| Richard W. Konter | |
| Birth Date: | 1882 |
| Death Date: | 1979 |
| Death Place: | Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Chief Radioman in the U.S. Navy |
| Known For: | Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions |
Richard Wesley Konter (1882–1979) was a Chief Radioman in the U.S. Navy, member of the Byrd Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions and a musician.
Konter joined the Navy in 1897 at the age of 15, and was a veteran of the Spanish‐American War. He worked his way up to Chief Radioman in the US Navy and retired after twenty-nine years in the service. Konter had sailed up and down the South Seas and the China Sea and had survived typhoons and the Boxer Rebellion. Around his arms coiled a pair of dragons that had been tattooed in Shanghai.[1]
Konter was a member of Richard E. Byrd's expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic in 1926 and 1929. His knowledge of seamanship, as well as his personality were assets to the expeditions. While he was not able to winter over on the Antarctic Continent, he was a key member of the liaison group in New Zealand.[2] The Konter Cliffs in Antarctica where named after him.
He sent out hundreds of Christmas Cards from Antarctica in 1929 to his correspondents, many not arriving until the following year.[3]
While snowed in during the winter of 1901 in Manchuria, Konter learned how to play the guitar. It is believed that he learned to play the ukulele while in Hawaii with various ships in his naval service. Stationed in Brooklyn, he was in high demand teaching the children of his fellow sailors to play the ukulele. Dick's Ukulele Club was a regular heard on radio stations and events around New York City. He published his "Dick's Ukulele Method." He also became the desired arranger to add ukulele tabs to the sheet music coming out of Tin Pan Alley. Many famous songs included his tabs, including "Down on the Farm," "Yes, We Have No Bananas," and "If You Knew Susie."
Konter played all of the string instruments (as well as many other instruments) and brought two ukuleles, a mandolin, and several harmonicas aboard the SS Chantier for the 1926 Arctic Expedition with Byrd.[4] The ukulele had come to the U.S. from Hawaii in 1915 and was all the rage. Konter planned to introduce the instrument to the “Eskimos” being unaware that there weren't any Inuit in Svalbard. He was described as forty-four and slender with a long nose and crooked smile. His cheerful disposition and musical ability made him the life of the party.
Konter, with the help of pilot Floyd Bennett, smuggled a Martin 1K ukulele with a Horner Harmonica tied to the neck into a stack of furs in the airplane that made the first flight over the North Pole on May 9, 1926. Upon return, he had many of the participants sign the instrument and added many signatures to it over the years. It is on permanent display in the Martin Museum after he traded the ukulele for a Martin Guitar.[5] Archaeologist Larry Bartram and Dick Boak of Martin are working to identify the signatures.[6] They have published the results in A Stowaway Ukulele Revealed: Richard Konter & The Byrd Polar Expeditions. Over 155 signatures are on the instrument, including President Calvin Coolidge, Amelia Earhart and Thomas Edison. C.F. Martin has produced a limited number of replicas of the signed ukulele.[7]
He took Favilla brand ukuleles on the Antarctic Expeditions, with one flown over the South Pole. A signed instrument was given to the Favilla Company for their museum.[8]
From about 1930 to 1970, he led a band and a group of entertainers that performed in the New York area at children's shelters and hospitals for the chronically ill and at homes for the aged.[9]
He also filed for a patent on a new version of the Harp US 2401571 A which was accepted in 1946 and expired in 1963.[10]
He died at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn at age 97. He was a life-long resident of Brooklyn.
Konter first proposed to Johanna Cohen about 1926, they had met when she was a part of "Dick's Ukulele Club" but her father refused to allow the marriage due to the difference in age, she was only 21. Not long after, she married Bill Pool. They had a daughter, Jean. Bill Pool passed away in 1953 and Johanna and Dick married in 1962, he was 80 years old. [13]