Cass Honored In Stirring Memorial

Watch video of memorial here: https://youtu.be/mAy4vU0I99A.

              As the memorial service for C.F. "Alan" Cass came to a close Saturday afternoon, a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" followed by "Going Home." Positioned just outside the club level on the east side of Folsom Field, he played in the direction of Macky Auditorium, with the University Memorial Center among the rooftops to the left and the Coors Events Center visible in the other direction.

                Those four iconic buildings on the University of Colorado's Boulder campus are where Cass spent the better part of his life, from 1959 until his death on April 18, at the age of 77.

                The stirring service featured the music of CU alum Glenn Miller and his orchestra, to whom Alan dedicated half a century creating the Glenn Miller Archive (GMA); the reading of his obituary, (below) interspersed with additional anecdotes by family friend Lew Kingdom; and two eulogies provided by Lou Patterson and Jon Burianek.

                A poem, The Ring, was read by the Rev. Ted Howard. He told the story of how Alan's first date with his future wife Sue was in October 1961 when he took her to see the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's. The film featured the song, Moon River, which includes the lyric "huckleberry friend." Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) sings it on her windowsill with Paul Varjak (George Peppard) listening from above.

                (A link to that scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHxN2ZDp4vo. Moon River was composed by Henry Mancini, who composed the score for the 1954 movie, The Glenn Miller Story.)

                "Sue always said that she was Alan's huckleberry friend," the reverend revealed. The two were soon married for what would be a 54-year love affair.

                Among those of nearly 200 in attendance included several of his longtime fellow employees at the school, members of the GMA, UMC, CU Athletic Department, Denver Broncos, and some in the media who were in the press box or courtside for many of the games Alan called.

                Patterson was one of three sons of A.B. "Father Pat" Patterson, who preceded Cass as the public address announcer for most of CU's athletic events. The elder Patterson came to Boulder in 1948 as the chaplain of the CU campus and was a classically trained singer with a booming voice. Soon he found himself announcing basketball games at Balch Fieldhouse.

                When asked how he (Patterson) was able to handle so many of the chores asked of the P.A. announcer, he always said, "I can't do a game without a lot of help, and I had one great sidekick." It was Alan.

                "They both had a passion for history, public service and everything CU," Patterson said. "My dad was an unabashed homer when he was announcing … Alan was a bit more professional. He didn't want to be a rock star, but he was rock solid and he made the world a better place.

                "One thing that Alan's life was not was 'in… com… plete,' referring to how Bronco fans followed his lead over the public address at Mile High Stadium when an opponent pass attempt went for naught.

                Burianek, who first met Cass in 1968, was chosen to represent the athletic department.

                "A wonderful man of integrity, hard-working, always dedicated to doing his best," Burianek said. "He was an original Buffalo who bled silver and gold, his love for the university was undeniable. Alan was respected by everyone. I will miss him as a colleague, but also his sunny personality and friendship."

                He noted how proud he was of his son Casey, a longtime campus photographer, who was the third generation of the Cass family to work at CU (his mother and father dated back to 1947; details in the obit below).

                Burianek, who himself worked his way from a student employee in the athletic ticket office all the way up to an associate athletic director in a career that spanned over 40 years, told a funny story about the annual Colorado Relays track meet.

                "This is Colorado, so you know what the weather can be like in April," he began. "It would often be raining or even snowing at the Colorado Relays. There was Alan in his perch in the upper corner of the bleachers, announcing the results and who needed to report for the next race. In the meantime, the rest of the staff would dart in and out of the shed to try and get warm."

                "I was so happy that when the Events Center was transferred to the athletic department (in the mid-90s) that Alan was finally working directly for us."

                Burianek summed up his offerings with, "The golden voice of the Buffaloes may be silenced, but the silver lining is that he touched our hearts and filled them with memories."

                Rev. Howard retook the podium and talked about Alan's devotion to the GMA project and how through the years he helped build an incredible tribute and collection to honor CU's most famous musician. And he didn't do it for the credit. "His passion was greater than his ego."

                The Rev. Susan W. Springer then closed the service with a simple six-word phrase.

                "His was a life well-lived."

                On the stadium's BuffVision boards, a photo montage rotated throughout the afternoon; you can see it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f69xcxbd0qg5bim/alan%20cass%20memorial.mp4?dl=0.

Alan's Obituary

            Claude Frederick "Alan" Cass, passed away surrounded by his family on April 18, 2018 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, Colo. He was 77.

            He was born March 20, 1941 in Sebring, Fla., where his father was supervising a construction project. His family returned back to their beloved Colorado when he was 6, where both parents worked at the University of Colorado: his father as a stage manager and supervisor of campus functions, his mother as a dining hall supervisor. He said his earliest memories were helping his father out backstage at Macky Auditorium, and little did he know at the time that was the precursor to spending most of his life working for or having some kind of association with the university.

            Cass attended Uni Hill Elementary School, Baseline Junior High and Boulder High, graduating from the latter in 1959.

            He enrolled at CU, first as a Theatre major, but eventually earned his degree in History, graduating in 1963. As a freshman, he started working as a sound and lighting technician as well as a stagehand at Macky.

            Over the course of the next four decades he was a full-time CU employee, first as Macky's stage manager in 1965, succeeding his father in that position, and two years later as the venue's director, and then as the assistant director of the University Memorial Center (UMC). He concluded his run as the director of the Coors Events Center for 14 years, taking early retirement in 1998. He had moved over from the UMC to be the assistant director of the building when it opened in 1979. He also served an assistant athletic director the last three years at the school.

            Cass once said, "CU is like my family. I've never really considered working anywhere else." He was so proud of and grateful for his family's long history in Boulder and his lifelong association with the University of Colorado. His grandmother, Edith Edna Ingram, was one of the first women to graduate from CU in 1891, and his great grandfather Moses Ingram roamed the hills and valleys west of Boulder in 1860 in search of silver and gold. Moses could not have known then that "silver and gold" (CU's school colors) in a different form would enrich his family for generations to come.

            His booming voice matched his squarely-built physique, and since he always sported a thick black beard, he was sometimes called a look-a-like to the late actor Sebastian Cabot. So it was only natural he would announce various events around CU.

            He got his start by assisting A.B. "Father Pat" Patterson, who was the longtime public address announcer for almost all Buffalo athletic events. He eventually took over for him, first announcing CU men's basketball games in 1965 and then took over for Warner Imig handling the football chores in 1982. And along the way, you would also hear Alan behind the mike at baseball, women's basketball and track and wrestling meets. If an event needed to be announced, the voice the public heard was surely that of C.F. Alan Cass.

            He also spent three years as the P.A. announcer for the Denver Gold of the short-lived United States Football League (USFL), had a stint with the Denver Zephyrs, the last minor league baseball team in Denver prior to the arrival of the Colorado Rockies, and also announced numerous high school athletic events in the Denver Metro area, including many a Boulder-Fairview battle in basketball.  And away from sports, for many years, he announced the names of the colleges and schools at CU's commencement ceremonies, as the graduates from the respective programs marched into Folsom Field.

            In 1988, the Denver Broncos were searching for a new public address announcer to replace Hal Taft for their games at Mile High Stadium. They found their man just 25 miles up U.S. 36 in Boulder.

            Alan was "old school" when it came to announcing, as he knew he wasn't the show and had no desire to be one. For him, it came down to providing accurate information but in a concise manner, being well-informed, and the most important aspect of all, pronouncing names correctly. "I've always felt you're not a cheerleader, and you should underplay your role as an announcer," he said. "My job is to provide information, not entertainment."

            But that didn't mean he would have to be vanilla; voice inflections come naturally to a P.A. announcer. In the mid-80s, when CU had the alphabet kids in O.C. Oliver and J.J. Flannigan, Alan took a very short pause between saying the O and the C. "O … C … Oliver." The fans took to it immediately and soon would chant along with him.

            For the Broncos, he did the same when an opposing quarterback threw an incomplete pass. "The pass is in … com … plete." Bronco fans jumped on that one pretty quick, eventually finishing the phrase after he said "is." And even though stepped down from calling Denver games prior to the 2008 season, that tradition has continued.

            He retired from announcing CU events after the 2010-11 athletic year, citing the school's move to the Pac-12 Conference as a natural "line of demarcation," and that "serendipity told him it was time to turn the microphone over to the next generation." Since his first event was the 1961 Big Eight Conference Outdoor Track Championship, it marked a career of exactly 50 years.

            His other love besides announcing was the Glenn Miller Orchestra. While working at the UMC where the Glenn Miller Ballroom honors the CU alum, Alan initiated a small display that grew into the Glenn Miller Archive (GMA) at the American Music Research Center on campus, one of the largest to commemorate the "Big Band Era." Alan served as curator of the GMA until 2015 and, coincidentally, Alan's pioneer Boulder family was related to the pioneer Boulder family of Helen Burger Miller, Glenn's wife whom he met while attending C.U.

            Cass spent an astonishing 47 years as the steward of the GMA, building and maintaining the significant repository of the big band musician's photographs, artifacts and memorabilia. He would make upwards of 50 presentations annually at reunions and music festivals literally around the world.

            He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from CU in 1999, and received an "Honorary C" letter from athletics in 1982. Most recently, he had been inducted into the Glenn Miller Archive Hall of Fame.

            Alan was also heavily involved in community service, both for the CU and for the city of Boulder. He was longtime member of the Heritage Center Advisory Board (1985-2018); UMC Board and Committee on Use of University Facilities (both 1970-79); the American Music Research Center Editorial & Advisory Board and was in the Alumni "C" Club. As for the city, he was on the Board of Trustees for the Boulder Historical Society, committees for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce and Special Transit; and was on the Board of Directors, serving in various roles, for the Foundation for Boulder County Schools.

            Alan is survived by his wife of over 54 years, Sue; son Casey, also a longtime CU employee; daughter-in-law Michelle DuBois; and one grandson, Cameron Austin Cass. He was preceded in death by his parents Claude Amos Cass and Marjorie Ann White Cass; sisters, Joyce Baguley McCracken and Edythe Carolyn Schow; and son Christopher Alan.

            Contributions in his name can be made to the Boulder County Parks & Open Space Foundation (P.O. Box 227, Hygiene, CO 80533; https://preservebouldercounty.org).

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