Coronado Teacher, Band Director Leaves Behind a Legacy of Music

The year was 1967. A teenage Ric Lee and his classmates were standing outside the music room at Coronado High School waiting for their new band director to arrive.

Enter Mr. Bob Demmon.

“He came roaring up the street in his gold Vette, skidded to a stop and jumped out,” Lee said. “He had a trumpet in one hand and a Telecaster in the other.”

From that moment on, the lives of many young Coronado musicians would never be the same.     

Demmon, who died in December, came to Coronado after spending most of the 1960s as a guitarist in The Astronauts. The surf-rock band released seven albums, toured across the country and Japan, and is best known for its instrumental hit “Baja.” 

“[The music was] real surf guitar stuff that drove us wild as kids, and was copied by every other band to come along of that genre,” said local writer Joe Ditler.

“He was the classic ‘60s rock star,” Lee said, describing Demmon’s tight pants, pointy-toe shoes, rock-n-roll T-shirt and beloved hairdo—the ducktail, or the D.A., a la Buddy Holly. “And we all thought, ‘Who is this guy?’”

“He looked and acted the part,” Lee added. “He was the real thing.”

Demmon taught in the for 36 years. He took the CHS band to new heights, gave his students a solid music foundation and inspired many of them to pursue musical careers.

“I’ve done music my whole life, and I attribute that to Mr. Demmon and what I learned from him,” said Lee, who currently plays in the Cajun Zydeco band the Bayou Brothers.

Because Demmon played several different instruments, he expected his band students to do the same. He said, “Everybody should play worth three people,” as Lee recalled.

The lessons he taught them were simple, but life changing: get the gig, keep the gig, rehearse a lot, come early and stay late.

“He taught us what being in a real band is like,” Lee said.

“Everybody loved Bob, and the kids absolutely worshipped him,” said Kathy Clark, who taught with Demmon at the middle school.

Demmon married Barbara Gelwick in 1962. They had two sons, Sean and Chad. The couple was married for 36 years. Barbara died of cancer in 1998.

About 10 years ago, Demmon met Yvonne KuhnDemmon. She was admittedly a bit of a fan. When their paths crossed one fateful day on D Avenue, she told him, “Mr. D, I have a record I’d like you to sign.”

A few days later she showed up at his doorstep with her record in hand.

“He signed it,” she said. “And I still have it to this day.” The pair remained together until he died.

Demmon will be greatly missed, but he leaves behind a legacy of music and rock-n-roll.

“You can be present at such a great time and not really know it as a kid,” Lee said of his years under Demmon’s tutelage. “You don’t appreciate it until you’re an adult, and then you think, ‘Man! I was in the right place at the right time.’”

A memorial service will be held Saturday, Feb. 19, from 2-4 p.m. at Granzer Hall in , followed by a reception at the on Orange Avenue.

To read Demmon's obituary in The San Diego Union-Tribune, click here.