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Greatest Corps Director?


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Doing fine ... Lovin' life in FL now ... Moved here five years ago ... Became a grandpa two months ago ... Only visit dcp on occasion ... Segued over to FB a few years ago ... More Sky guys on there that I stay in touch with ... Hope all is well with you ...

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13 hours ago, ajlisko said:

Doing fine ... Lovin' life in FL now ... Moved here five years ago ... Became a grandpa two months ago ... Only visit dcp on occasion ... Segued over to FB a few years ago ... More Sky guys on there that I stay in touch with ... Hope all is well with you ...

Good to hear! Me-- Got a new position at work as a Hazmat Acceptance Auditor. Corps experience actually helps. It's a rather finicky job with a lot of details. Perfect for a musician

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  • 1 year later...

George Bonfiglio of the 27th Lancers - no question. When the IC Reveries disbanded after the 1966 season, George had been one of the Corp Directors. The kids met at George's house and wanted to keep something going. George went out and took out a seconf mortgage on his home to get the initial funding to start a corp that didn't even have a name. 

It was when watching the old movie "Charge of the Light Brigade' on TV, the unit that mead the charge was The 27th Lancers, and the corp had a name. They used borrowed West pPoint uniforms for the first parade and the corp was always broke and in debt. We sold eggs to raise money in 1971 (my first year), and all the members purchased their own weekly allotment. I don't know of anyone who actually sold them. In 1972, it was Best Line Soap - I don't remember what happened with that, and each member was given 7 $1.00 chances to sell every week - we all bought our own. We never had any money. 

When we went on our summer tours, everything had to fit on the 3 buses. Personal luggage, equipment, uniforms and people. All of it was on 3 buses that had a multitude of mechanical issues, no bathrooms, and at least one of them didn't have air conditioning. I am not sure about this, but I doubt we ever actually paid our bus drivers! If we did, it wasn't very much. I don't know when the Lancers got an equipment truck, but I aged out in 1975 and it was still a few years off. 

George was also a key figure in the birth of DCI. In fact, George was the first President of DCI. George Bonfiglio started the Lancers from nothing and built one of the most popular and respected Drum and Bugle Corps in the history of the activity. He faced some kind of adversity every day that would have crumbled a lesser man. And I never once heard him complain. 

George Wallace

27th Lancers

1971 to 1975

 

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Gail Royer

Inducted in 1986 - DCI HOF

In March of 1967, Gail Royer, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based elementary school music teacher, was named director of a new drum corps that spun off from the Sparks, another local drum corps. One week later that corps, named the Vanguard, would win its first parade, and that corps would evolve into the single-most influential drum corps of the 1970s.

Royer was one of the charter members of the DCI board of directors, which formed in 1972, and went on to become one of DCI's first board of directors chairmen.

In 1973, Royer's corps was defeated just once -- the Troopers bested them at an early season contest. That season was capped by the corps' first World Championship victory.

Royer's contribution to the drum corps era can be measured by the creativity he sparked within DCI. Under his leadership, the Santa Clara Vanguard pushed the boundaries of the music and visual captions. Royer wrote the corps brass book himself, while DCI Hall of Famer Fred Sanford composed the percussion book and fellow Hall of Famer Pete Emmons wrote the drill.

"Gail's major contribution to the drum corps activity was that he heard the sound of drum corps differently than everyone else," said Mike Moxley, former director of the Blue Devils. Moxley was a 4th-grade clarinet and oboe player when he met Royer, who directed Moxley's school band.

Royer's influence on drum corps can also be measured by the support staff he continually hired to lead the corps. His instructional staff reads like a who's who of the DCI Hall of Fame: Gary Czapinski, Sanford, Emmons, Ralph Hardimon and Wayne Downey. "He got the right people in there, and let them do what they did best," said DCI Hall of Famer Gene Monterastelli.

Prior to the formation of DCI, under Royer's leadership, the Santa Clara Vanguard were the 1970 American Legion national champions, and were the 1971 VFW national champions. The Santa Clara Vanguard then placed first at DCI World Championships in 1973, 1974, 1978, 1981 and 1989. The Santa Clara Vanguard never placed lower than third in first eight World Championship appearances.

Royer lead the Vanguard until his retirement in 1992. He passed away in 1993.

"He had a real passion for kids. The kids really loved him. He was a unique human being," Moxley said.

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  • 1 month later...

Another vote for Jerry Seawright.

 

Pretty much ALL of BD's massive success over the years can be traced back to one philosophy of Jerry's....hire the right people for the job and then let them DO their job.

He created an atmosphere where people WANTED to stay...how often have we seen a caption head leave for greener pastures?  Only once that I can think of (the Floats after 1990).  The staff consistency is a huge factor for BD, as is the financial side, which was only helped by the fact that Jerry's day job was in the financial sector.

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