Barrie Smith, HK 1995

The Kroks first met Barrie in 1989. At the time, he and Hilary were living in Geneva and he was working as Management Development Manager for Digital (DEC).

He had organized a senior management program which took a group of managers around the world culminating in Boston with a week at Babson College. His program co-director was Jim Botkin (K65). For the last evening of the program, Jim organized dinner at the Hasty Pudding Club.

Barrie recalls: “Halfway through the meal a couple of young men wearing tuxedos appeared and introduced themselves in a very amusing way. The rest of the group then arrived and regaled the audience with a rendition of ‘House of Blue Lights’. At the end of the meal these young men spread themselves around the tables and were joined by Adam Freed, who was the tour manager for the summer of 1990 and was seated next to Barrie. After copious amounts of good red wine, I suggested to Adam, ‘Well, if you ever want to come to Geneva give me a call.’ Adam did, and the rest is history.”

By 1995 the Kroks had visited Geneva four times where they had built up a loyal fan club and were a regular at the 4th of July even there.

It had also become traditional for the Kroks to give a concert for host families, some of the Smith’s neighbors and friends.

Just before one of these concerts, Barrie and Michael Sun had a conversation about Barrie’s son Ashley who was 11 years old.

Barrie recalls: “I mentioned how enthusiastic Ashley was about the Kroks and that they were a great model for Ashley. I then wondered aloud if there was any chance that the Kroks could give Ashley some sort of distinction to cement that. Towards the end of the concert the Kroks invited me to join them on the terrace which they had been using as a stage. Michael told the audience a little about Honorary Kroks and then invited me to join this select group.”

Barrie makes the trip over the pond for our major reunions. At our 60th reunion in 1996, we again celebrated his elevation to Honorary Krok during our Sunday morning brunch at Upstairs at the Pudding.

Until the Smiths left Geneva in 2007 to return to the UK, the Kroks regularly returned to sing for the UN, Caterpillar, Digital, Hewlett Packard, Dupont and at the largest July 4^th celebration in Europe.

In 2011, Barrie reconnected and arranged for the Kroks to perform in Deddington, his village in Oxfordshire. This new tradition has become quite an event in the community including press releases, radio interviews, etc.

Barrie has also arranged for the Kroks to sing and be hosted in places where he has clients. They have sung many times for Roche, a longstanding client. One of the Roche host families has connections with the community of Holstein, a beautiful village near Basel, where they are passionate about music. The Kroks have sung there many times over the years.

To complete the circle, the Kroks began returning to Geneva again in 2017.