for the Westinghouse Quartet as they were never permitted (so I'm told) to compete at the District level. They had, however, placed second, third, fourth and fifth at the International level. In that first District contest, we placed fifth. We continued to compete up to and including 1968. During that time we missed one contest because I was working night shift, doing time studies, and couldn't get away. My memory is a little fuzzy about how many times we placed in the top five during those years, but I do know we placed second two times. One year, I believe it was 1964, everyone conceded that we would win the title but we placed fourteenth. "Molly" Reagan, who had the greatest set of ears, in my opinion, of anyone I ever knew, was on the judging panel for that contest and had us in first place on his score sheet The judges from New York who had scored us badly, came to us after hearing us sing at one of the hospitality rooms, and apologized. I won't repeat their reason for their score because it made no sense. It deserves mentioning, though, that in the following spring of 1965, we were one of three quartets that qualified for International competition. We qualified again in 1966.
During the period of 1962 through 1968 (and this is the part that I don't like talking about) I was voted as the bass to the All District Quartet six times. We missed one contest during this period and in that year another Pittsburgh chapter member, Nick Kosanovich, won the All District bass award. You may also be interested to know that in my final time as All District bass, the other members of the All District quartet were Leo Sisk, Darryl Flinn and Don Clapp.
In 1965, we traveled, at Society request, with two other quartets, to Guantanamo Bay for nine days to entertain out troops. In 1969, again at Society request, we made a three week tour to the far East to visit all the military hospitals in Japan, the Phillipines, Okinawa and Hawaii. We repeated that tour in 1971. We made one other trip at Society request; that was to Ottawa, Canada, with the Boston Common quartet shortly after they won their championship.
In 1984, we decided to try competition again. At this time the quartet consisted of Walt Eibeck, Johnny Haberlein, Chet Langford and myself. We placed eleventh which made us the JAD Senior Champions. That's not a well known fact because the Seniors contest had not yet gone to International level.
One other item worthy of note. In 1992, the "CircIe W Four" quartet was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award. It was a rather sad moment as Walt Eibeck died shortly before we were presented the award. That ended my 36 years with the Westinghouse Circle W Four. That was 14 years ago, but I'm still enjoying this great pastime called Barbershop.
Singing for a long ago member
By: George Mayer
On January 3, 2006, Lee Kreger phoned Carol and I from Florida to thank us for our Christmas card [we have kept in touch over the years]. Lee reported that husband Ed has developed dementia and is now in a nursing home. She wondered if we could somehow arrange for some barbershoppers to visit with Ed.
For those of you who did not know Ed Kreger, Ed joined the old Pittsburgh Chapter in May of 1970 and remained with the chapter until his retirement in 1985 or 1986. Ed and Lee then moved to Virginia for approximately five years and have been in Florida for the past fifteen years.
Ed was chapter president in 1977, served as secretary from 1971 to 1974, was show chairman in 1976, was elected to the Greater Pittsburgh Hall Of Fame in 1975, was Barbershopper Of The Year in 1977, and received a Barbershop "7th Award" in 1983. Ed did some quartet singing with guys such as Bob Hyland and Joe Potts but I don't have an accurate record of his quartet singing.
Getting back to Lee's request, I used their Daytona Beach address to search our Society web site and located a chapter in the Sunshine District... The Daytona Beach Metro Chapter with the Surfside Chorus. On January 4, 2006, I e-mailed chapter president, Christopher Baker with a request for a "pick- up" quartet to visit our sick and long time member before it was too late for him to remember anything. I provided Chris the necessary addresses and phone numbers. I received a reply in two days that some action would be taken in response to this request.
The result was that a quartet by the name of the "Surftones" visited Ed on January 23, 2006 and greatly cheered him up with a half-hour of singing. Lee could not thank everyone enough for their kindness (although Ed wondered why no one was singing "Daddy Sang Bass").
I sent a follow up e-mail to Christopher thanking everyone for their time and effort and for proving that barbershoppers are part of the greatest fellowship on earth.
In a more recent follow up, Lee reports that Ed's condition continues to worsen and he will never be able to leave the nursing home. Lee is also currently hospitalized with diabetes and other assorted illnesses but hopes to be discharged in about a month.
A special Greater Pittsburgh thank you to the "Surftones" - Addan Bourgeois, Bill Hibbert, Christopher Baker and Jack Newcomer