The last few days have been part of what will surely be one of the longest, most emotional goodbyes in the career of Dr. Robert Dell, who is retiring. The band director and music teacher who has spent 28 years at Peters Township High School was so much more to current and former students.

Hundreds of them showed their affection with a standing ovation at the high school's wind symphony band concert Tuesday evening.

As much as he loved it, music had little to do with Dr. Dell's skill as an educator, high school Principal Dr. Thomas Hajzus said.

"It's his ability to motivate students to do what they ordinarily wouldn't do that makes him so special," said Dr. Hajzus, who along with Dr. Dell and other administrators, have been interviewing candidates from as far away as California to take Dr. Dell's position, which will be vacated at the end of the school year.

"You don't replace a Dr. Dell," Dr. Hajzus said. "It's impossible. You hope you can get someone to follow in his footsteps."

"The band and the students were his life," said former student Matt Lydic, who graduated last year after five years in the school's drum line.

Mr. Lydic said Dr. Dell's departure will make a major impact, especially in his popular music theory class, where everyone was welcome.

"There were kids who didn't even want to be in the band who took his classes," said Mr. Lydic.

Dr. Dell is one of the most beloved and talented teachers ever employed by the district, according to Matt Lydic's mother, Cathy. Her daughter Sara also participated in band.

"What a wonderful individual we are losing," she said. "He treats those kids like they were his own."

Mrs. Lydic said Dr. Dell had a way of making everyone around him feel special and he was touched by the lives of his students.

"Every year at the band banquet, he cried" because some of his students were graduating, Mrs. Lydic said.

Several years ago when she was battling cancer, Mrs. Lydic said Dr. Dell and the band boosters helped her family by preparing meals and assisting in other ways.

Still, they knew Dr. Dell would someday retire.

"We knew this day was going to happen," she said. But, Dr. Dell almost didn't finish his career at Peters Township or in music.

A North Hills native and 30-year Cecil resident, Dr. Dell earned a bachelor's degree in applied music and music education from Carnegie Mellon University, then came to Peters as a middle school band director in 1968.

By 1972, he established the high school's Mighty Indian marching band the district's first marching band but found himself headed in a different direction by 1983 and 1984, when he earned master's and doctorate degrees in administration and policy studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

He put his new degrees to work in 1986, leaving Peters for a job as principal of Chartiers Houston High School, where he stayed until 1998.

He got his certificate to serve as a superintendent, and starting thinking about advancing his career in that direction when he began to have second thoughts.

"I've always had a wonderful relationship with the people in Peters," he said.

The process that brought Dr. Dell back to Peters began with unplanned lunches at a South Strabane restaurant where Dr. Dell and Dr. Hajzus, both principals at the time, would run into each other on occasion, sit together, and talk shop.

Dr. Hajzus said when the position of band director opened up at the high school, he and Dr. Dell discussed it, along with some of the organizational problems the program had been facing for years.

Dr. Hajzus said he couldn't believe his good fortune.

"I had to chuckle," he said. "Here, you have the founding father, who has so much to offer, musically and personally."

Dr. Dell returned to Peters to accept the position in 1998, and the high school's band program has expanded from marching band to include jazz, concert, and wind symphony bands.

Last year, 181 students participated in high school band, which offers no credits or grades.

"They do it because they like it," Dr. Dell said. "I think that's what makes it so special."

Dr. Dell said retiring was a difficult decision, and said he plans to spend more time with his wife, Jan, and mother, Eleanor. He also plans to do more volunteer work, snow skiing, and possibly brush up on some of his own instrumental skills. He plays clarinet, guitar and several other instruments.

Although he's won several awards and citations, Dr. Dell said he'll probably be best remembered for his scratch-and-sniff award stickers, E-Z button, and "Carpe Theoreticas" -- or seize the theory motto. "I always felt working with kids helps you feel young," he said.

School board President David Hvizdos said Dr. Dell was "a legend."

"Everybody is going to miss him," Mr. Hvizdos said.