Collegiate a cappella is booming... but it's not new! Oregon Health & Science University historian Max Johnson shares a recent acquisition for the Historical Collections and Archives department: a digitized recording of campus quartet the Forcep Four, from their last recording session done in 1962.
"The Forcep Four was a group of students including Jim Haaland, Robert Clark, Douglas Chambers, and Hollis Augee who were active in the early 1960s. Various singing groups had existed at the University of Oregon Medical School (the predecessor to today's OHSU School of Medicine) for years, but the Forcep Four seemed to have gained quite a reputation during their time. In the December 1960 issue of "What's Going On?", an article on the Forcep Four mentions that they were practicing regularly during the noon hour at the OHSU Auditorium and would frequently perform around campus, for instance for the School of Nursing Wassail and the Hospital Christmas parties. According to the article, the quartet was eyeing competing in the Barbershop Quartet contest in Forest Grove [which is now in its 70th year - ed.] in late February of 1961."