WDCHOF Member Art Mura Passes
A celebration of life will be held in the near future for World Drum Corps Hall of Fame (WDCHoF) member Art Mura, who passed away November 5, 2021.
His brother Al was already a member, inducted in 1989, when Art was inducted in 2002. He had been elected to the New Jersey Drum Corps Hall of Fame a year earlier and was named to the Cadets Hall of Fame in 2010.
His lifelong connection with one of the best-known and highly regarded drum and bugle corps in North America, began at age eight in 1937 when he joined the Holy Name Cadets, later to become the Garfield Cadets.
The Mura family lived in Garfield, New Jersey around the corner from Most Holy Name Catholic Church, so interaction with the drum and bugle corps was an everyday occurrence. Three family members, Al, Charles and Marc were founding members of the corps, with Art and two other brothers Edward and Louis joining soon after.
He was a junior drum major for three years before playing bugle for one year. In 1942, he moved to the percussion section as a snare drummer, performing through 1949. During 12 years with the Cadets, the corps won its first three national championships: in 1940, 1948 and 1949. He also won the Bergen County and New Jersey State individual snare drumming titles in 1946 and 1947 and was runner-up in 1948 and 1949.
After his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1953, Arthur joined the Hawthorne Caballeros snare line. The Caballeros won the American Legion senior national title that year, while the Cadets won the junior title.
For more than 20 years he was a rudimental drum instructor to junior corps including the Garfield Cadet Plebes, Paterson Cadets, Dumont Police Cadets, St. Ann’s Cadets, Wood Ridge Townsmen, and the Hawthorne Muchachos.
Arthur served as a percussion judge with the Charles R. Nabor Eastern States Judges Association, the Mid-Atlantic and the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) judges associations from 1958 through 1982.
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 of drum and bugle corps activity around the world. For more information, visit the website at wdchof.org
