Key honor

MOSES LAKE — Longtime Moses Lake music teacher Harriet West was caught by surprise when she was inducted into the Washington State Music Teachers Association Hall of Fame, she said.

“All of this was done behind my back,” she said. “I had no clue that this was going on.”

The WSMTA has been bestowing that honor on its best and brightest since 2002, according to its website.

The purpose of the hall of fame is “to recognize teachers’ exceptional support, inspiration and outstanding contribution to the growth and development of music and music education, both public and private, in the state of Washington,” the website says.

The honor was given to West at this year’s association’s annual conference, held June 26-28 in Winthrop.

West, a member of the Moses Lake-Central Basin chapter of the WSMTA, is the 74th teacher to receive this honor. Only two other teachers from the chapter have been inducted into it: Lois Burress in 2004 and Doreen Slaugh in 2016. Burress passed away in 2005, but Slaugh was at the conference where West was honored, along with chapter President Marina Munter and members Gracie Payne, Mary Merrell and Preta Laughlin.

“Marina Munter, my dear friend, was the one who puts the medal around my neck,” West said. “My dear husband, Don, went to heaven Aug. 1 of last year. Yeah. So I'm very honored, humbled, happy to receive this, but I really wish Don could have been here. But he was, you know, in spirit.”

“Harriet is an excellent piano teacher,” Munter wrote in an email to the Herald. “She taught hundreds of piano students in our community, from very young age to older beginners and adult students. She cares deeply not only for their music education but also for their lives. Harriet (has) volunteered many hours serving the Washington State Music Teachers Association, Moses Lake music teachers chapter and our community. She played a significant role in purchasing our chapter's grand piano.”

West has lived most of her life in Moses Lake, she said, having moved here with her family in 1952. She began playing for church services when she was 13, she said.

“There was a little Congregational church here in Moses Lake,” West said. “They met in the Knolls Vista School cafeteria, and they had one of those little home organs that they would bring out on Sundays. So their pastor went and talked to my piano teacher, looking for some student to play the piano and the organ. And my teacher said, ‘Why don't you go and visit with Harriet Higgins’ – that was my maiden name – ‘and her parents.’”

Harriet and Don West were married in Moses Lake in 1966. They moved to Portland for a while, she said, but returned in 1970.

“We just didn't want to raise our family in a big city, and we had a chance to come back here,” West said. “And you know, this was a good place to raise our kids and our grandkids and now we even have two great-grandkids.”

Besides teaching music, West also accompanied the choirs at Moses Lake High School for 22 years, and served as the accompanist for 35 years at Moses Lake Presbyterian Church. She also fills in at various local churches when their regular musicians aren’t available, she said.

“For Holy Week this year, I was a Catholic, I was an Episcopalian and I was a Lutheran,” she said, having played for services at all three churches in the days leading up to Easter. “At this time in my life, I think it's a music ministry, to fill in for other musicians who have to be gone.”

“I have known Harriet for 27 years,” Munter wrote. “She is a wonderful friend and colleague … She deserved receiving this special WSMTA Hall of Fame Award.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.