Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995                   TAG: 9506220027
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

PCHS HIRES TENN. BAND DIRECTOR

The School Board approved the hiring of Joe Moore at its meeting Thursday night.

Moore, who has been band director at Sullivan East High School in Bluff City, Tenn., for the past seven years, said he had been impressed with the band program in Pulaski County "both as a colleague and a competitor." He said the Golden Cougar Band had been a top unit in the years his band competed with it, and Pulaski County had always been hospitable to visiting bands.

Moore will succeed Bob Priest, who resigned at the end of the school year to work in the private sector.

In the more than 10 years in which Priest has been director, the Golden Cougar Band has earned honors in marching and other competitions. During the school year just concluded, it was named as a Virginia Honor Band.

Superintendent Bill Asbury said band boosters groups were among those involved in the screening process to hire a new director.

Moore is a graduate of East Tennessee State University and did graduate work at the University of Miami.

In other business, the School Board recognize four employees who are retiring this year with certificates and Golden Apple Awards: Bob Poff, who has worked in food service for 13 years; Bonnie Ward, a high school secretary for 21 years of service; and teachers Joyce Whitmer, 29 years, and William McNeely, 21 years.

Asbury reported that Pulaski Middle School students Jamie Smith and Josh Lookabill had won first place in National History Day competition for their research on the Civil War in Pulaski County over control of the railroad, and Josh Stoker, a second place for his presentation on a massive coal miner revolt in West Virginia.