Leader of the Band

His students describe him as a great man who was patient, caring, fair and very, very nice. In his 41 years in the Marshall County school system, Arnold Quarles made quite an impact on his students.

"He was the epitome of any director you could ask for. I couldn't have asked for a better one," said Randal Jones of his seven years in the band with Quarles. "He was top notch, he knew his stuff."

"I remember he had a kind smile," said former student Pam Wortham Davis, who was in the band for four years. "He was very patient, very soft-spoken but he could get your attention if he needed to."

The irony is that Arnold Quarles almost decided against becoming a teacher.

His mother was an English teacher who corrected his grammar from the other end of the house. His father was a history teacher who taught him more about Medusa and Zeus than Little Red Riding Hood.

See Friday's Tribune for the complete story.