Originally from Mayfield, Kentucky, Robert “Bob” Cearnal moved to the St. Louis, MO area at age 5 due to his father’s job relocation. He was a gifted athlete at Jennings H.S. and later attended Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau on a basketball scholarship from 1958-62. While at SEMO, he met his beautiful bride, Jo Reed, and upon graduation, taught for six years at Marissa High School in Marissa, IL. In 1968, Bob was hired to teach English at Mascoutah High School, where he remained on the faculty for the next 32 years until his retirement in 2000.
Despite his lack of musical experience growing up (Bob played basketball instead), Bob always loved the sounds of four part harmony, particularly performed by barbershop quartets. Shortly after coming to Mascoutah, the head of the H.S. English department (who just happened to be a barbershopper with the nearby Belleville Chapter), asked Bob to join him one evening at a chapter meeting. Bob was hooked and has been a member with the Belleville Chapter ever since. While he started off singing lead, Bob soon learned that his strength was on the bass part.
It wasn’t long before Bob was singing in quartets. His first, The Accutones, won the St. Louis area championship and earned a second place finish in the 1975 ILL district contest. Later, after that group disbanded, Bob joined three other men to form Male Delivery, which went on to win the district championship in 1978. During that period, from 1976 until 1995, Bob was also the director of the Belleville Bell Notes (now Sounds of Harmony) Chorus.
Bob was always chosen to be the spokesman for his quartets, and that, in turn, inspired him to do more emceeing for shows. Bob credits one of the courses he created at Mascoutah H.S., “Studies in Humor,” for influencing and honing his emcee experience.
Always willing to share his talents with others, Bob organized an after school mixed a cappella group at Mascoutah named “HSHS” (High School Harmony Singers) as well as several quartets over the years. He has also served as a coach and emcee for district Youth in Harmony events.
Bob’s administrative contributions to the Chapter, District, and Society are endless. Over the years, he has served as a Chapter President, Membership VP, Program VP, Bulletin Editor, and Public Relations Chair. On the district level, he has served as Area Counselor, Division VP, Executive VP, was District President from 1983-84, a Society Board Member, and currently serves as a Trustee for the District IDEA Committee. He was chosen the 1973 Barbershopper of the Year and received the prestigious “ABE” (Award for Barbershop Excellence) in 1987. Bob was also recognized as the 1999 QCA Music Man Award winner. And if that wasn’t enough, Bob also was elected the Barbershop Society’s President in 1991, only the second time in district history that Illinois has had that honor.
A quartet man at heart, Bob has continued to sing in numerous foursomes throughout his career in barbershop, including the Mulligans quartet and SrQ. In 2003, Bob won the Central States District Seniors Championship with the Central Statesmen, which consisted of Bob and three men from The Ambassadors of Harmony Chorus, with whom Bob also sang.
Bob has emceed dozens of Society events over the years, including Mid-winter and International conventions. In 2013, Bob had the distinction of being the emcee for the Society’s 75th anniversary show at Carnegie Hall. In 2015, Bob was inducted into the Society’s Hall of Fame for Emcees when he received the Dave LaBar Award. He also boasts of having 70 “Men of Note” recruitment awards! Most recently, Bob was honored by the State of Illinois as the 2022 recipient of the Senior Hall of Fame for Performance Award.
His secret? Bob credits his lovely wife (and former ILL District First Lady) Jo Reed for keeping him going and encouraging him along the way. Bob and Jo Reed have a son (Scott), a daughter (Cindi), 4 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren.
Perhaps the best characterization of Bob comes from the man himself – “I’m a LEAD personality, with a BARITONE voice, singing BASS, wishing I could sing TENOR!”
And so (with right index finger pointed up and waving in an increasingly circular manner), we thank Bob Cearnal for his many years of selfless contributions to our District and Society. Well done, Bob!
