Golden Memories Page 18

GOLDEN MEMORIES

Origins

SOUTHWESTERN DISTRICT PIONEERS

RUPERT I. HALL

Society's First President
January 1902 - March 14, 1972

Rupert Irving Hall was born in Hammond, Indiana in 1902 and raised in Iowa. As a youth in Neola, Iowa, Rupert remembered the barbershop being the central meeting place in town. The band used the back room for rehearsals and the baseball team used it to change after their games. On Saturday nights the men would gather for their weekly haircuts, shaves and baths and spend time tuning up for Sunday choir. It was here Rupert learned of close harmony singing. Although most barbers didn't sing, he did recall that they had a barber named Pat Doyle who was a fine Irish tenor.
Rupert attended Wentworth Military Academy in~ Lexington, Iowa for his high school years and fell for a friend's cousin named Polly who lived in Council Bluffs, Nebraska. As luck would have it, he attended Creighton University Law School in Omaha (very near Council Bluffs) and gained a law degree. Rupe also played with the orchestra there, having studied the violin for 12 years.
He later moved to Chicago and continued his education, graduating from Northwestern University school of accounting and finance in Evanston, Ill.
In 1935 he moved from Chicago to Tulsa to run the mortgage loan office for Tom Braniff (later of Braniff Airlines fame). Rupert would later purchase Mr. Braniff S investment company and rename it Hall Investment Co.
He married "Polly" in 1924 in Seward, Nebraska and they had two sons, Ralph and David.

JUST A LIL' GET TOGETHER

While on business in Kansas City in early 1938, Rupert met up with O.C. Cash in the lobby of the Muehibach Hotel. They were not yet close friends but were business acquaintances. The conversation led to the joy of singing close harmony and they discussed the idea of getting some friends together, whom they knew could sing, for a little harmonizing.
On his return to Tulsa, Cash drafted the now famous invitation and Rupert signed it. Cash, believing Rupert needed a "proper title", gave him "Royal Keeper of the Minor Keys". The first meeting was held on the rooftop of the Tulsa Club, thanks to Rupert Hall who was a member of this rich man's guild.
A year later, during the first national convention held in Tulsa in 1939, the selection of our first national officers was made. Rumor is Hall returned from the men's room only to find he had been elected our Society's first president.
Mter his tenure on the board, Rupert became less active and was unable to take an active role in the society affairs due to business obligations. In 1953, when Cash passed away, Hall was pronounced the Society's "co-founder" based on the original invitation.
Hall's retirement In 1955 allowed him to again take an active role in the society. He served on several committees but was most proud of his work

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Table of
Contents

Sections:
How It All Began Chapters Chapter Histories International Quartet Champions Choruses Administration
Contests and Conventions Registered Quartets Publications Recognitions In Conclusion