Gerald Stone Hartley

Gerald’s grandfather, Wesley C. Stone, came to Spokane from New York by way of Cheney Normal School (now Eastern Washington University). Entering the first State Normal School as a teacher, Wesley became the Vice Principal from 1892 to 1897. In 1897 he became interim Principal and after a very brief tenure he moved his family to Spokane. While in Spokane Wesley became a pharmacist and in 1902 established the Elk Drug Store which remained in Spokane for 90 years . From 1905 to 1908 he was a member of the Board of Education in Spokane and in 1921 he became President of the Washington State Educational Bureau. He also devoted his life to the Masonic Order. Beginning in 1890, he served in many capacities as a member of both the York and Scottish Rite branches of Free Masonry and was elected Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Washington in 1922. From 1928 to 1944 he served as Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter and Grand Recorder of the Grand Commandery.

Wesley married Emma Grigson and they had three daughters. His eldest daughter, Elsie Stone, married Fred Hartley and their only child, Gerald, was born in 1921. Fred’s musical legacy set the stage for Gerald’s future. As a trap drummer, Fred was widely known and loved by the Spokane music community. In the 1920’s the Fred Hartley Orchestra played during the dinner hours in the Isabella Room and the Italian Gardens in the Davenport Hotel. In 1926 Fred Hartley’s orchestra played popular music on Monday nights between 8:30 and 10:00 pm on KHQ radio. In the 1930’s he was the Musical Director of the KHQ Studio Parade Orchestra. He continued to play for KHQ radio into the 1950s, his radio career culminating in the weekly Saturday night program, The Old Time Party, where he was known as “Squire Hartley”. During his days as a Spokane musician, Fred was a member of the Spokane Symphony, long time Treasurer for the Spokane Musician’s Union, and a fixture at Guertin and Ross Music Store where he sold and repaired drums and where he had a teaching studio.

Following in his father’s path, Gerald Hartley’s 99 years in Spokane as a musician, composer and teacher spanned a variety of musical venues, including schools, orchestras, Spokane and Washington State events, and solo performances.

Gerald’s first public performance was at age 6, when he sang and played drums for an Ad Club luncheon at the Davenport Hotel. At the age of 8 he appeared as a solo xylophonist and throughout the early school years that followed he performed publicly as a xylophone soloist at various public events. Beginning in the first grade, he was the only member of the Spokane Grade School Symphony to remain for the full 8 years he attended grade school.

As a student at North Central High School he was centrally active in the music department as an annual member of the band, orchestra, and pep band. He was one of only two students over the years to be asked to direct the school’s biennial Doll Shop production, a long traditional musical variety show. In 1939 he was tympanist in the All Northwest High School Band and was awarded the Zonta award for the outstanding music student at North Central. It was during these years that the school’s orchestra director, C. Olin Rice, became instrumental in encouraging Gerald’s life long interest in composition. He, and the band director, Lowell C. Bradford, gave Gerald the opportunity to try out some of his compositions by presenting them as public performances. This guidance was his inauguration into his early efforts at composition. While still at North Central he became the tympanist for the Spokane Civic Orchestra (later to become known as the Spokane Symphony).

Following High School, Gerald attended Eastern Washington College of Education in Cheney (now Eastern Washington University). He exhausted the music theory and history courses in his first year and it was there that one of his teachers, Francis McKay, encouraged him to transfer to the University of Washington where he could study composition with Francis’s brother, composer George Frederick McKay. It was at the University of Washington that Gerald’s “Sketches for String Orchestra” became his first published work and where he met Harold Paul Whelan, who organized the current Spokane Symphony in 1945.

During the war years Gerald enlisted in the Coast Guard and it was during this time that he married his wife, Harriette, and they had their first and only child, Janna.

Returning to the University under the G.I. Bill, Gerald had some of his most prolific careers as a composer. It was then that his Pastoral for Strings was performed nationally on NBC. A flurry of compositions followed that were performed by both Seattle and Spokane orchestras. HIs works also were performed by various groups outside the state and in 1961 his Divertissement for Woodwind Quintet which had been performed by the Chicago Symphony Woodwind Quintet, was installed in the Coolidge Foundation for Contemporary Chamber Music in the Library of Congress.

Having completed his Masters Degree at the University, Gerald returned to Spokane where he pursued a degree in education which eventually led to his 29 year tenure as Choral Director at Lewis and Clark High School, beginning in 1953. He continued to compose during his first years at Lewis and Clark. But in the early 1960s he began to realize that his position at Lewis and Clark was calling upon him more and more to turn his talents to arranging. Gerald (known most frequently as “Mr. Hartley”, but often more familiarly as “Mr. H” or “Boss”) led his choir in annual performances of masses, including Faure’s Requiem as well as masses by Mozart, Hayden, and Schubert. He also filled the large Lewis and Clark auditorium every year for an annual Christmas Concert, “A Festival; of Christmas Carols”, that became a traditional highlight of the school year for his students and their families. Each concert began with a “Choral Fanfare for Christmas” which he composed, and ended with his arrangement of Silent Night (for choir, echo choir and angel choir), both of which were to become published works. Accompanied by lavish tableaus staged by Lewis and Clark French teacher Grace Bartlett, the Annual Christmas Concert was one of the outstanding highlights of Gerald’s teaching career.

In the spring of 1960 he was asked to compose a piece for chorus and orchestra for the Northwest Music Educators National Conference to be held in Spokane in 1961. Using the words of a Longfellow poem, he composed The Builders. It became the closing number on Host Night at the Spokane Coliseum where he conducted the combined Spokane high school choirs and an All City high school orchestra. Finding it a fitting piece for graduation, the Lewis and Clark High School Choir and Orchestra performed the piece for the 1961 Graduation ceremonies and it has been performed at the Lewis and Clark Graduation ceremony every year since. The piece has held a special place in the heart of each of the 100’s of Gerald’s Lewis and Clark choir students since its premier performance.

In 1962 he formed a small vocal ensemble called Tiger Tones (after the Lewis and Clark mascot). Besides singing at school concerts, the group served as a public relations vehicle performing for service club lunches or dinners and at various community events. The first group was together from 1962 to 1964 and following its inception an ensemble was selected each year for Gerald’s remaining years at Lewis and Clark. The two things that retired with him, in 1982, were the Christmas Concert and Tiger Tones. As the Christmas Concert no longer could be mounted in the Public School System, his love of music no longer could deal with the politics of education.

Following his retirement, Gerald turned to Spokane Civic Theater to continue his musical involvement. In 1972 he began a 20 year association as the director for the theater’s musicals. In 1978 he negotiated a union contract with the theater and began using professional musicians, mostly from the Spokane Symphony. Over the years he did the musical direction for My Fair Lady, Show Boat, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, South Pacific The King and I, Oliver!, Damn Yankees, A Chorus Line, Carousel, Funny Girl, Brigadoon, and others. A half dozen of the shows were mounted twice. The productions ran 4 to 5 weeks, with four or five performances each week.

Gerald’s connection to the Tiger Tones ensembles took on a special meaning on December 8, 2007. That was the day that scores of past Tiger Tones members assembled from across the country to stage a Reunion Tribute for their mentor. The occasion, held at Lewis and Clark, filled the auditorium with families and friends who long remembered the Hartley Choir days. An engraved bronze plaque honoring him was revealed at this event and now holds a permanent place in the Lewis and Clark choral room. Additionally, he was presented with a copy of the Governor’s Declaration, naming December 8, 2007, Gerald Stone Hartley Day in the State of Washington. There were tributes delivered by past students, and a performance by the Tiger Tones in attendance of some of the annual Christmas Carols, once again conducted by Gerald Hartley. The evening ended with a choral performance of The Builders, where Longfellow’s words reflected the vastness of Gerald Hartley’s contributions to music in Spokane.

All are architects of fate,

Working in these walls of time.

Some with massive deeds and great.

Some with ornaments of rhyme…

Build today then strong and sure,

With a firm and ample base,

And ascending and secure, shall tomorrow find its place.

Gerald was proceeded in death by his parents, Fred and Elsie (nee Stone) Hartley and his loving and beloved wife, Harriette. He is survived by his daughter Janna (Gary) McGlasson; grandson Carter McGlasson; and three cousins, Roger Torgerson and Alan Torgerson of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Carroll Webber of Greenville, North Carolina.

A celebration of Gerald’s life is being planned in Spokane for mid-September.

Please visit the online memorial and guestbook at www.washelli.com to share fond memories, or words of comfort to the family.