Ron Nall is a musical man.
On Wednesday evening in the midst of the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band concert at the band shell in Capaha Park, longtime band director Nall was presented a proclamation from the City of Cape Girardeau and Mayor Harry Rediger for his service to the band and community. Two shiny blue balloons reading "2" and "5" hung near the rear of the shell, signifying Nall's 25th anniversary leading the city's historic musical group.
"This year's his 25th year serving as director," Rediger said in a phone interview Monday. "It's the longest-running director in the history of the Cape Girardeau city municipal band, which is in its 117th year. I thought it was fitting on this 25th year to give him some recognition for his dedication to our city and our citizens and also to his career, to the youth of our community."
The path to this honor has been full of different melodies, but the tune originally began in Butler County.
After graduating from high school in his hometown of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Nall traveled to Cape Girardeau to study music at Southeast Missouri State University. But music had been on his mind long before he entered collegiate study.
"I decided as a sophomore in high school I wanted to be a band director, so I spent most of my high school taking all the music I could get, band and choir and music theory and everything that was available, and then I majored in music in college and then a few years later got my master's in music," Nall said.
As a young director, Nall moved from position to position at area high schools, going from Woodland High School in Marble Hill to Caruthersville High School to Potosi High School. With 12 years of work as a band director under his belt, Nall landed back in Cape Girardeau at Cape Girardeau Central High School.
"I tell people, whenever you look where I've lived and where I taught, I've lived in all corners of Southeast Missouri," he said.
His mother, Eileen Nall, worked in the Daily American Republic's old Office Supply store for many years before working at Missouri Natural Gas from which she retired. She also was a star pitcher on a Poplar Bluff women's softball team, continuing to pitch after her children were out of high school. Nall's father, John, retired from Ozark Border after working many years as a lineman.