When Robert Holloway Jr. tried out for the all-male Glee Club at
Amherst College in his freshman year in 1964, he applied as a first
tenor. The first tenor is usually the smallest group in a four-part
male chorus because of the demand to hit the highest notes. The
fallback was second tenor, which is easier to sing. Holloway vied
for the smaller group to increase his chances of getting
accepted. "He would have gotten picked, anyway," says Amherst
classmate and friend John Stifler, who now teaches economics at
UMass-Amherst. "I was interested that he had such a pragmatic
approach to the whole thing."