On Monday, June 7, Hicksville lost one of its finest teachers, Daniel J. Kristoff, to cancer. Mr. Kristoff was not just a teacher, he was Hicksville High School's choral director and an extraordinary one at that. The passion he brought to his work was just one of the reasons why Hicksville was named as one of the top 100 high schools for music in the country. To have seen him conduct was a show unto itself. He brought a manic energy to the stage that lit up the room brighter than any thousand watt light bulb. What was even more important was the love he brought to the music and everyone who performed it. This was by no means a one-way street, he was equally respected and loved by his students and all those he came in contact with.

I should state that my eldest son never had Mr. Kristoff as an instructor. Dusty was in the orchestra but on lunch breaks or whenever one of his teachers was absent and a substitute was filling in, the old imaginary music lesson would suddenly materialize and he along with a handful of other students, would find themselves down at the music department instead. Mr. Kristoff would turn them on to all different styles of music and explain the nuances of each. This love for music did not just extend itself to his students but to all of those who he came in contact with. After one high school concert I found myself talking with him about an artist I had heard at a music festival. A few weeks later my son came back with a live copy of a concert. Mr. Kristoff had recorded music of that very artist. At the end of the recording there were some songs by a musician who I had never heard before. That freebee was of one of his students who had graduated several years before who he took a great pride in.

A week before Mr. Kristoff was diagnosed with cancer, my wife and I ran into him at, of all places, a record store. Anyway, we talked music and I asked Mr. Kristoff if he was cutting school or if he was just privileged with an extraordinarily long lunch break. It turned out he was off that day and going for tests for what he had mistaken as being a flu that he just couldn't shake. The following week he was not conducting at the winter concert. After the Christmas break the worst fears had been realized. Word got out that Mr. Kristoff was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and needed donors so that he could be transfused with blood platelets. As I said before, my son never had Mr. Kristoff as a teacher but just the same asked if I could take him down so he could do his part to help someone who had helped so many others over the years. My son and I gave along with another half a dozen people. I did not know until after we left that they were from Hicksville High School also. I should add that I was not the only parent donating platelets that day. Such was the effect this man had on people.

The week that Daniel Kristoff died was a busy week in history and some people who passed along within those seven days might have overshadowed his passing in the press and media. Just the same, somehow I think Ray Charles will find himself in good company.

Bob Boxer