Gerard Mathes Retires after 32 Years of NIC

After 32 years of teaching at North Idaho College, a music and humanities professor will retire at the end of the spring semester during the campus closure for the COVID-19 pandemic.

From left to right, Bryan Hannaford, Dwayne Huff, Marc Sego and Gerard Mathes at the Communication & Fine Arts Division student awards reception on May 2, 2019. Sego won the Outstanding Student Award for Music and has had classes with multiple music instructors including Mathes. “[Mathes] gives good criticism and encouragement,” Sego said. “It has been a pleasure to have him as a teacher.” Photo courtesy of North Idaho College Music Department

Gerard Mathes said that interaction with students and sharing his enthusiasm over his discipline with them has been his favorite part of NIC. He said he enjoys being able to feel like he’s motivating his students to learn.

“Any course where I have some type of direct communication with students and feel like they’re responding to the thing I’m trying to communicate is what my favorite thing is,” Mathes said.

Christi Haynos, a 20-year-old music student at NIC, said that she has many cherished memories of classes with Mathes. She said that some of her favorite memories were when Mathes brought the class cinnamon rolls and on a different occasion bought them all drinks from Starbucks.

Gerard Mathes teaching music theory at NIC on Oct. 17, 2017. Photo courtesy of North Idaho College Music Department.

“I consider myself and my classmates very fortunate to have been able to grow as musicians under his guidance,” Haynos said. “Gerard is truly a master of his art, who constantly executes his musicianship with wonderful preciseness.”

Mathes said he knew he wanted to be a music teacher from the time he was in high school. He began teaching as an elementary orchestra teacher and then returned to college for more education to become a college-level teacher. Mathes currently holds a Master of Music from the University of Idaho.

Gerard Mathes in 2000. Photo courtesy of Gerard Mathes.

Through his years at NIC, Mathes has developed music courses as well as taught lessons one on one and conducted. He said that throughout the years, the needs of students have been changing and he has had to learn to adapt and rework his approach to reach them successfully.

“It’s really the process of trying to figure out the best way to do things,” Mathes said.

When Mathes first started teaching at NIC in 1988, the methods of teaching were different due to the lack of the internet, computers and cell phones. Mathes said that as things like email started to develop and change the way people interacted with each other, it changed how students learned and what they needed to develop music and other academic skills.

NIC Music Department professors (from left to right) Gerard Mathes, Max Mendez, Dwayne Huff and Bryan Hannaford in 2017. Photo courtesy of North Idaho College Music Department.

“My career in education has been peppered with so many wonderful colleagues, but few as memorable as Gerard,” said Dwyane Huff, assistant professor of music at NIC. “His sense of humor and infectious love of his craft stand out and inspire me. I know his students admire him, not only as a professor, but as a fellow lover of music.”

Mathes said that he plans to continue making music throughout his retirement. He also said that he hopes to finish and publish new compositions and revise other works that he wrote as well as develop an online presence.

Gerard Mathes (top row farthest right) and the Cardinal Chamber Orchestra on April 26, 2018. Photo courtesy of North Idaho College Music Department.