[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13459]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


         IN RECOGNITION OF TEACHER AND MUSICIAN WILLIAM DeWITT

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                    of the northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 31, 2015

  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, allow me to add to the record of the U.S. 
House of Representatives the story Mr. William DeWitt, a teacher, who 
has brought the art of music in the Northern Mariana Islands to an 
unprecedented level of excellence and who has given to thousands of our 
young people the joy of finding within themselves their own musical 
talents.
  Mr. William DeWitt first came to the Northern Mariana Islands in 
1993, beginning his career in middle and junior high school, teaching a 
variety of subjects, including band, piano, and choir. He then accepted 
an offer to teach at Marianas High School and was successful there at 
reviving its band program. Enthusiasm for instrumental music education 
began to crescendo, and in 2002 Mr. DeWitt was invited to join the 
faculty of the newly inaugurated Saipan Southern High School, which was 
designed to be a magnet school for students with an interest in the 
arts and technology. He has now spent thirteen years at Saipan 
Southern, helping countless students fulfill their dream to make music 
and share it with the world. In doing so, Mr. DeWitt and the students 
he has guided have created a legacy, the Saipan Southern High School 
Manta Ray Band, that is certainly one of the greatest sources of pride 
for the Northern Marianas Public School System and, indeed, for our 
entire community.
  When Mr. DeWitt came to Saipan 22 years ago, he could not have known 
what he would accomplish. Our island community has always teemed with 
multi-generational musical talent and held a deep love for singing. But 
band music and its array of instruments--the trumpet, flute, trombone, 
and clarinet--were less well known. Mr. DeWitt changed that.
  Mr. DeWitt also oversaw the incorporation of a growing diversity of 
students into our schools using music as a unifying influence and 
adding the international flavor of this new student body to its musical 
sensibility. Up to 250 students now participate in some aspect of the 
Manta Ray Band program at Saipan Southern. They come from many 
ethnicities and cultures--Chamorro, Carolinian, Palauan, Marshallese, 
Filipino, Korean, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian--and William 
DeWitt has helped them learn to join together as one, making music.
  Perhaps, this very diversity is key to the success and world-wide 
recognition the Manta Ray Band has achieved under the baton of Mr. 
DeWitt. Five times in the last seven years the Manta Ray Band has 
earned the Tumon Bay Music Festival Sweepstakes Award, the most wins by 
any organization in the festival's history. The Manta Rays have been 
invited to and performed at two Olympic Games: Beijing in 2008 and 
London in 2012. The Band has showcased its talents at the Sydney Opera 
House, Carnegie Hall, Westminster Abbey, and Disneyland. And just last 
month, at the Los Angeles Musical Festival the Manta Ray Band earned 
the Gold Award as the highest scoring ensemble in festival competition.
  This Gold Award is something of a fairy-tale ending to Mr. DeWitt's 
career. His band executed its performance with a new precision and 
intensity. His students displayed an infectious enthusiasm and rhythmic 
jaunt that gave their concert an element of variety and versatility no 
other ensemble could match. But backstage after the event amidst the 
triumph, while cameras clicked, tears flowed and hugs abounded, as the 
Manta Rays dealt with the recognition that this pinnacle also marked 
the end of an era--for Mr. William DeWitt had taken his final bow with 
the band.
  William DeWitt and his family will now be able to spend time with his 
parents in California, where he will also pursue a post-graduate 
degree. We wish him well. And we will always be grateful to him for the 
way that he drew from a very small population of students their maximum 
talent, so inculcating them in the fundamental elements of musicianship 
that they were able to soar on international stages.
  As significant as what he gave to each individual student, we will 
remember what Mr. William DeWitt gave to the larger communities of 
which we are part: the pride and honor his musicians brought to Saipan 
Southern High School, to the Public School System, and to the Northern 
Mariana Islands as a whole. This musical venture he has led became a 
partnership for all of us. Individuals and businesses gladly supported 
the Manta Ray Band with contributions totaling more than a million 
dollars over the course of the past decade. And, as a community, we 
should honor William DeWitt's legacy by continuing to give our young 
musicians the opportunity to develop, master, and showcase their 
talents.
  Lastly, we acknowledge, as does Mr. DeWitt, his wife Lois and his 
children Emily, Abigail, and James, who throughout have been his source 
of inspiration and support. We thank them for allowing their husband 
and father to commit so much of his time and energy to the students of 
Saipan Southern and the Northern Mariana Islands.
  And we thank you, Mr. William DeWitt. May the richness of island life 
always flow in your blood, just as your accomplishments will always be 
engraved into our island history.

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