Ralph Hunter: 1977-1977
(As told by: Eugene Thamon Simpson Ed.D: I came to Glassboro State College as Music Department Chairman on January 26, 1975. My recollection of what happened before that is based only on what I heard from Professor Clarence Miller, my colleague in the department.)
The second president of New Jersey ACDA was Ralph Hunter. A native of East Orange, NJ, Hunter was a professor at Hunter College and a professional recording artist with the Ralph Hunter Choir.
Known for his passionate conducting of polychoral and spatially stereophonic music, Mr. Hunter also worked in radio and television and recorded five albums with the Ralph Hunter Choir.
In 1954 Mr. Hunter became head of the Collegiate Chorale, an amateur choir in New York. From an ensemble of eight women and 10 men the group swelled to a 100-member chorus known for performing polychoral works by composers like Thomas Tallis and Henry Brant.
Mr. Hunter led a choir giving a series of NBC television performances with the conductor Arturo Toscanini and later conducted a campaign choir called the Voices for Nixon. In 1970 he was named professor of music at Hunter College after serving as an associate professor for one year. In addition to teaching choral literature, conducting and arranging, he led biannual choral concerts. He retired in 1987.
A native of East Orange, N.J., Mr. Hunter began his music career with a position as a church organist at the First Reform Church in Newark. After serving in World War II, he attended the Juilliard School.
Hunter resigned from the presidency and left the position vacant and the chapter rudderless.
