Charles Yara was the kind of teacher who left his mark on students at Oak Lawn High School with his love of music and ability to encourage passion and perseverance in the art.
Brian and Sandra Marolt McCarty were so positively influenced by Yara that they have named a $2,500 annual scholarship in his name for graduating seniors who plan to make music a big part of their lives.
The couple grew up in Oak Lawn, though now live in Chicago and Ashville, North Carolina.
“You start looking back at how you got to where you’re at and who are the people who kind of got you there, and Charles Yara was definitely one of those for me at Oak Lawn Community High School,” Brian McCarty said.
Yara was vacationing with his wife, Barbara, and son, Christopher, in 1980 when their car was hit head-on. He died in the crash, though his wife and son survived with minor injuries.
McCarty, now retired, worked as a sound engineer in the movie industry for 30 years, receiving three Oscar nominations for sound recording. In high school, he played saxophone in the jazz band and bassoon in the varsity band. Today he still enjoys playing keyboards and occasionally his bassoon. His wife played the clarinet.
He said he owes his success to Yara.
“He had a great influence on me and he was one of those teachers who gave you a kick along when you needed it,” said McCarty. “I’m just so honored that he saw something in me that was worth the extra effort because it made a difference in my career.”
McCarty attended DePaul University and then graduated from Towson State College (now Towson University) in Baltimore, where he studied jazz composition. Yara gave him tips on DePaul, as an alumnus of the school, and professional contacts in Los Angeles.
“Quite often in music programs, in marching band, it becomes very militaristic and a lot of the times the kids can’t keep up because they’re at different levels of development,” McCarty said. “He was very patient with everybody in helping them learn the music and really experience the music.”
Yara was also a talented trumpeteer in his own right, playing at jazz performances in Old Town.
McCarty was inducted into the Oak Lawn Community High School Hall of Fame in 2015 and was a part of the alumni group that danced and sang in a rendition of “Chicago” at the school’s Performing Arts Center opening in 2019.
The first Charles Yara scholarship recipient is Neo Martin, who graduated in the spring and played percussion, in addition to the piano.
Paul Levy, the current band director, said it is fitting Martin received the scholarship. Levy has known him since he was a child because his older brother, Rocky, also came through the music program at Oak Lawn.
Martin was part of the modern music ensemble at the school and a member of the media company, Morning Show Media.
“He was always extremely creative and was always composing his own little songs,” Levy said “He was very inquisitive and spent a lot of time just being creative with music, which is not something most high school students are into these days.”
When Martin’s brother was a student, he showed Levy videos he made of him and his brother writing songs together.
“He’s well-deserving of the award,” Levy said. “He’s the kind of student who, regardless of whether he continues his education in music, is going to be creating music for the rest of his life.”
Though Levy never knew Yara, he said his influence at the school lives on.
“I know he was a well-loved music teacher here,” he said. “Alumni I’ve meet who had him as a teacher all spoke very highly of him.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
