PETE SANTORA

Pete Santora has a long history of service in bowling. In 1958, he was instrumental in getting tenpin lanes installed at Fair Lanes Twinbrook. These were the first lanes installed in the expansion era on the Maryland side of the Washington City Tenpin Association. From that time on, Pete was a friend, a leader, and an accomplisher in our area.

Most of his activities in promoting and improving the game were "low key" and "behind the scenes," but his hand was always in new innovations for our bowlers.

Two of his milestone accomplishments were to bring the Professional Bowlers Association Tour to our area and to play a major role in bringing the Fair Lanes junior bowlers back into the AJBC (American Junior Bowling Congress) fold. This feat was not only local in nature but had a tremendous impact upon increased AJBC membership as well as providing new adult leaders in the AJBC family.

Pete was one of the guiding lights in the development of the popular array of the MWBPA (Metropolitan Washington Bowling Proprietor's Association) activities available to bowlers, including the traveling leagues. Under Pete's leadership, Fair Lanes always checked in with a full complement of teams. Also, under his guidance, Fair Lanes has been a strong supporter of our association's activities and programs. One of his strongest traits as a proprietor, executive, and regional manager has been his willingness to work things out with the leagues.

In 1969, Pete was promoted to vice president of Fair Lanes and has operating responsibilities of 31 bowling centers. He served four terms as MWBPA president. Fourteen years as a BPAA (Bowling Proprietor's Association of America) national director and three terms as eastern regional vice president of BPAA.

Even with all these activities, Pete still had time to serve on numerous bowling committees. He represented the proprietors when we first formulated the Lane Directors Program; he served on the ABC (American Bowling Congress) President's Installation Committee when our own Matt Bennie was installed as ABC President; he assisted materially as the fledgling BOWL Magazine got started; and he was never too busy to give advice and counsel on numerous other "firsts" for our organization.

Pete Santora is well deserving of entering our Hall of Fame.