John Thomas McArthur, Jr. was involved with bands in Mississippi from 1950 when he began playing trombone at Philadelphia High School, Until his death in 1992. During his senior year at Mississippi Southern College he began by teaching one year at Macon High School prior to military service.

During his undergraduate years at Southern, McArthur played trombone in the Pride of Mississippi, spending many weekends on the road with Kent Sills and the Southernaires where he played piano. It was during these years that he met Edythe Moore, whom he later married.

Nine years were spent in Waynesboro, during which the band program grew in size and quality to be one of the more respected Class CC band in the state. While living in Waynesboro, John and Edythe attended a summer session at VanderCook College of Music, which both consider to have been an important milestone in their musical development. During the Waynesboro years, the McArthurs saw the birth of two sons, John Erwin (Jay) in 1963 and Walter Christopher (Chris) in 1965. Jay and Chris followed in their portent's footsteps, becoming fine high school musicians and band directors. McArthur also completed his Master’s degree at Mississippi State University during this time.

In 1968, the McArthurs moved to Starkville where he became high school band director. Building on the successful heritage of the Starkville band program, McArthur produced fine concert and marching bands which attended state, national, and international competitions amassing numerous awards, including all-Superior ratings every year at the State Band Festival. The 1970 trip to the Tri-State Festival in Enid, Oklahoma saw the “Band of the Blue and the Grey” take home straight superior ratings in Concert, Sight-reading , Marching, and Parade. The band was named Outstanding in Class in Concert and Marching and won First Place in the “Million Dollar Parade.”

In 1971, McArthur’s Starkville Band was the first Mississippi high school band to travel abroad when it attended the Youth and Music Festival in Vienna. While in Europe, his band not only won Best in Class awards in both Concert and Marching, but also placed second in the International Parade.

McArthur served as President of the MMEA-Band Division in 1970. He was a member of the Board of Phi Beta Mu and its President in 1970. The same year, he served as Associate Concert Director with the Mississippi Lions All-State Band. He received the Medal of Honor from the City of Vienna for Progress and International Cooperation in Music in 1970. McArthur was named Phi Beta Music Outstanding  Band Director in 1971, Outstanding Secondary Educator in 1973, and Distinguished Bandmaster of America by First Chair of American in 1976.

For a number of years McArthur was affiliated with Mississippi Music Inc. before returning to teaching at West Point in 1991, a position he held until his death on September 1, 1992.