During Western Michigan University’s 92nd Homecoming weekend, the renovated East Hall reopened as Heritage Hall, the new WMU Alumni Center. Over the course of the three-day opening celebrations, many memories were recalled and many relationships were rekindled. The story below is just one of thousands that highlights the importance of the connections made on East Campus.
A Lifelong East Hall Memory, Uniting and Reuniting Two Broncos
Bertha (Barbee) McNeal and Dave Ansel both grew up in musical households. It was because of music that they would meet during the winter semester of 1962 at Western Michigan University’s Campus School. Bertha was studying at WMU for her teaching certificate in music and secured a student teaching position with Alice Gernant, the school’s music teacher. Dave was in the fifth grade and became one of Bertha’s students.
Dave was born and raised in Kalamazoo; and his connection to WMU began at birth. His father James was a 1935 graduate of Western State Teacher’s College and later became faculty in the College of Education. By this time, the school was known as Western Michigan College. As a result, Dave “grew up” on Prospect Hill as his father’s office was in the old Speech & Hearing building, and later in West Hall. In 1961, James became the third and final Director of the Rural Life & Education Program, which had been developed and first headed by Dr. Ernest Burnham.
Dave spent a lot of time on campus during his childhood, hanging around his father’s office, attending the Campus School in East Hall, and spending time at the old playground (later the south parking lot).
Bertha (Barbee) McNeal came to Kalamazoo and WMU in the fall of 1960 on a piano scholarship. Raised in Flint, Michigan by two loving and supportive parents, Bertha had started taking piano lessons at age nine and continued playing through her WMU years, appearing in three notable recitals.
The May Festival
During the 1950s and 60s, WMU Campus School grades one through six celebrated a May Festival several weeks before the year-end school dismissal. The event was a school wide performance held in the East Hall Gymnasium, and featured the three academic programs external to the regular Campus School classroom—physical education (dance) taught by June France, art (decorations) taught by Keith Bailey, and music (singing).
In May 1962, the theme “One World” was selected for the festival and each grade chose a country to represent. The ‘centerpiece’ was a large blue balloon representing Earth, filled with water and painted with the various continents. The balloon was suspended above the gym floor. And with many events, there was that last minute challenge; the water balloon burst a day or so before the festival, and a new one had to be prepared and set up. The festival went on and became one of many May Festivals in East Hall history (pictured above).
Dave would perform as a fifth grader, and Bertha would provide piano accompaniment. After marching in and taking positions on wooden bleachers at the north end of the gym, the students began to sing. After a few songs in unison, each individual grade performed a song and dance, with festive decorations symbolizing the country selected.
After the end of the school year both Dave and Bertha would go their separate ways, likely not reuniting again.
Separate Ways
Bertha met her future husband and former WMU basketball player Earl McNeal on the stairs leading to East Hall, as she was climbing the stairway to the main portal to student teach. She went on to graduate from WMU in 1963 with a Bachelor’s of Music and again in 1975 with a Master of Arts in Music Education. She would teach for 26 years in the Kalamazoo Public Schools, spending most of her years at Milwood Middle School before retiring in 2002. Bertha was chosen for inclusion twice in “Who’s Who Among American Teachers.” She maintained a teaching relationship with Miss Gernant, who had moved into Kalamazoo Public Schools when WMU Campus School closed in 1966. Bertha also performed as a highly accomplished pianist and directed some of the finest choirs in Kalamazoo.
However, Bertha also had an entirely different career which began in 1962 and continues today. While Bertha was serving her student internship, she and friend and fellow student Mildred (Gill) Arbor co-founded what became the Motown girl group “The Velvelettes.” Other members included Norma (Barbee) Fairhurst, Betty Kelly, and Mildred’s younger sister Caldin “Cal” (Gill) Street.
The Velvelettes would rehearse their “rock and roll sound” at the Harper Maybee Music Hall on WMU’s new West Campus. Their music was quite the contrast from the classical music that would come from the other practice rooms at the time. Music Department Head, Dr. Abe “Doc” Carter, who later established the Varsity Vagabonds which became Gold Company, never objected.
After finishing in first place and receiving $25 at an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity talent show, Berry Gordy’s nephew, and a WMU student at the time, encouraged The Velvelettes to audition for Motown Recording Company in Detroit. The Velvelettes landed a recording contract with Motown and their song “Needle In A Haystack” reached #19 on the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 in 1964.
As of 2015, the Velvelettes remain the only U.S. based girl group with all original members. They have performed with the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, and many other well-known artists. They even sang at New York’s Apollo and on Dick Clark tours across the U.S. They continue to perform in the U.S., including a return to WMU in 2009 for the annual WMU Gold Company Show, and internationally in Great Britain and Spain. Subsequent hits by The Velvelettes include “He Was Really Saying Something,” “These Things Will Keep Me Loving You,” “Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I,” and “Bird In The Hand.”
Dave continued at Campus School until it closed, and went on to graduate from Kalamazoo Central in 1969. He attended WMU to receive a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry and Mathematics in 1974; and then went to Colorado State University where he received a Master’s of Science in Inorganic Chemistry in 1980. After completing his education, Dave spent 32 years in a professional career at WACKER Chemical Corporation in Adrian, Michigan before retiring in 2011.
While Dave may not have experienced the fame of the Velvelettes, he maintains a lifelong interest in music. In his younger years, Dave played piano, clarinet, and alto and tenor saxophone. Though he stopped after high school, Dave continues his appreciation and interest today by collecting and attending musical performances. In 2014, he celebrated 50 years of collecting music—LPs, compact discs, various tapes, books, ’60s music surveys including his own, and other items.
Whereas jazz is his primary music choice today, Dave grew up with rock and roll including the Motown sound. He knew of the Velvelettes in their heyday, but didn’t know the names of the group members, and therefore didn’t realize one of his very own music teachers has become a Motown hit.
The 1999 Golden Apple Award Ceremony
In 1999, Dave accepted a WMU College of Education & Human Development Alumni Society “Golden Apple Award” posthumously on behalf of his father. Though he is not a graduate of the College, Dave has attended the award ceremony and dinner every year through 2013 to represent his father. He also received an equivalent WMU Alumni Achievement Award from the WMU Chemistry Department and the WMU College of Arts & Sciences in 2011.
In 2004, Bertha accepted a “Golden Apple Award” for her outstanding teaching skills, her ability to make the piano “sound like an orchestra,” and career advancements through The Velvelettes. Dave was in the audience when Bertha provided her first acknowledgment of thanks to Alice Gernant upon receiving her award. A red flag went up for Dave, and the two met afterward and confirmed their relationship between “student and student teacher” some 42 years earlier. This led to an in-depth conversation only to be broken up by parties desiring to lock up the area for the evening. It included recalling their “May Festival Link” from Campus School as if it had just happened.
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| Dave and Bertha in 2015 | |
In 2007, Alumni Society President, Dr. Dennis McCrumb, asked Bertha to compose a song for the Golden Apple award. Bertha came to Dave and requested assistance as she knew that Dave had now spent much of his entire life around WMU through various activities, even though he left Kalamazoo in 1974 and was living 130 miles away in Sylvania, Ohio.
The “Golden Apple Alphabet Song” was composed. It was recorded in the Dalton Center Studio by Dave, Bertha, and Velvelette lead singer Cal Street, who was working in the WMU Office of Development and Alumni Relations at the time. The three went on to perform the song at annual Golden Apple Ceremonies from 2007-10. Miss Gernant even got to enjoy the composition when she attended the ceremony in 2008. The music is still performed by a WMU student on piano at each year’s pre-dinner and award reception, and a CD with the song is presented to each Golden Apple Award recipient.
East Hall brought Dave and Bertha together as student and student teacher in 1962. Forty-two years later, two people whose WMU lives began at East Hall, and have crisscrossed WMU many times through many academic departments, reunited. Dave, Bertha, and the Velvelettes are proud to cite WMU as the launching pad that lead to their success in their respective careers.
Heritage Hall, home of the new Alumni Center on Prospect Hill, will serve as a place for alumni, faculty, staff, and community members to connect, reconnect, recall, and create new memories.
If you have an East Hall memory to share, please visit MyWMU.com/mystory.