JAVS Summer 1997

63

ABOUT VIOLISTS

Maurice w: Riley Remembered

by Dwight Pounds

T here is a folder upstairs in my filing cabinet which I highly treasure. It is labeled "Correspondence with Maurice Riley" 'and is abour three-quarters of an inch thick. The first entry was in 1981, the last in 1997. It consists primarily of one-page letters between Or. Riley and myself. There was good reason for this active correspondence-during the years he was the AVS President (1981-1986), it was my honor to serve him and the Society as Vice President. The unlikely fact that I was vice president in only my sixth year of membership was his doing entirely. Well, perhaps not entirely ... I volunteered for something, breaking a rule learned years earlier in the Air Force. Following Congress VII in 1979, many congress participants were riding a bus from Provo to Salt Lake City to make airline connections. Myron Rosenblum and Maurice Riley shared a seat and were discussing both the congress and the future of the Society. During a lull in their conversation I turned co them and said, "Although by no means an artist violist, I have some organizational skills which might be of use to the Society," expecting perhaps a committee assignment or suggestion for an article. Or. Riley looked at me with a face any poker player would have coveted and said, "Good. You can be vice president!" There were several facts to which I was not privy at that point: (l) The American Viola Society and its Newsletter were run from the living room of Myron Rosenblum's home. An Executive Board did exist, but it was more honorary than functional. (2) A new slate of officers would assume duries in 1981. Dr. Rosenblum, the Society's founder, had decided not to run for another term as president, and Maurice Riley was the most likely candidate to succeed him. (3) A dead pan wit, without equal in my experience, was

Dr. Maurice Wimon Riley Nov. 24, 191 I-June 27, 1997

part of his persona and would lead me down the Primrose path more than once. Despite what initially appeared to be a preposterous response (" ... be vice president!") to my offer, Dr. Riley was serious. Two years later Maurice Riley and Dwight Pounds were elected, respectively, President and Vice President of the American Viola Society. Although some what baffled at my new position, there was no doubt in my mind that the gentleman who hosted the very first North American Viola Congress at Ypsilanti in 1975 was exactly the man to succeed Myron Rosenblum as AVS Presidem. Maurice Riley in some respects stumbled upon international viola organization. He