April 22, 2017 - The Stephen F. Austin State University of Music has announced that SFA Alumnus and former Center High School Band Director, Doice Grant, will be the newest inductee into the SFA Band Directors' Hall of Fame.
A ceremony is set during this year's Concert in the Park, scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, April 30, 2017, on the lawn in front of the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus in Nacogdoches.
Mr. Grant earned his bachelor of fine arts degree from Stephen F. Austin University in 1982. Doice was the treasurer and President of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity while attending SFA. The chapter won the first of two "Founder's Awards" (outstanding chapter in the nation) during this time as President of the chapter.
Grant was a member of Pi Kappa Lambda national music society and Alpha Chi National college honor society. He was also selected as the "Outstanding Bandsman" as a member of the Lumberjack band.
As a KKY active and officer, Doice helped form the SFA Band Alumni Association and the SFA Band Director's Hall of Fame, which makes this year's award presentation to Grant all the more meaningful. While a member of KKY, Doice presented to his father, Neil Grant, the Hall of Fame award. Now Mr. Grant's daughter, Rachel Grant, a member of the SFA Band, will watch her father receive the same honor.
Mr. Grant is a life member of both the SFA Band Alumni Association and the SFA Alumni Association.
Grant was the director of the middle school band in Carthage from 1983-1985, during which time the band won sweepstakes awards each of those years.
Grant directed the Center High School Band from 1985-1993, where his bands also received the sweepstakes award each year. During those years the Center band was also a three-time honor band finalist and two-time winner of the Outstanding Band in its class at the National Association of Military Marching Bands contest at Texas A&M University. The band also won numerous awards at national contests in Gatlinsburg, Tennessee and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Grant says, "The school and community support of the Roughrider Band as well as the outstanding students I had the privilege to work with made being the band director at Center High School the most rewarding job I have ever had."
Mr. Grant served as the NAMMB President for two years, the SFA Band Alumni Association President, and the TMEA region 21 chairman. He was selected as a member of the Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity in 1992 and was awarded the Phi Beta Mu Outstanding Contributor to Texas Bands Award in 2009.
Grant is the owner of Tatum Music Company in Longview and Tyler. For the last twenty-three years, he has worked with bands in the East Texas area as a service provided by Tatum Music Company, just as his father did before him.
Doice and his wife, Beth, live in Longview. Their daughter is earning her music education degree and their son, Levi, a member of the Longview Lobo band, is a junior at Longview High School.
