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Flourish Online Magazine | Winter 2007 |
Alumni Spotlight: Robert McTyre
Making the Most of a Second Life
By Cheryl Anderson Brown
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Robert McTyre (music, 1995) learned to sing before he could speak. He grew up in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven singing in musicals in church and in school, but when it came time for college, he decided to be a doctor.
He completed a pre-med degree at Georgia State University. Then, a doctor changed his life forever with one word. Cancer.
“It was a powerful life experience,” McTyre says. He survived the illness, but it changed his priorities. “I said, ‘I’m alive—go out and do something with the rest of your life!’”
Music was an easy choice. “Music touches an inner part of me that feels so good. It’s like an addiction,” he laughs, “but it’s legal!”
He enrolled at Kennesaw State, studying voice with Wayne Gibson and then with Oral Moses. McTyre tutored others in music theory and selected “odd literature because he could,” Moses recalls. “He was very, very brainy, but he also has a crazy sense of humor—he would have been a hoot as a doctor!”
Instead, McTyre found another career where he could help people: teaching. After graduating from KSU, he returned to Georgia State for a master’s in music and then went to the University of Mississippi for a doctor of music arts degree. He taught voice lessons and taught at small colleges while continuing his own studies. Then, he found a new home at Middle Georgia College four years ago. He teaches voice and musical theatre at the school, which offers associate degrees in music and drama.
“I enjoy teaching at Middle Georgia,” he says. “Most of the students come from the surrounding area and many of them have had little exposure to different types of music. I get to share those new experiences with them.”
Then, he encourages them to transfer to four-year programs elsewhere, including Kennesaw State. One of McTyre’s protégés, Kristen Hanson, has just completed her first semester at KSU.
“I was planning to go to another college,” she says, “but I put my faith in him and he was right.”
As much as Hanson says she is benefiting from her KSU coursework in theatre and performance studies, she remains very loyal to McTyre. “He would do or say the weirdest things that would bring out my voice in ways that I didn’t think it could be. Even if I become famous, I will always go back to him.”
And that may be the best testimony for what Robert McTyre decided to do with the rest of his life.