page_title: Frank Pooler
section_title: Collaboration with The Carpenters
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Pooler / Collaboration with The Carpenters
caption_attribution_description: English: Frank Pooler with Karen and Richard Carpenter.
context_page_description: Frank Mairich Pooler was an American choirmaster, and former Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
context_section_description: Richard Carpenter accompanied Pooler's University Choir at California State University, Long Beach. Several years later, Karen Carpenter also joined the choir and recorded "Goodnight," "Crescent Noon," and "And When I Die" with the choir in 1969.  Karen's parents hired Frank to give Karen music lessons
  Richard Carpenter later composed the music to "Merry Christmas Darling," a lyric Pooler had written when he was 18. Karen later said,
  "'Merry Christmas Darling' I think, is a little extra special to both of us, because Richard wrote it, and the lyrics were written by the choral director at Long Beach State choir, where we went to school, Frank Pooler. Frank was very helpful in our college days, when we were trying to get a contract and constantly missing classes and everything. He was the only one down there who actually understood what we were after, and he stood behind us all the way. We just did a benefit at Long Beach state, for a scholarship fund, and we did it with the choir and the whole thing, and we did "Christmas Darling" and he just "glows" every time we do it….. I think it's my favorite, because it's really close to me."
  Pooler died January 19, 2013 from lung cancer at his home in Los Alamitos, California.
caption: Frank Pooler with Karen and Richard Carpenter
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