Alumni Dowell and Vivian Taylor look back on the impact of JSU in their lives ahead of 50th Class Reunion
As JSU graduates and former university employees, Dowell and Vivian Taylor have many special JSU memories they carry as they prepare to celebrate their Golden Class Anniversary this weekend.
Many of their recollections as students are connected to their time as members of the Sonic Boom of the South and Prancing J-Settes.
In addition to earning their bachelor’s and master’s degrees from JSU, the Taylors had long and successful careers at their alma mater – Dowell, as the award-winning immediate past band director of the Sonic Boom, and Vivian as an accomplished former professor, associate dean and director of teacher education in the College of Education and Human Development.
“It is an incredible feeling to be reflective and realize that it has been 50 years. It’s almost unbelievable, and it makes you kind of wonder where did the time go,” says Vivian.
“For me, it is absolutely extraordinarily wonderful to be able to celebrate 50 years of graduation from Thee I Love,” says Dowell.
“We are fortunate enough to still be in reasonably good health and now have the opportunity to reconnect with some of our freshman class from 1972.”
Memories as Students
It was with the J-Settes that Vivian took her first flight to Las Vegas and attended her first NBA and NFL games.
She remembers the many leadership development opportunities she was afforded as a student through the Honors College under the direction of the late Dr. Maria Harvey as well as Dr. Harvey’s Spanish classes.
For Dowell, as a music major, many of his fondest memories include being in the music building where he took his music education and skills to another level.
His other most cherished memories were in the Boom, where he was a tuba player (also known as a Tuba Dawg, spelled D-A-W-G, as he clarifies).
“Those late night rehearsals prepared me to be a band director.” While a student, Dowell wrote and arranged several pieces of music for the band, and he penned the famous “I’m so glad I go to JSU” tune known as “Spirit.”
Dowell Career Highlights
While his career and post-graduate studies also involved being band director at Kentucky State University and pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music (until his position as JSU band director brought him back to Jackson State), Dowell spent the majority of his career at JSU through three separate stints.
In addition to band director, he served as Director of Music Technology and conducted both the Symphonic and Marching Bands.
Under his 34 years of leadership, the band and Dowell received many awards and performed across the country for numerous notable events and received national media attention.
In 1987, he rearranged the band’s theme song “Get Ready” after some of the sheet music from the original arrangement by Boom member, John Paul Jones, was lost.
Dowell’s arrangement has stood the test of time and is still played by the band today, and throughout his career, he has been honored by organizations including the Honda Battle of the Bands, the Jackson City Council, the Sonic Boom National Alumni Association, and the HBCU National Band Director’s Consortium. In 2018, he was inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame.
From his current vantage point as a retiree and Golden Class member, Dowell says retirement is a “bliss and a blessing.”
“It’s rare that you get the chance to see your work of 34 years of service through others. The current band staff–I hired at least 90 percent of them, including Dr. Roderick Little, and to see them as successful as they are, it makes it all worthwhile.”
“It’s rare that you get the chance to see your work of 34 years of service through others. The current band staff–I hired at least 90 percent of them, including Dr. Roderick Little, and to see them as successful as they are, it makes it all worthwhile.”
-Dowell Taylor
Vivian Career Highlights
For Vivian, throughout her JSU career of serving as professor, associate dean and director of teacher education, she taught JSU undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of literacy, early childhood education, research methods and elementary education. Additionally, she directed several federally funded projects.
Prior to becoming a JSU faculty member, Vivian earned her master’s at JSU and her PhD from the University of Cincinnati. She held teaching positions in the Franklin (Ky) County School District, Kentucky State University and the University of Cincinnati.
Like Dowell, she too, has received many awards and recognitions including the Distinguished Professor award from the JSU Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education and the Outstanding Educator award from the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL).
In 1999, the JSU College of Education presented Vivian with the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award for excellence in teaching, research and service, and she has been recognized for her work and entrepreneurial expertise by the U.S. Department of Education and the Mississippi Business Journal.
One special career highlight for Vivian was spending time in Africa, leading culturally-aware curriculum and textbook development in Zambia. Through that experience and under her directorship, more than 600,000 basic textbooks and learning materials were collaboratively developed and disseminated to support teaching and learning in under-developed provinces.
Of her career at JSU, Vivian reflects and says she “was fortunate enough to work with a team of professionals who really cared about the development of students into adulthood.”
“I probably had my greatest development in leadership through participation in those roles that I served.”
“I probably had my greatest development in leadership through participation in those roles that I served.”
-Vivian Taylor, Ph.D.
Golden Wedding Anniversary too
And if celebrating their 50th college graduation anniversary wasn’t enough to make this year special, the Taylor’s will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year too.
Marking that milestone is something the Taylors say faith, commitment and respect for each other helped them do.
“We haven’t been so interested in trying to change each other,” says Dowell. “We respect each other’s individuality, and at the same time we’ve understood our role as a couple.”
Vivian echoes his sentiments.
“We have a basic foundation, and that foundation is based upon love first, and then faith. You don’t sustain a marriage for fifty years without having some higher intervention involved, and we’re both very faithful people.”
Giving Back and Legacy Through New Generations
While some of the most fun the Taylors have these days is with their granddaughters, the couple enjoys giving back and having hobbies also.
Dowell is active with his jazz quintet and plays the organ at church. Vivian has found fulfillment in being a consultant to Head Start centers across the state, assisting with curriculum development and teacher evaluation.
She’s also been a business advisor to small business owners and checked off her bucket list becoming a pilates studio owner for a few years.
Both Taylors are life members of JSUNAA and financial supporters of the class of 1976’s endowed scholarship fund. Vivian also participates in annual fundraising for the National Alumni J-Settes Association, and she has created a tuition scholarship in her name for education majors.
Continuing through the Taylor bloodline are musical and performance talents. Their son, a patent and trademark attorney, is also in a band, and according to Dowell, their granddaughters have surpassed them all with their talent, particularly their singing and acting skills.
Being sure not to leave off her daughter-in-law, Vivian shares how she too has her individual accomplishments they celebrate, as she is a nurse and obtained her Bachelor’s of Nursing degree.
Enjoying the Weekend
So now with many golden reunion performances under his belt, Dowell is still wrapping his mind around attending his own golden reunion where he won’t be performing this weekend. Music will however include that from one of his former students, Lowell Hollinger.
Catching up with his fellow music majors and band members will consume Dowell’s time while he takes a pause on performing. “I’m looking forward to seeing all of my band members who came in with me in 1972 and to seeing some of my fellow music majors that I met not only in band but in choir, in piano, in string orchestra, and the whole works.”
There will be plenty of past stories and catching up, and Vivian says she is looking forward to mixing again with classmates they have not seen in the last 40 or 50 years.
“I’m excited about hearing some of the tall tales to see how folks remember certain situations from back in the day. We should get a lot of laughter out of that.”