor Band performance in 1976 along with sister Angie who played a big oboe solo on the concert. She’s still a little rattled from the experience.

Tony attended Baylor University and studied under Dick Floyd who was a tremendous teacher and career-long mentor and encourager. While at Baylor, Tony met and married Janice Thiele, an all-state horn player who would become an accountant and CPA. Janice endured the life of a band director’s spouse with all its accompanying honors and privileges with grace and fortitude.
After Baylor, Tony was hired by Van Ragsdale to teach middle school band in the Klein ISD. For three years he worked most of the hours of the day perfecting the classics such as “Lone Eagle March”, “Air and Dance” and “Little Scotch Suite”.
The Gibbses then moved to Denton where Tony was hired by Don Hanna to be the director at Strickland Junior High as well as assist with the high school. He learned very quickly that he had previously been working nowhere near all the available hours of the day. He adjusted his work schedule, omitted some of his sleep schedule and proceeded to learn a tremendous amount about how to be a band director from Mr. Hanna. It was indeed a privilege to be associated with Don and his very successful band program.

While in Denton, Tony and Janice had two children. With true band director efficiency - twins - a boy and a girl. Stuart and Sarah were and are perfect children, you can ask anybody. After five years teaching in Denton Tony took a year off, staying home with the kids and completing studies for a Master of Music Education degree from the University of North Texas. He then accepted the only head director job he was offered which was in Fort Stockton, Texas. During his three years there, the band program grew and earned its first sweepstakes award in many years.
In 1995 Tony was hired as Director of Bands at Monahans High School. During his seven years in Monahans, the band always earned sweepstakes awards, won second place in the state marching contest and was named TMEA Honor Band in 1999. Tony’s father Dan was a guest conductor on the honor band concert. Dan and Tony are the only father son duo to win honor band at the same school. Of course, Dan won twice and Tony only once—a discrepancy that Tony says gets mentioned far less frequently than it would if he were the person with two.

In 2002 Tony was hired by Jerry Babbitt to be the Director of Bands in the Hays CISD. Although he was cautioned by many about going to such a strong band program and following a director who had been so successful, friend Charles Nail told him not to worry about it. Just meet with Jerry at least once a week for the first year—ask him what he would do and then do it. This advice worked great and Tony had a very successful 10 years at Hays High School while always receiving support and encouragement from Jerry and his wife Cheryl. The band received numerous honors including making the state marching band finals in 2009 and Tony counts these years as some of the most enjoyable of his career.

After eighteen years tagging along as a band director’s kid, many more as a student and twenty-eight more as a band director, some of the luster and glamor had worn off the yellow bus rides and Tony decided to retire. He continued writing marching drill (a skill acquired while working with Don Hanna), judging, doing clinics and returned to school for five years. During this time, he was accepted into and completed the Physician Assistant master’s program at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Tony currently works in family medicine at Christus Trinity Clinic in San Marcos, Texas. Forty hours is considered a full week’s work, but there are no competitions, bus rides, pep rallies or travels to faraway places with hundreds of teenagers. Thus far, Mr. Gibbs has been able to endure the absence of these activities.

Tony benefited greatly from many friends and mentors including his father Dan, J.R. McEntyre, Don Hanna, Jim Rhodes, Jerry Babbitt, Randy Storie and countless other associates. He has been a member of TMEA, TBA, TMAA, Phi Beta Mu, and American Academy of Physician Associates. He is humbled, honored and grateful to be selected as a member of the Hall of Fame.