District Officers realigned; Clay Jones and Fran Jones resign due to job changes
Clay Jones, district president-elect for 1990, announced his resignation due to a job change which took him to Crystal Lake, Illinois. Fran Jones, district treasurer, was transferred to Wichita Falls, Texas. Both of these gentlemen will be sorely missed.
 Mike O'Donnell
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 Roger Lewis
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 Stan Williams
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Replacing Clay as district president was the former Executive Vice President Mike O'Donnell Roger Lewis assumed the duties of executive vice-president, relinquishing his job as director of convention planning and special events to Mike Cirrito of the Lansing Chapter.
Replacing Fran Jones as treasurer was Stan Williams, also of the Lansing Chapter. He is employed in accounting with the State of Michigan and is well qualified for the job.
Detroit loses in valiant bid for '94 international convention
Despite a valiant effort on the part of SMAC (Southeast Michigan Association of Chapters) organization and the Metropolitan Convention Bureau, our bid to host the 1994 international convention in Detroit was turned down by the International Board at the Tucson midwinter convention in favor of Pittsburgh. The final tally on the second round of voting was 14 for Pittsburgh and 10 for Detroit. Atlanta had been eliminated in the first round. The meeting took place during the week of January 24-28, 1990.
The convention bid team was headed up by Bob McDermott, Earl Berry and Bill Warner representing SMAC and Rick Moses and Bill McLaughlin, who represented the convention bureau. A solid business package was presented to the Board, but most of them apparently preferred Pittsburgh. Past International President John Gillespie was also present to help represent the district.
Junior quartet contest
 Jim Stephens
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 Bob McDermott
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The Pioneer District Board of Directors, at its December Board meeting, approved the proposed district junior quartet contest to be held during the spring convention in April. The proposal was put together by Director of Music Education Jim Stephens and Bob McDermott, to encourage the formation of junior quartets in the district. While the idea of high school quartet contests is not new, it is the first time they were sponsored by the Pioneer District. The contest will be held under Young Men in Harmony (YMIH) guidelines.
The major emphasis of the program is to acquaint young singers to four-part harmony. It is also designed to acquaint high school choir directors with the barbershop style of music.
Pioneer celebrates 50th anniversary during spring convention
 Jim Styer
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Jim Styer, district communication officer, planned several events during the spring convention, April 27-29, 1990, to celebrate Pioneer's 50th birthday. The special guest was Betty Ann Cash, daughter of Society founder O.C. Cash. An avid barbershopper fan, Betty participated in many convention festivities.
The convention featured a booth with birthday cards, sent by members throughout the Society, displayed prominently in the lobby of convention headquarters. Also featured was an historical exhibit coordinated by Bob McDermott. This exhibit was also on display a week later at the State Historical Museum in Lansing.
On the contest scene
Twelve quartets vied for the right to represent the district at the international contest in San Francisco in July. POWER PLAY and the IVY LEAGUE qualified with fine scores of 1861 and 1858, respectively. No other quartet was able to attain the 1828 points needed to enable them to qualify for the international competition.
 Harmony Heritage Dist90
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To the surprise of hardly anybody, the Macomb County HARMONY HERITAGE Chorus took the top honors in the district chorus contest. The chorus, under the direction of Bob Hartly (who took over as director just three weeks prior to the contest), proved to the district that they are to be reckoned with in the fall preliminaries as they presented a beautiful package. The Grand Rapids GREAT LAKES Chorus, our representatives to the international chorus contest in San Francisco, ended up in second place, with the Detroit-Oakland GENTLEMEN SONGSTERS placing third. All in all, the chorus competition was quite competitive, with all of the 15 choruses singing well.
Many Pioneer District chapters celebrated anniversaries in 1990
The following chapters in the district celebrated significant anniversaries during 1990.
| CHAPTER | ANNIVERSARIES | CHAPTER DATE |
|---|---|---|
| Saganaw | 50 Years | Sept 28 1940 |
| Muskegon | 50 Years | Oct 1, 1940 |
| Lansing** | 50 Years | Dec 7, 1940 |
| Grosse Pointe | 45 Years | June 25, 1945 |
| Holland | 45 Years | Dec 31, 1945 |
| Battle Creek | 35 Years | Oct 5, 1955 |
| Clinton Valley | 15 Years | Aug 14, 1975 |
| Coldwater | 10 Years | Mar 27, 1980 |
[** An error exists in Kenosha's records. Lansing was chartered in September 1939. They were one the four chapters who helped organize the district on June 8, 1940.]
Loton Willson passes away
 Loton Wilson
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The father of the "Bush League" quartet contest, Loton Willson of Boyne City, passed away May 14, 1990 suffering from prostate cancer. Loton was born in Kalamazoo in 1907 and moved to Boyne City when he was three years old.
A long time member of the Pioneer District, Loton was one of the first area Governors (now called Area Counselors) in our district when he was appointed to this position in 1949. In 1951 Loton assumed the duties of district vice president. In May 1954 Loton was elected president of the district; serving for one year. He declined serving a second year because of the cost and time involved.
Loton originated the first novice quartet contest in the district. It was appropriately renamed the "Loton C. Willson `Bush League' quartet contest" by his home chapter, Boyne City. Loton, incidentally, founded the Boyne City Chapter in February 1944. Loton was inducted into the Pioneer District Hall of Fame in 1974.
In memoriam, Bob Mulligan
The Pioneer District lost one of its former district quartet champions and contest judge when Bob Mulligan succumbed to a heart attack on July 2, 1990, at his home in Garden City, Michigan. Bob sang tenor with the 1964 district champions, the TREBLESHOOTERS. He was also very much involved in the Society's music judging program, serving as a stage presence judge since becoming certified in 1970.
Bob had been a member of the Detroit #1 (now Detroit-Oakland) since the early fifties singing with the MOTOR CITY Chorus for many years. While not active with the chorus in recent years, he remained close to the chapter.
Highlights of San Francisco
The international convention in San Francisco was held during the first part of July and produced some excellent contests which will live in memory for a long time to come. The contests took place in the Cow Palace.
In the quartet competition, the ACOUSTIX quartet from the Dallas Metro and Dallas Town North, Texas, chapters edged the NATURALS in the final quartet contest set to win the gold medal. The NATURALS from the Cincinnati Western Hills, Ohio Chapter had led through the first two sessions, but ended up in third place. The 139TH STREET quartet moved into second place by five points with a tremendous final set. Rounding out the top five medalists were the RITZ in fourth place and BANK STREET in fifth. Some indication of how close this contest was is indicated by the scores of the top five—only 59 points separating them.
Pioneer District representative quartets didn't fare quite so well. POWER PLAY, in their first appearance on the international stage, finished 39th in the field of 51. The IVY LEAGUE finished in a disappointing 50th position, far below the capability of this quartet.
A real donnybrook ensued in the chorus contest when the Foothill Cities, California, MASTERS OF HARMONY Chorus walked off with the chorus championship. The chorus tied in actual score with the Louisville, Kentucky, THOROUGHBREDS Chorus, but was awarded first place. This was decided by their better sound score, the determinant in the case of such ties.
It was unfortunate that the Pioneer District representative in the chorus contest, the Grand Rapids GREAT LAKES Chorus finished in seventeenth place. The chorus was only able to must 43 members for the long trip to the coast, and this certainly had some effect on their performance. It was a gallant effort on the part of Dale Mattis and his crew, as we know they gave it their very best under the circumstances.
Battle Creek Happenings
The Pioneer District fall convention and contests held in Battle Creek October 20-21, 1990, proved to be both exciting and interesting. The number of quartets (10) and choruses (11) competing, although down from previous contests, still produced some find barbershop sounds, and the district can be extremely proud of all of them.
 Checkmate
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Harmony Heritage
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The CHECKMATE quartet from the Wayne Chapter rule as the kings of barbershoppers in the Pioneer District for 1990-91. They were crowned Pioneer District champions in on of the most warmly contested quartet contests this district has seen in quite a while. In the overall totals CHECKMATE ended up with a grand total of 1767 points, 109 points ahead of the BLUE RIBBON COALITION from the Gratiot County Chapter, and 113 ahead of BROADCAST from the Flint, Grosse Pointe and Macomb County Chapters.
Macomb County's HARMONY HERITAGE Chorus, under the direction of Jack Slamka, executed brilliantly in their Irish songs to score 903, 40 points higher than their nearest rivals, the Wayne Chapter RENAISSANCE Chorus, under their new director and Pioneer District DME Jim Stephens. The Holland WINDMILL Chorus, under the direction of Myke Lucas, missed the second place spot by a mere two points. Their "soft shoe" routine with their wooden clodhoppers proved very popular with the audience.
 Senior Class senior90
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The third annual district seniors quartet contest attracted six quartets willing to strut their stuff. The winning foresome was SENIOR CLASS (Bill Wickstrom, tenor; Don Stewart, lead; Lee Hanson, bass; and Jim Stephens, bari). Joe Barbershopper Chorus A "Joe Barbershopper" chorus was formed to be the "mike testers" for the international chorus preliminaries in Battle Creek in October. The chorus was formed for district members whose chapter has elected not to compete in the preliminaries, and would not otherwise have a chance to sing on stage in Battle Creek. Two inducted into Pioneer District Hall of Fame Bob McDermott and Russ Seely were inducted into the Pioneer District Hall of Fame at the House of Delegates meeting held during the fall convention in Battle Creek, on October 21, 1990. Russ, a 35-year barbershopper, has sung with three district quartet champions and competed on the international stage eight times. He has directed the Grosse Pointe LAKESHORE Chorus for 21 years. He has held most of the chapter offices from president to bulletin editor. He has also served as an area counselor, hospitality chairman and district vice president, a post he held for the past several years. Russ is particularly proud of his part in developing the Mark Roberts Award (the International Senior Quartet Trophy) and the Hugh Ingraham International Quartet Trophy. Epilogue To conclude, we find it appropriate to include Bob's own thoughts relative to Pioneer District, as found in the October-November 1989 Troubadour: "I believe that the Pioneer District is one of the best run districts in the Society. I think that is due to the fact that we have been blessed for fifty years with a lot of men of vision, beginning with Carroll Adams right on through Clay Jones. Every time this district has declined somewhat, up pops some more leaders with the forbearance and knowledge to pick it back up again. WE have a lot of talent in this district, believe me. Even our past officers who have served the district well are still willing to help in any situation. Administratively, we've always been strong; and we are growing a lot stronger musically as well."
Russ Seely
Bob McDermotte
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