ARLINGTON -- For thousands of band students in the Arlington school district, Robert "Bob" Wallace Rober was simply "Mr. Rober." But the former band director at Sam Houston High School was far more. For 30 years, Mr. Rober influenced thousands of teenagers through music, while teaching band, marching and music classes at Ousley Junior High and Sam Houston before retiring in 1987. He was the first band director at Sam Houston, which opened in 1963, and even wrote the school's alma mater.

"His appearance was always dignified," said Jeremy Walker of Arlington, who was Mr. Rober's assistant band director at Sam Houston for 15 years. "You never saw him sweat no matter what the performance was or what trip the band was on." Mr. Rober died Thursday from cancer at his home. He was 77. Born April 24, 1930, in Columbus, Ga., Mr. Rober was the second of four children. He served in the Air Force in the late 1940s and then attended Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., where he met his future wife, Marcia Snodgrass.

"It was a small school and you went there for the music or seminary," Marcia Rober said on Friday. "He was a mature, suave-looking man who had been around the world. I was this girl from western Kansas and I was taken in by it all." They were married in June 1954 and moved to Denton, where they pursued their music education at what is now the University of North Texas. Mr. Rober became one of the early members of the One O'Clock Lab Band. He continued following his passion for jazz, playing with dance and jazz groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Robers moved to Arlington in 1957, where a few years later Mr. Rober began teaching band at Ousley Junior High before moving on to Sam Houston.

At Sam Houston, Mr. Rober taught band to his daughter, Julie Todd of Arlington. "He never played favorites," she said Friday. Todd described her father as "very quiet, very reserved," a somewhat unusual characteristic for a band director. "Oh, but he had the Rober stare," Todd said. "He would just sit down on a chair and stare. "The kids would eventually sit down and listen to him. They had that much respect."

Retirement allowed Mr. Rober more time for his other two passions: gardening and being a grandfather. Survivors include two sons, Gray and Todd Rober; and three grandchildren, Ashley Butts and Lauren and Lyndon Todd.