WALTON, Ind. — For as long as he can remember, Don Krug has had a passion for what he calls the “language” of music — and for teaching that language to any student with a musical instrument.

“Music is a foreign language,” he said recently. “It’s the same thing as teaching a student to read Japanese, French, German. It’s the language of dots on lines and spaces.”

Krug’s skill and dedication in passing that knowledge on to generations of students is being celebrated as the longtime educator prepares to retire after 45 years as the band director at Lewis Cass Junior-Senior High School in Walton, about 80 miles north of Indianapolis.

Growing up in the small town of Hillsboro, near the Illinois border, Krug recalls his band teacher asking him after a performance, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I said, ‘Well, I thought about being a band director,’” Krug told the Logansport, Indiana Pharos-Tribune. “So she says, ‘Great.’ So at the age of 12, I decided to be a band director.”

Jeannie Helvie, a longtime friend of Krug’s and a band parent, had two sons graduate in the late 1980s. She said she’s seen the care Krug pours into his students, and she appreciates that mixes encouragement and discipline in his instruction.

“It’s amazing to me that he transforms them like he does,” Helvie said. “They trust him beyond anything. If they really have a problem, they know they can talk to him.”

Lauryn Willison, a senior flutist for the Marching Kings, said Krug has taught her perseverance and to have a sense of humor in studying music. With Krug’s guidance, she’s progressed from starting out in sixth grade as a novice on the instrument to becoming one of the top flute players in the band.

“We’ve grown together,” Lauryn said. “It’s so cool to see how everybody’s grown because of him.”

Robin Asher, a former drum major and now a band booster who has two daughters in the band, says Krug’s concern for students’ self-esteem has remained constant through the years.

“He believes in them,” she said, “and he’s taught them to believe in themselves.”

Krug started at Lewis Cass teaching middle school students in 1971. When longtime band director Terry Collins retired in 1993, Krug took over at the high school before asking to return to teaching at the middle school in 2002. The school corporation hired Mike Clark as its high school band director the same year.

In fall 2012, Clark lost his battle with cancer, so Krug decided to go back to leading the high school band, leading up to his retirement this year.

Krug says he preferred teaching middle school band students how to read music and play their instruments, before competitions and marching band goes to the forefront during high school.

“The dots on the spaces are more than just notes. They convey a message,” Krug said. “Once we do that, then we’re all right. That’s why I love teaching.”

Krug said the band is a small community. That showed two years ago, when the Marching Kings were invited to participate in the 2015 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. In the months following the invitation, businesses and residents in the surrounding area held fundraisers and contributed thousands of dollars to help cover the cost of the trip.

“It’s a great way to end my career,” Krug said days before the trip. “It’s too big for one person to do. It’s too big of a job for one person to take credit for.”

Krug said he’s had great support from teachers, administrators, parents and students — something he hopes his students will imitate in adulthood.

“When they graduate from here, they’ll be part of a community,” he said. “And even though they may be a soccer mom or a baseball coach dad, they have to make time for other activities. They have to make time for church, they have to make time for community involvement. That’s what band teaches them.”

Middelkamp writes for the Logansport, Indiana Pharos-Tribune.