World Drum Corps Hall of Fame 2012 inductees
Written by Roy Wilson (WDCHOF)
The six individuals to be inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame during this year’s ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland on Saturday, September 1 have applied a wide variety of skills around the world in such areas as instruction, finance, computer automation, instrumentation and youth education in support of competing and alumni drum and bugle corps.
The inductees are George Hopkins of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Joel Matuzak of St. Paul, Minnesota; Dan Rippon of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; Anthony Smith of Milton, Massachusetts; John “Duke” Terreri of Pine Hill, New Jersey. John Bosworth of Williamsport, Pennsylvania will be inducted as the winner of this year’s President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
The induction ceremony will take place on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, one of several events being held during Drum Corps Associates’ (DCA) annual championship tournament. Although the Hall of Fame induction is traditionally held on the same weekend as the DCA championships there is no formal connection between the two organizations.
Hall of Fame events will include an exhibit of memorabilia during the social hour before the luncheon and induction ceremony. The Hall of Fame’s annual general meeting will be held shortly after the induction ceremony concludes. Members of the public are welcome to attend the social hour and the luncheon. For ticket information visit the Hall of Fame website at www.worlddrumcorpshof.org/
Each of the 2012 inductees has been active in drum and bugle corps activity since his childhood, in a wide area stretching from the eastern seaboard all the way to the upper mid west area of the United States and across the world to Europe, the Middle East and as far beyond as Australia.
George Hopkins: Allentown, Pennsylvania
For more than 30 years, George Hopkins has been a major proponent of changes in instrumentation, education and contest guidelines, such as initiating the use of band instruments, electronics, removal of sidelines and other alternatives. During those three decades he has served as director of The Cadets, winners of 10 Drum Corps International (DCI) championships during that time. He is also the chief executive officer of Youth Education in the Arts (YEA), the umbrella group that operates the Cadets and also serves 60,000 marching band members through the U.S. Scholastic Band Association. About 200 city youth attend the Urban Arts Center of Allentown, Pennsylvania at no fee. He has been a member of the DCI board of directors for 28 years, the DCI executive committee for 20 years and has served as chairman of the DCI finance committee. He has served as percussion instructor and coordinator for a number of prominent junior corps since 1979, including the Cadets, Crossmen, Boston Crusaders and Carolina Crown. He began his drum corps activity by playing snare drum with Holts Hornets in 1968.
Joel Matuzak: St. Paul, Minnesota
Joel Matuzak is already widely recognized for his contributions to drum corps activity in arranging, drill writing, serving as a clinician and adjudicating. He is a member of the Minnesota Brass Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Percussion Association Hall of Fame. He has taken part if every area of drum corps activity: marching, instructing, managing, judging and serving as coordinator. He has helped expand exposure of drum and bugle corps activity through his efforts as creative director of the Minnesota Brass indoor drum line and the Minnesota Vikings Skol Line, which provides game-day entertainment for the National Football League team. (Skol, Vikings is the title of the team’s fight song.) He has been program coordinator of Minnesota Brass since 2002. He has been percussion caption head since 1997 and percussion and music arranger since 1998. The corps won the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) title in 2011 and finished second in 2008, 2009 and 2010. While he has been percussion caption head, the corps has taken top scores at the DCA championships in 2003, 2004 and 2010. He has served on many DCA judging committees and task forces. He has judged percussion, music and visual captions for several regional judging associations. He first became involved with Minnesota Brass in 1986, playing snare drum.
Dan Rippon: Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Dan Rippon’s most important contributions to the drum corps community have been off the contest field. He proposed and served as the first coordinator of the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) Class A division. Ten Class A corps competed in the 2005 DCA championship preliminaries, making it the largest prelim show in DCA history to that date. He provided computer automation support to the National Judges Association for Website design and a judging profile system. He also provided design and support services for the computerized DCA tabulation system. He has served in many DCA positions, including secretary, vice president, business manager, executive board member and assistant treasurer. He was the first outside member of the board elected to Five Star Brass Productions. When the Westshoremen were facing difficult times, he stepped in to serve as corps director, helping to create a successful turnaround. He has judged for DCA and the National Judges Association. In his early years in the activity, he marched with several corps, including Rochester Crusaders, Grey Knights of St. Mary, Pennsylvania and Johnsonburg Diplomats. He first marched with the Buck-tail Regiment, playing cymbals in 1976 and 1977.
Anthony Smith: Milton, Massachusetts
During his drum corps involvement spanning more than 50 years, Anthony Smith has made a major impact on the activity as a percussionist, visual designer and through his work in administration and management. He won several individual championships as a snare drummer. As a member of Boston Crusaders at age18, he helped design and played the first double bass drum in drum corps history. When he auditioned for the United States Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps, not only was he accepted immediately but offered a teaching position moments after his audition. He helped restructure the Boston Crusaders in 1983 to keep the corps from folding then remained corps director until 1995. Since he rejoined the Concord Blue Devils in 2006 as visual design consultant the corps has won three Drum Corps International (DCI) titles. He had also been design consultant from 1979 to 1982. As the visual caption chairman for Drum Corps Associates (DCA)), he has helped pioneer a new judging system that takes into effect the entertainment values of field programs. He began judging percussion and visual captions for DCI, DCA and MJA in the early 1970s. He has been a drill designer or consultant with such well-known units as New York Skyliners, Crossmen, Boston Crusaders. He joined Boston Crusaders in 1962 as a baritone player then switched to play snare drum with the Valiants for two years before returning to Crusaders in 1965. His brother Neal Smith was inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2008.
John “Duke” Terreri: Pine Hill, New Jersey
Duke Terreri has been involved with drum and bugle corps activity since 1956 when he was a horn player with St. Lucy’s Cadets. He has been a major contributor to the alumni drum and bugle corps movement for more than two decades, providing services as music instructor, assistant instructor, arranger or performer with such high profile alumni organizations as Archer Epler Musketeers, Hawthorne Caballeros, New York Skyliners, Reilly Raiders, St. Lucy’s, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, Morristown Colonials, Lambertville Volunteers. He served as director of St. Lucy’s senior corps for three years and has arranged and taught the brass section of such corps as New York Skyliners, Hawthorne Caballeros and St. Lucy’s. He is highly proficient at teaching the techniques and styles required to get the most out of his ensembles. He is the current conductor and music director of the Audubon Bon Bons All Girl Drum and Bugle Corps alumni chorus. He has played horn with Archer Epler Musketeers, New York Skyliners and Hawthorne Caballeros and arranged for and instructed a number of junior, senior and alumni corps since 1973. He has also been director of St. Lucy’s senior corps and co-director of St. Lucy’s Alumni corps. He has judged music and brass captions for Drum Corps Associates (DCA), Metro Adjudicators Association and Eastern Marching Bands Association. He served in the United States Army from 1970 – 72 with the 33rd Army Band Special Troops Group in Heidelberg, Germany and was bandmaster from 1995 to 1997 while serving as a captain in the Pennsylvania State Army Reserve Band. He was recently elected to the New Jersey Drum Corps Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Drum Corps Hall of Fame.
President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012
John Bosworth: Williamsport, Pennsylvania
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 1964. 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.
Since its founding in 1976 by the late Vince Bruni of Rochester, New York, membership in the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame has grown from six charter members to 459 regular and associate members from the United States and Canada, who have contributed to the activity across North America, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Middle East, South Africa and Japan.
The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization honoring those individuals who have contributed significantly over many years to the development and continuing excellence drum and bugle corps activity. The organization also seeks to preserve the history of the drum and bugle corps movement in North America by selecting a noteworthy junior and all age (senior) corps of the decade.
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