Robert D. Gall, Lathrop High School Class of 1943

Family

• Bob Gall (1925-1995) was married in 1950 to Harriett Gibson of Plattsburgh (1928-2005). They had three sons. Joseph (1951- ), Jeffrey (1954- ), and James (1957- )

Education

• Bob was a 1943 graduate of Lathrop High School. He was an excellent student and a stellar athlete – football, basketball, and baseball.

• Bob graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1949 with a degree in Business Administration

Military Service

• Bob was a World War II veteran who enlisted after his high school graduation in the United States Army. He attended college while in the army. He was a radio operator and he attained the rank of sergeant. He was stationed on Okinawa late in the war. He served from 1943-1946.

Church

• Bob was baptized at Turney’s Browning Baptist Church in 1934. As an adult in Independence, Missouri, he was a charter and 30 year member of Birchwood Baptist Church. He was later a member of First Baptist Church of Independence.

Business Success

• Bob Gall made a significant mark on the sport and business of bowling in the Kansas City area and Midwest region. He opened Strike n’ Spare Bowl in Independence, Missouri in 1957. It began as 16 lanes and grew to 32 lanes. By the time he sold the business in 1984, it was the most successful bowling center in Kansas City. Over the years he also owned and operated Blue Springs Bowl and Strike Market Bowl (Lee’s Summit).

• Bob’s bowling centers were unique. They were bright, immaculate and unique in that they did not serve alcohol. These businesses took bowling out of city “alleys” and introduced the sport to entire new segments of the population – families, youth, churches. Riding the wave of the post World War II move of Americans to the suburbs, these businesses were extremely successful and were a model for other bowling proprietors.

• By the 1980s, Strike n’ Spare had the biggest youth bowling program in the state of Missouri with large youth leagues every day after school and multiple leagues on Saturdays.

• Bob was recognized for his leadership in the bowling business by being elected president of the Kansas City Bowling Proprietors’ Association (1963, 1964, 1984) and in 1968 he was elected to the Kansas City Bowling Hall of Fame.

Other Youth Work

• Bob Gall not only introduced bowling to thousands of young people in Kansas City, he loved all sports and became the largest sponsor of youth sports in Independence. Through his business he sponsored (and bought equipment for) dozens of youth baseball and football teams in the Queen City Athletic Association, the Independence Jaycees’ Football Association, and the Kiwanis Baseball League. He also sponsored women’s softball teams and men’s basketball teams. All of these teams gave young people a chance to play sports, many for the first time.

Music

• Bob Gall discovered the beauty of four-part harmony singing in the shower with teammates in the Lathrop High School locker room. He went on to sing in quartets in college. Once settled in Kansas City, he joined the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA).

• Bob became a national leader of the barbershop quartet society. He sang in quartets that competed in international competitions. His wife Harriett was also active in music, being a national leader of the Sweet Adelines (quartet society for women).

• Bob sang bass in the Merry Mugs, a quartet that included well-known K.C. weatherman Dan Henry and a group that became one of the greatest comedy quartets in the history of the barbershop quartet society. The Merry Mugs traveled tens of thousands of miles and entertained audiences in shows across the United States and Canada throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

• The Merry Mugs were chosen twice to sing on USO tours to American servicemen. In 1965, the Merry Mugs were the first quartet chosen by the USO to travel to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to sing for US naval personnel. In 1968, the Merry Mugs went on an extensive USO tour of the Far East singing in military hospitals and entertaining troops wounded in the Vietnam War. Stops included bases and hospitals on Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Taiwan, and Okinawa.

• Besides singing in quartets, Bob also rose to leadership in the barbershop quartet society. He was president of the Kansas City chapter, president of the Central States District, and in 1969 was elected International President of the SPEBSQSA – at the time the largest male singing society in the world with over 40,000 members.

Other Activities

• Longtime member of the Independence Rotary Club (served as treasurer).

• In the late 1980s went on a mission trip to Africa (with Kenneth Beasley of Lathrop) and helped build a church in Kenya.

• The last ten years of his life, Bob restored his boyhood home north of Lathrop and spent many happy hours there. He and his wife Harriett were active in the Turney Historical Society and were leaders in the effort there to restore the town’s railroad depot.

Mike Fox, Lathrop High School Class of 1975

Very successful in business and quit the business world to start and run C3 Missions and the Global Orphans Project.

http://www.youtube.com/user/C3Missions

http://theglobalorphanproject.org/

De De Miller, Lathrop High School Class of 1976

Instrumental in starting female athletics at Lathrop High School back in the early 70's.  The only Lathrop graduate to become an Olympic athlete by making the 1980 Olympic team.