Rusty (Popo) Post

It was the spring of 1957 and 13 of us had just been selected as the Whiffenpoofs of 1958. 11 of us were members of the Yale Glee Club but that didn't include Fritz Kinzel, (our Pitchpipe) or me (the Popo). How wonderfully ironic. Fritz and I were strongly in support of the Yale Glee Club and didn't want to be the reason why 11 seniors withdraw just because the two of us weren't members of it. The problem was that Fenno rightfully had some modest requirements for joining the glee club: you had to be able to sing. So even though we were now the leaders of the world-famous Whiffenpoofs, we had to try out for the world-famous Glee Club.

Fenno loved it. I mean, we were friends, but he had the power and savored every moment of it. He gave us the try-out and then with a twinkle in his eyes, he ruled. "Okay you guys. You can sing...barely. You're in."

As much as we loved being Whiffenpoofs, we loved being part of Fenno Heath's Glee Club, one of the finest men's choral group as there was in the world. How lucky can we be?

And now, we no longer have Fenno but we do have memories. The Whiffenpoofs of 1958 were a superb group but no more so than the Yale Glee Club of 1958 both in song and in friendship and for an entire year, we traveled together across this country and in Eastern Europe. In the case of the 1958 Whiffs, we were all the luckier because we've kept making memories. We 13 are all over 70 years old, all still alive, all still standing, and all still singing. Earlier this year, we enjoyed our 50th reunion at Yale and hoped that Fenno would be able to come join us but it wasn't meant to be.

I can now tell a Fenno secret: one day he told me that the Whiffs of 1958 were Fenno's favorite Whiffenpoof group.


Rusty (Popo) Post