David Neal Waldo

David Waldo, called “a rare gem in the world of small-town high school bands,” who valued community, faith and family, died September 15, 2025, after a long illness. He was 63.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2:30 p.m. at Aldersgate Abilene Methodist Church.

Even during months of failing health, David accepted and maintained the role of music director at Aldersgate Methodist Church. When he could not attend rehearsal or lead the choir on Sunday mornings, his outline for the music to be sung and/or played was carried out because his nature was to plan months ahead.

Former student Cooper Strange, in a recent email to the Waldo family, underscored that commitment by writing that his mentor at Clyde High School made “a community better and stronger.”

“He taught us to reach for the stars through music and outside of music,” wrote former student Scott DelBosque in email.

EARLY LIFE

David was the third of five children (Jim, Loy, Lesa and Keith) born to Loy and Doris Waldo, on March 9, 1962, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The family moved several times, first to Russellville, Arkansas, in 1964 and then 25 miles south to Plainview in 1966.

David’s grandmother, Mama Pearl, lived in Russellville, and the two were very close. She was the first person to take him to church and became a pillar in his faith journey.

The Waldos moved to Texas in 1969, landing in Quanah - 140 miles north of Abilene - in 1969. There, he became a Quanah Indian and led the high school band as its drum major while also playing the trombone. He graduated in 1980.

David ventured to the Texas Panhandle to attend West Texas State University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music and played in the marching and concert bands.

Upon his graduation in 1984, he embarked on a 29-year career as a band director.

BAND MAN

David’s first job lasted quite a while. He accepted a job in the Sweetwater ISD west of Abilene. He spent eight years there, teaching both junior and senior high school musicians.

In 1992, he moved east of Abilene, hired as the director of the junior and senior high school bands. He stayed in the Clyde CISD for his final 21 years in public school education.

Under David’s leadership, the Bulldog marching band won numerous sweepstakes awards.

He enjoyed introducing younger students to music, worked to keep them interested in band and challenged the more gifted students to keep raising the bar. From first notes and performances to tweaking their skills to earn superior ratings, David was the guide on their musical journey.

School nurse Claire Nickel remembered David pulling students from Linda Rigsby’s fifth-grade music class and talking to them in the hallway about band when they advanced to sixth grade. What instrument would you like to play, he asked them, starting a relationship with that youngster.

“David was a white box. But if you took the time to open this box, you would find a beautiful rainbow inside,” a friend from his Sweetwater days once commented.

Yet, it wasn’t all about teaching music excellence. His students found a friend as well as a mentor and soon took to calling Mr. Waldo simply “Waldo.”

He regularly baked potatoes in his office for students who didn’t have a lunch. Fridays were pizza days. David would order in, and students showed up during lunch for the treat.

Sons Seth and Josh were in the band at Clyde, and wife Michele was, at a minimum, an honorary member. By day, an elementary school teacher, she attended football games under the Friday night lights, and they would walk hand in hand to the concession stand to get dinner. Their favorite was chips covered with yellowish cheese. They’d sit with the band in the bleachers and enjoy their “Nacho Date.”

MICHELE DIVES IN

A year after arriving in Clyde in 1992, David met Michele on a scuba trip to Del Rio. She was there for her check-out dive, and David was the dive control specialist - an experienced diver whose job it was to keep the rookies safe.

Reflecting on that first meeting, Michele said David kept her safe that weekend and for the rest of their 31-year marriage.

First, though, David had to ask Michele’s 8-year-old son Seth for permission to marry his mother. He was given the green light in November 1993, and David and Michele married on March 5, 1994. It was Seth who walked his mother down the aisle.

David considered Seth his son, not his stepson.

Honeymoon plans? Naturally, it was a scuba trip, and other enthusiasts were invited on the trip.

Josh was born on April 17, 1995, and Seth welcomed his new brother. The two boys began and maintained a close relationship.

The boys became a family focus. Both played soccer, and the family’s “other car” became a yellow bus for school trips.

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH

Michele was diagnosed with aggressive skin cancer and had major surgery in 2006. For three years, David drove his wife to Fort Worth and back to be treated by cancer and plastic surgeons.

Though cancer took part of her nose, David never stopped telling her how beautiful she was to him.

One of his wife’s passions is quilting and in 2022, David told Michele that he wanted to make her a quilt. The materials were purchased but the project never was started.

In 2024, before he learned he had a form of cancer, David said he wanted to get to that quilt project. It languished again until March, right after his 63rd birthday.

“I want to make you that quilt,” he told her. This time, despite his health challenges, he followed through.

The quilt was completed and is a cherished gift to Michele from her husband.

MUSIC MAN AGAIN

When Aldersgate’s longtime music director retired, David was asked to be the interim leader the summer of 2024.

That role morphed to becoming the permanent leader. Both David and Michele had sung in the choir for years.

Like scuba, David dove into his new role. He most enjoyed working with the choir members, guest musicians and longtime organist Van Hayes.

For Wednesday evening rehearsals, David brought homemade goodies. He did not rush home but instead stayed after the practice session ended to talk with his friends.

The choir was a community, much like his bands were their own communities at Clyde High School.

David continued in his new role even as his health declined, with the blessing of the church pastor.

Michele would ask David if he was up to the task, and he would tell her, “I want to be where the love is.”

When he could not lead the choir on Sunday mornings, David would be in the pews and singing the hymns that he had selected for that particular service.

REMEMBERING WALDO

David Waldo could be called a Renaissance man.

He was exacting as a music instructor yet enjoyed venturing underwater, mastering disc golf, and playing video games such as World of Warcraft.

He kept a nice lawn and was well known around his south Abilene neighborhood for his “Waldo burgers.”

Still, the people in his life mattered most - Michele, Seth, Josh, daughter-in-law Em, and grandchildren Ariyah and Ethan. The entire family was able to spend quality time together before his death.

David’s second family was his church family.

Above all, David was a man of faith who trusted in God through the challenges of his illness.

Nickel saw David working that teacher “magic” with his students. That “always made me happy,” she wrote to the family.

Strange said Waldo reined him in when “I was disengaged and floating aimlessly through my teen years.”

“He knew me; he knew what I needed,” he wrote.

Strange grew up to be a priest in the Orthodox church. He was able to visit David in the Waldo home and pray with his mentor earlier this year.

Dakota Smith, a former student and longtime friend of Josh Waldo, said David could come up with analogies on the spot and enjoyed his mentor sharing his life stories with him.

Wrote DelBosque, “He was my rock. He was the only teacher that really mattered. I was going to miss him the most.”

DelBosque said he learned more than music from the man they called Waldo.

“Mr. Waldo ignited a fire in my soul when I was in sixth grade. Today, that small flame has become a blazing bonfire that has helped guide me through life.”

“I still strive to be the best man and person I can be” because of David Waldo.

DAVID’S FAMILY

David was preceded in death by his parents, Loy and Doris Waldo, and brother Loy. He is survived by his wife, Michele; sons Seth Carlton and his wife, Em, of Antioch Illinois, and Josh, of Austin; two grandchildren, Ariyah and Ethan, of Antioch, Illinois; two brothers, Jim and his wife, Mary, of Quanah, and Keith, of Vernon; a sister, Lesa Waldo, of Lubbock; and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances can be made to Aldersgate Abilene Methodist Church music ministry