WDCHOF - Key Persons
Since first playing a snare drum in 1969, Dale Adair has demonstrated a high level of expertise in many drum and bugle corps categories, including managing, judging, arranging, instructing and performing. He is highly regarded by students and fellow instructors for his creativity, style, enthusiasm and approach to arranging and teaching and for the initiative he has demonstrated in these areas. Members of drum lines he taught were always well prepared and well schooled. His judging opinions were presented in a professional manner and considered by fellow judges to be right on point. He was a percussion judge with the National Judges Association from 1983 to 2005. He began judging with the Cavalcade Judges Association in 2006. He served on the Crossmen's board of directors in 1993-1994. He has arranged for and taught several highly regarded senior corps since 1982, including Archer-Epler Musketeers, Reading Buccaneers, New York Skyliners and Reilly Raiders Alumni. He was assistant drum instructor with Madison Scouts in the late 1980s and served as arranger and instructor for P.A.L. Cadets, Cramer Hill and the Shadettes earlier. He is an accomplished drummer, winning the first place medal in the first individual snare drum contest he entered. A member of a well-known drum corps family, he started playing snare drum with the Golden Eagles in 1969. Over the following 10 years, he performed with the 507 Hornets and Crossmen, before moving up to the senior category to play snare drum with Archer-Epler Musketeers in 1982 and Reilly Raiders Alumni from 2004 to 2009.
Mr. Adair began his career with the Osmond Post Cadets in 1939 playing a soprano. He assisted with drill design and instruction during the period in which Osmond won 2 National titles. Reilly Raiders was his choice as a senior corps where he continued playing lead soprano. Don joined the Marine Corps Divisional Band as a percussionist. He was the brass arranger/instructor for the Hadden Heights Vagabonds, Ridley Park Rangers, PAL Cadets, Bracken Cavaliers, and Reilly Raiders Alumni. Don was a charter member of the NJA and the original original brass caption head.
Alan Katz has established notable achievements in performing and instruction to go along with his outstanding record in administration during a drum and bugle corps career that spans almost 50 years since he first played lead baritone horn with the Monarchs of Oakland/Wayne, New Jersey in 1968.
His title with Hawthorne Caballeros since 2002 has been business manager but in effect he has been directing the corps during those years. While he has been serving as business manager the Caballeros have won the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world championship and the American Legion national championship. He has simultaneously also served as chairman of the Cabs at the Beach and Grand Prix championship contests and held a position on the Caballeros board of trustees.
His administration responsibilities began by serving as assistant director of Kings Regiment of Wayne in 1977. He moved to the Caballeros management team in 1988, serving as fund raising chair and assistant business manager before becoming business manager. He was a visual staff member when Caballeros were three-time visual caption champions and undefeated DCA champions in 1995.
He was solo baritone player with Hawthorne from 1979 to 1993, after playing lead baritone with Kings Regiment. While he performed with Hawthorne, the Caballeros won the American Legion national championship, Dream Contest title, the American Legion New Jersey state title and undefeated DCA championships in 1984 and 1985.
He is a recipient of the Caballeros of All Years award. He was inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2002 as an associate member.
Allan Buell is a superb administrator who has also reached a high level of achievement as a color guard visual designer and instructor and a judge. He served as business manager of Rochester's Empire Statesmen, the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) champions in 2004, from 2003 to 2011, while simultaneously heading up the organization of DCA world championship tournament weekends. Initially, he served as chair of the local organizing committee when the DCA championships returned to Rochester from Scranton, Pennsylvania. DCA appointed him as operations director in 2005. He was appointed vice president of DCA in 2011. He also worked closely with Empire Statesmen and World Drum Corps Hall of Fame founder Vince Bruni in organizing the DCA championships in Rochester in 1996. He instructed the Winter Guard International (WGI) champion Bishop Kearney High School color guard ensemble with Hall of Fame member Vince Monacelli from 1991 through 1998, winning the WGI title an unprecedented five years in row from 1993 to 1997. He served as president of the North East Color Guard Circuit from 2001 to 2009. He was inducted into the Circuit's Hall of Fame in 2009. He has also served as guard visual designer and instructor with Empire Statesmen and Rochester Crusaders. He has judged with several associations since 1999, including the New York Federation of Contest Judges and Pennsylvania Federation of Contest Judges. Between 1988 and 2003, he marched in the color guard of Empire Statesmen, Les Metropolitans, Syracuse Brigadiers and Rochester Crusaders, also serving as Crusaders business manager in 2002 and 2003.
‘Butch' Anderson is best remembered as the flamboyant drum major of the New York Skyliners throughout the 1970s, '80s and '90s. He joined Skyliners in 1970, as a soprano player. He left for a season to march as drum major of Syracuse Brigadiers, then returned to New York in 1972 as assistant drum major behind Walter Winkelman. His early music education began in the fourth grade, with teacher Brad Longdo, and continued through the end of high school. He was also a solo soprano player, horn instructor and show co-ordinator with Skyliners. He previously played a horn with both the Schuylerville Green Sabres and the Interstatesmen, of Troy, NY and Pittsfield, MA, and marched as drum major with both the Marksmen and Syracuse Brigadiers. He was horn instructor for many corps, notably Pittsfield Skyhawks, Pittsfield Pom Poms, Saratoga Hurricanes, Emerald Knights, Muchachos and Johnstown Patriots. He served as show co-ordinator for the Skyliners during two separate periods in the 1980s, and helped institute a contest in Albany NY organized by a group of lawyers, called Law, Order and Justice.
Jim began his involvement playing baritone horn, spending his first year with Yearsley Blackhawk Cadets, then six years with Liberty Bell Cadets. While serving in the United States Navy for 15 months, he played snare drum, marched as drum major and served as director of the corps. Many of his accomplishments were achieved during his association with PAL Cadets of Philadelphia. He was co-founder and director of the corps and served as marching and maneuvering instructor, brass arranger and show coordinator for 16 years. He was also show coordinator with Cranford Patriots for two years. He has served as president of Reilly Raiders Alumni, vice president of the Garden State Association, and judged music and M & M for the Mid-Atlantic Judging Association. As director of the PAL Cadets, he obtained more than 300 college scholarships and financial aid for drum corps members. He also helped initiate a college program in music education for new drum and bugle corps members with limited formal music education.
Bill Boerner's drum and bugle corps career began in 1936 and spanned more than five decades, during which time he was a snare drummer and drum instructor for a number of junior and senior corps and served two terms as corps director of New York Skyliners. Between 1936 and 1943, he drummed with Bill Brown American Legion (AL) Post drum and bugle corps, American Patrol Naval Cadets, Charles W. Heisser AL Post fife drum and bugle corps, Grand Street Boys and Phoebe Apperson Hearst AL Post. After serving in the United States Navy, he became a charter member of New York Skyliners in 1946. He was the drum instructor for eight junior corps and three senior corps, including Skyliners, in locations across New York and New Jersey for almost twenty years, from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. His activities in the 1990s included marching with three fife and drum corps: the Sons of Liberty, the Minutemen and the Blue and Grey. He also participated in the Skyliners chorus, and belonged to the Skyliners Alumni Association.
Bob ‘Kid' Bellarosa spent a lifetime in the drum and bugle corps community, participating and contributing in many areas of the activity stretching across 70 years from his first involvement as a young boy in 1942 to his longstanding duties as publisher of Eastern Review and Heritage magazine for more than 50 years, from 1956 until his passing in 2011. Along the way, he played French horn with both arch rivals New York Skyliners and Hawthorne Caballeros and several well-known junior corps of the 1940s and 1950s. He constantly promoted the value of drum corps involvement as a recreation outlet and educational activity for youth especially in communities and neighborhoods where teenage programs were scarce.
He founded the Blessed Sacrament Alumni Corps in 1990. He also founded and operated the Drum Corps Hall of Fame and Museum in a four-storey building in Brooklyn, packed with pictures, trophies, old uniforms and other memorabilia to help publicize the individuals and groups who were the leaders of the activity. For many years, he served many groups as a roving instructor who neither asked for any fee, nor accepted money for teaching. He was a member of the Buglers Hall of Fame, a highly skilled mid-range brass player who won more than 50 individual competitions at the circuit, state and national level. He was a fierce competitor in another competitive sport: a Golden Gloves boxer who won 68 of 75 bouts. He was a familiar figure to thousands of fans at drum corps events: the short man in a Skyliners jacket and overseas cap adorned with his competition medals. He entered the drum and bugle corps world in 1942, carrying a rifle and playing drum with St. Helen's Cadets. He moved on top play alto horn with Todd Memorial in 1945 then became a French horn player with Holy Name Cadets in 1948 and was voted Cadet of the Year in 1952. He moved to Edison Post junior corps in 1953 and then Our Lady of Grace Lancers in 1954. Over the following 15 years he played French horn with Skyliners for 13 years, moved to Caballeros for a couple of years then returned to Skyliners.
A drummer's drummer, Mr. Bowser is a two time individual VFW Senior National Champion snare drummer. He began his percussion career in 1946 with the Kenwood Cadets. A long time member of the Championship Reilly Raiders drum line, he also was a member of the Yankee Rebels and the alumni corps of both organizations. Jim also instructed the Dundalk Cadets, Williamsport Black Eagles, and St. James of Baltimore, MD. In more recent years, Jim was instrumental in the 1988 rebirth of the Yankee Rebels Alumni Corps and the early success of the Reilly Raiders Alumni Corps.
Cosmo Barbaro has been affiliated with a number of the best-known corps in upstate New York, and several in other areas. At various times, he was associated with Geneva Appleknockers, Auburn Purple Lancers, Rochester Crusaders, Rochester Empire Statesmen, Dutch Boy, of Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, Connecticut Hurricanes and Chicago Cavaliers. He has served as a judge with Drum Corps International (DCI) and Drum Corps Associates (DCA), the All American Judges Association, the Pennsylvania Federation of Judges and Central States Judges. He is a past president of the Percussive Arts Society, and has served as a clinician and endorser with Ludwig Drums.
Don Angelica's visions of musical and visual excellence helped push drum and bugle corps activity to new levels of achievement. While serving as the Chief Judge Administrator of Drum Corps International (DCI) in the 1970s, he was able to influence the scoring system to encourage instructors and designers to explore new musical themes and new visual design patterns for field shows. He proposed that drum and bugle corps participants view their activity as part of a much larger scale of activity, which includes all types of music making. He was well known to music leaders outside the drum corps movement, once taking some of his students to Lincoln Center to observe a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by his friend Leonard Bernstein. He was known as one of the top music adjudicators on the continent. In addition to serving as DCI's judges administrator from 1975 to 1984, he also served as brass caption co-ordinator. He was the music arranger and instructor for many nationally known corps, including Hawthorne Caballeros, Casper Troopers and Holy Name Cadets, later known as Garfield Cadets. He was considered one of the best soprano soloists of his time, performing with Hawthorne. He was a music student of Hall of Fame member Dr. Bernard Baggs. His drum corps activities began when he joined Holy Name Cadets in Garfield, New Jersey in 1954. After leaving the Cadets in 1958, he was solo soprano with the Caballeros from 1959 to 1966. He was one of the charter members of the DCI Hall of Fame, inducted in 1985. He was also a charter member of the class of 1984 Garfield Cadets.
Donnie Allen has been involved with drum and bugle corps activity since he was a teenager playing soprano horn with St. Joseph's of Batavia and Purple Lancers of Auburn, N Y. He was lead solo soprano player, arranger and brass instructor for Empire Statesmen in the early 1990s, during years the corps twice won the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world title and was extending performance opportunities with overseas tours and winter stage concerts. In 1994, he received the DCA individual showmanship award. Since then, he has served as brass arranger and instructor for Syracuse Brigadiers, Mighty St. Joe's Alumni and Rochester Crusaders. He has also been either brass arranger or instructor for the Cadets of Greece, Mighty Liberators of Rochester, Firebirds of Rochester, Rochester Northmen and Diplomats of Malden, MA. He has also served as music director of Eastridge High School and music director of Bloomfield High School Marching Band, both in Rochester. In 1992 and again in 1994, he was music director of the all-star group of more than 300 musicians who participated in the nationally-televised Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City. He is a member of the New York State Federation of Contest Judges.
Jim Allen has excelled as an instructor and performer with a number of junior and all-age drum and bugle corps that consistently finished at the top in state and national championship contests. He was visual designer for Syracuse Brigadiers from 1997 to 2007. In that period, the Brigs won the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) title five times: in 1997 and four years in a row from 1999 to 2002. He was also responsible for visual design with both of Rochester's national-caliber corps: Empire Statesmen in 2008 and 2009 and the Crusaders in 1971 and 1973 and again from 1980 to 1983. In the 1970s, he was visual designer at various times for Empire State Express of Elmira, Rochester Patriots and St. Joseph's of Batavia when they won the Canadian Open Championship title. He was also the brass instructor with St. Joe's and Bayonne Bridgemen during that decade. His lifelong involvement with drum and bugle corps activity began in 1956, when he played soprano bugle with the Dutchtown Ramblers. He played soprano with Rochester's Ridge Culver Statesmen for three years then was a soprano soloist with St. Joe's from 1963 to 1970. During that time, St. Joe's won eight New York State American Legion titles and made the finals in the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) national championships four times. He has served as assistant director and director with St. Joe's and assistant director of American Patrol of Batavia. He judged marching for the New York Chapter of the All-American Judging Association from 1971 to 1974 and with the New York Federation of Contest Judges since 1974. He was the chair of the local organizing committee when the Drum Corps International (DCI) championships were held in Buffalo, New York in 1990 and 1995.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Professional Achievement Award
John Bosworth reinforces the word "World" in the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame. His drumming career spans two centuries and nearly 70 years. He has performed in 28 countries, from the Azores to Wales, from Austria to Australia. He has taught drum corps and drumming in countries such as Switzerland, Scotland, Oman, and, of course, the U.S.A. He played in nearly all of the U.S. states and all of the Canadian provinces, for various world leaders and kings and queens, including Queen Elizabeth of England and Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. He has performed in front of 11 U.S. Presidents, from Harry Truman to George Bush. He began drumming in 1942 at the age of three. By the time he was 12, he was traveling by bus from his hometown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania to New York City, where he took drum lessons from Gene Krupa and Cozy Cole. In 1954, he joined the Williamsport Black Eagles Sr. Drum Corps, with whom he played for four years. During his final years of playing with the Black Eagles the corps was taught by John Dowlan, who was also the percussion instructor for the United States Air Force (USAF) Drum Corps. He encouraged John to audition in Washington, D.C., which led not only to a 28 year career in Air Force musical groups, but to a lifetime of travel, performing, instructing, and arranging. He performed with the USAF Drum Corps from 1958 until the Corps' demise in 1970. He was simultaneously playing with the USAF Pipe Band, which had once been a part of the AF Drum Corps and later became a separate unit. After the AF Drum Corps was disbanded, he was the percussion instructor and lead snare drummer for the USAF Pipe Band, until it was terminated in 1974. After that, he played with USAF Ceremonial Band and the USAF Band. Because of his exceptional service with various elements of USAF Band Squadron, he was awarded the prestigious Meritorious Service Medal from Colonel Arnold Gabriel. Concurrent with his AF career were many instruction and arranging opportunities, including instruction of drum corps such as the Williamsport Black Eagles, Milton Keystoners, Esquires, and the VIPs from Washington, D.C. After his discharge, he became the founder and director of the American Originals Fife and Drum Corps, which brought innovative rudimental drumming and visual effects to a different medium. Later, his career in instruction led him to Switzerland, where he taught the world renowned Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel, a job that eventually led him to the middle eastern country of Oman, where he originated, directed, and instructed the Royal Guard Drum Corps of the Sultanate of Oman for seven years.
Roman Blenski began playing bugle in 1957 at the start of a lifelong involvement with the drum and bugle corps community. He was also color guard, drill and bugle instructor for a number of corps from 1958 to 1961. He is the long-time executive director of Drum Corps Midwest (DCM), the organization which includes about 30 drum and bugle corps located mostly west of the Great Lakes. At the same time he has also served as executive of Pioneer junior drum and bugle corps, and co-ordinator of the Drum Corps International Division II and III corps. The high-quality performances by DCM corps make the championship tournament a popular annual event. The Midwest All-Star Corps often appears in internationally-televised football bowl parades during Christmas and New Year's celebrations.
Wilf Blum founded "Canada's famous Scout House Bugle Band" in 1937, as an non-traditional activity for members of his 1st Preston Scout Troop. In the following 30 years, Scout House became one of the continent's most popular units, traveling from the Atlantic coast to the Midwest while compiling more than 80 major regional, national and international titles. Scout House was one of the first Canadian corps to compete in full field shows, and the stylized uniform, featuring tight black shorts, a high stepping marching style, and choreographed maneuvers on the field earned standing ovations at every performance.