formulation. However, I for one did not have the maturity or writing ability equal to
that job. Of course, we did on our own have to study and understand the issue and
the arguments on both sides of the question. We had to select and organize our
rebuttal material. So debate was unquestionably of educational value and, in
retrospect, it was not terribly important that the negative team did not win.
I had resolved at the outset of my junior year that I was going to submerge
myself in school activities, but public speaking occupied only a few weeks out of the
year. For regular involvement, music was the natural choice for me, so I joined the
mixed chorus and the boys’ glee club, the “Alco Revellers." Having had practically
no formal music training, it was a challenge to learn my vocal part, the bass or
baritone line. I relied heavily in the Revellers on my experienced fellow bass, senior
Don Rolley, from whom I learned much as the year progressed. These groups
performed throughout the school year and particularly toward the year’s end at the
annual concert of music clubs and at the various graduation activities, affording me a
rather solid start on my choral “career."
I must mention at this point that Don Rolley and I became very good friends.
We went to movies and school shows together and at least twice double-dated at dances
(he drove his dad’s car). Our friendship continued for many years, as will be seen.
Encouraged by my singing progress, I accepted Professor Schumacher’s
invitation to join the adult choir at Saints Peter and Paul’s. Male voices were needed and
I suppose the Professor had hopes that, although young and relatively inexperienced, I
could be molded. On May 8, 1938, I sang a full Latin Mass for the first time. Sung Mass
included the propers (including the introit or entrance prayer, the offertory and
communion prayers) in Gregorian chant settings written in ancient musical notation,
which I never came close to mastering. I continued with the choir until I left Cumber-
land in early 1941. It was an irreplaceable experience that served me well in later life.
77
CWR (front row, first on left) began friendship with Don Rolley in the Boys’ Glee Club,
here shown in 1939.
