background banner

 

PRESENT AND PAST

Bill King memorial service plaque

November 18, 1923 - July 3, 2005

Bill King, founder and director of the Northernaires, "Mr. Northernaire", passed away, on July 3, 2005. He was half friend and half father to everyone who ever passed through the ranks of the Northernaires. He will be greatly missed. Read Bill's story from Menominee Remembered 2004.

On This Page

Lest We Forget

This page is dedicated to all those who, through their blood, sweat, and tears made the Northernaires the successful and fun organization that it was. May they remain forever in our memories. View page.


Back to Top

Where Are We?

We've started tracking where our alumni have landed in their lives. If you're interested, take a look at the map. If you are a Northernaires alum and you haven't been included on our map yet, drop a line to and we'll add a pin for you.


Back to Top

Northernaires Trivia

Take a look at this page and see some of the little known, obscure, or otherwise minutiae of the Northernaires during their 20 year existence. If you know something about the Northernaires that you consider a little known fact, send it to . Now, view our trivia page.


Back to Top

Taps Video Clip

Click on Video clip of the alumni corps playing Taps (arranged by Jack Fischer) as a tribute to Bill King at the 2005 Waterfront Festival concert.


Back to Top

Bill King's Memoirs

Bill King was the founder of the Northernaires Drum and Bugle Corps and its business manager from 1953 through 1968. Before his passing, he wrote his memoirs, which traced the history of the corps' 20 year existence. Our intention is to make much of Bill's memoirs available on this website so that they can be shared by all alumni and friends of the Northernaires. This is a huge project as his memoirs include much additional material such as newspaper articles, pamphlets, etc. that he collected over those years. We will keep you informed as new installments are added. Thanks go out to Dean Hoffman for securing permission to post Bill's memoirs from the Menominee Historical Society Museum and to John Schneider for doing all the pre-production work (scanning and cleaning up). Special thanks go to the Menominee Historical Society Museum, without whose permission, we would not be able to make Bill's life work available to you. Bill King's Memoirs and Addendum to Bill King's Memoirs


Back to Top

Life After 1973

Much has been written about the history of the Northernaires from 1953 through 1973. Many people believe those 20 years were the life of the junior corps and that an active corps ceased to exist after that period. 1953 - 1973 certainly was the heydey for the Northernaires competitive junior corps but it wasn't the end. The corps never officially folded as a legal entity and continued to re-emerge and re-invent itself in different configurations between 1976 and 1985 as they struggled to stay alive. Thanks to Chris Wellner, we now have a window into that post 1973 period. Read on.


Back to Top

Video Remembrance 1955 - 1967

In 1993, Bill King put together a video of the Northernaires from pieces of 8 mm tapes that he had acquired. These 8 mm tapes were taken between 1955 and 1967 by Joyce and Scotty Bertrand, the Durow family, Dot and George Roetzer, and the Evans family. The video is 13 minutes long and is streamed. This means that you don't have to download it (the file is 98 Mb large) but you do need to have RealPlayer™ installed on your computer and have a broadband connection. You can download RealPlayer™ here. To view the video, Click here.


Back to Top

Bully from 2007 Waterfront Concert

This is a RealPlayer™ video just like the Video Remembrance above. It is streamed and requires RealPlayer™ be installed on your computer and a broadband connection. Click here to view video.


Back to Top

Flag Replicas

This picture has been framed and placed in the Menominee County Historical Museum and also sent to Bill's sister, who made the original flags and the replicas for our 50th anniversary.


Back to Top

Eagle Hearld Story

In honor of the corps 50 year anniversary in 2003, the following article appeared in the EagleHerald newspaper.


Back to Top

Museum Exhibit

The Northernaires were a hugh part of the culture and fabric of Menominee during their existence from 1953 to 1973. Each year many alumni return to Menominee for the Waterfront Festival where they march in the parade and, afterwards, put on a concert by the bandshell in downtown Menominee. You can view the exhibit recalling the Northernaires on display in the Menominee County Historical Museum.


Back to Top

Northernaires Recordings

Listen to the Northernaires from various years. Reminisce while listening to contests from 1957 through 1972. Yes, that's me with the offending blooper coming out of concert in the 1963 standstill. I cannot tell a lie. Right click the file and save it to your hardrive or, if your browser has the Quicktime plugin installed, just left click the file. These are all MP3 files.
Northernaires 1957 South Milwaukee 13.1 Mb  Northernaires 1966 Ishpeming 12.6 Mb
Northernaires 1958 South Milwaukee 10.9 Mb  Northernaires 1967 Racine 13.0 Mb
Northernaires 1962 Appleton 11.0 MbNorthernaires 1968 Unknown 10.9 Mb
Northernaires 1963 Ishpeming 11.4 MbNorthernaires 1969 Unknown 11.4 Mb
Northernaires 1965 Racine 12.9 MbNorthernaires 1972 Eau Claire 11.7 Mb


Back to Top

Parade Video

Click on Video clip of corps playing Bull Fighter at the beginning of the 2004 parade. Requires Windows Media Player to view. You can download Windows Media Player from the Microsoft website for free.
* Video files (MPEG) require an application like Windows Media Player. Approximately 1 hour download time using a 56K modem.


Back to Top

Menominee Remembered

The Northernaires are a featured theme in the 2004 edition of Menominee Remembered. This is an annual publication of the 8th grade language arts classes at Menominee Middle School.


Back to Top

A Drum Corps and a Weekend

As a freshmen in college in 1970, Mark Quick wrote an english composition about a couple of days in his life and the circumstances surrounding the Northernaires quest for their 1967 V.F.W. State title at Sault Ste. Marie. For those of us who ever marched in a drum and bugle corps, it will stir your emotions and awaken memories of the times we all spent on the road. Read it here. This is a PDF file and requires a PDF reader such as Adobe®Reader® in order to display it.

Free Adobe®Reader®8 software can be downloaded here from the Adobe website.


Back to Top

Drum Corps World Article

Read the following article which appeared in the June 11, 2004 issue of Drum Corps World. Menominee Northernaires Remembered.


Back to Top

Drum Corps Poem

Here's a poem written by Thomas Hayes, a drummer from the Troy, N.Y. area. It looks at drum corps during the time of the Northernaires (pre-1973 DCI) and contrasts them to the current version of DCI corps. Ah, to be able to wax poetic. Read on!.


Back to Top