Raymond J. Dombrowski, who taught music at Bel Air High School for more than 30 years and also was leader of the school's band and Bobcat Marching Band, died Monday of pancreatic cancer at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. He was 79.
Mr. Dombrowski, the son of Polish immigrant parents, was born in Pittsburgh and raised in New Castle, Pa.
He began playing piano when he was 4, and after learning to play the saxophone and clarinet when he was a teenager, began performing with local dance bands.
After graduating from high school, he attended Mansfield State Teachers College in Mansfield, Pa., and later transferred to Pennsylvania State University, where he performed with choral, instrumental and drama groups.
After earning a bachelor's degree in music in 1951, he enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the military hospital at Valley Forge, Pa., where he played in its band, and later joined the 2nd Army Band at Fort Meade.
Discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1953, he moved to Bel Air and took a job at Bel Air High School as an instrumental music teacher and department chairman.
Within two years of arriving in Harford County, Mr. Dombrowski, who was called "Mr. D" by generations of students, formed two bands and a 50-piece marching band, which participated in its first out-of-town parade in 1955.
In 1965, he earned a master's degree in music from the University of Maryland and did additional music studies at the Peabody Conservatory and what is now Towson University.
In addition to teaching music to students from seventh through the 12th grades, he also led the Bobcat Marching Band, which eventually grew to 180 musicians and 60 other members in its marching units.
His award-winning bands and musical groups developed a reputation that spread far beyond the state.
In 1976, the Bobcat Marching Band was selected to represent the state in the National Bicentennial Parade held July 4 in Philadelphia. The next year, it traveled to Washington, where it had been selected to perform in President's Park outside the White House.
"After we had returned to school from a parade and turned in our uniforms and changed our clothes, 'Mr. D' would stand at the top of a flight of stairs and personally call by name and congratulate each band member as they left school," said Joe Snee, now a Bel Air attorney.
Dawn Massarelli, now a Bel Air paralegal, recalled arriving at school early in the morning.
