The Fort Hunt High School band continues to be a wellspring of our community's pride.  Under the brilliant direction of Mr. Frank Wickes and Mr. Harry Blake, thousands of young Americans were inspired to accomplish wonderful things.  Our classmate, Stasia (Wolicki) Rhoads recently tracked down Mr. Blake. He responded as you would expect, with terrific warmth and strength: "There are no programs in the United States like the Fort Hunt Band Program of the 70s.  There are many good ones, but they could not stand up to those programs of Mr. Wickes in the early 70's and our good times in the middle of the 70's. I still have friends who cannot believe it is a high school band when they hear the recordings of Pines of Rome, Candide, Festive Overture, Children's March, etc....P.S. I still have a copy of Blake's Bloopers that was passed out on our trip to the National Bi-Centennial Contest in June of 1976. It brings back many pleasant memories. I still don't believe I made those comments."

An online news article dated 29 Oct 2008 announced that Mr. Blake was moving from high school to college. He is currently the director of Blinn College's program. You can click on his photo at that school's page, and email him. They say that a teacher's influence is like a pebble tossed in a pond; the teacher never gets to see the fruits of his/her teaching, but those ripples go on and on. What a great Christmas gift for Harry Blake if his former students let him know how those ripples he started continue. His email address:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Also, download newspaper articles about the Ft. Hunt band. Pull down Media > Downloads > General.

See his bio and links: click "read more."