Joseph Balberchak

BALBERCHAK Joseph (Barber) Balberchak, age 83, beloved husband of Helen Papp Balberchak of Stratford, passed away on Tuesday, November 9, 2004, peacefully hand-in-hand, with his devoted wife of 62 years. He was born in Edwardsville, Pa., on February 18, 1921, and was the son of the late Andrew and Margaret Hric Balberchak. Joe Barber is a man for all seasons. To be exact, 50 softball seasons. That‚s how many years Barber has been involved with the Amateur Softball Association, the national governing body of softball in the United States. In November, Barber was to going to be recognized for his 50 years of loyal and dedicated services to the A.S.A. He is only the fifth person in ASA history to achieve 50 years of service. The others accoplishing this milestone were Fred Hoffman (deceased), George Cron (deceased), Charles L. McCord (deceased) and Lewis Brasell of Mobile, Ala. Some people lead, some people follow, Barber has been the former throughout his outstanding career. A native of Kingston, Pa., Barber had played a major role in the development of Softball in not only Connecticut but throughout the United States and the world. He orginally had plans to enter the priesthood and even studied for two years at the Passionist Fathers Seminary of the Holy Ghost at Dunkirk, N.Y. But while stationed in the Army on the battle-torn Island of Guadalcanal, Barber‚s eventual career in radio broadcasting was launched when he narrated the Christmas Midnight Mass to thousands of troops throughout the Pacific. He did the narration after a French priest suggested that a broadcast of the midnight service would be a morale boost to the American forces in the Solomon Islands chain. Not wasting time, Barber contacted Armed Forces Radio and won approval and prepared a script a few weeks before Christmas, presented it to the chaplain for approval and then volunteered to do the broadcast which would be his first experience in radio. Joe did the narrations in a small, thatch-roofed chapel built by the island natives with an overflowing crowd attending. In 1945 after a short assignment in Manilla, Barber was assisgned to Osaka, Japan, with an occupation force to manage the Japanese Radio station JOBK with the principal assignment of montoring Japanese broadcasts. Armed Forces Radio occupied one floor of the eight floor building and Barber arranged to have the station carry the midnight mass from the bombed-out Osaka Cathedral The memory of Osaka was still vivid in his mind as he told the Connecticut Post in May, Completely flat, from all of the bombs that fell on it. A lot of people were living in caves. After the war and now married, Barber returned to the United States and got a radio job with WNAB in Bridgeport and of course continued his narration of the Chrsitmas Midnight Mass which became a tradition in the Statford-Bridgeport area. His narration gave him a feeling of coming very near to the role he would have taken if he had continued his studies for the Priesthood. After several years as an announcer and sportscaster for WNAB he joined the Raybestos Division of the Raybestos Manhattan Company in 1948 and in two years was named community relations administrator. Twenty years later he was named community manager for the corporate advertising and public relations department. With Raybestos heavily involved in the sponsorship of men‚s and women Major fast pitch teams, his responsibilities included serving as the business manager. In 1957, Barber was named to succeed John Lindquist as Connecticut ASA commissioner. He was an unexpected choise for the position byt came highly recommended, said former commissioner Laudenslager, it was a case of the job coming to the man becaude we felt he alone had what we needed, ececutive ability and experience in the important field of public relations. The rest as they say, is history. Joe has touched all the bases in his softball career plus a lot of people with his down-to-earh honest approach. You could trust Joe Barber with your last nickel, said Hall of Fame pitcher John Spring. Barber was instrumental in attaining widespread coverage on TV and in print including the first coast-to-coast telecast of the ASA National Fast Pitch Tourney in 1961 for men and the Women‚s National tourney in 1962.