There were four godfathers to the chartering of the Alexandria Harmonizers. Godfather-in-Chief was Dean Snyder, who had just been elected President of the DC Chapter and who, several years later, was to transfer his barbershop allegiance to Alexandria. Godfather Number Two was Eugene Barnwell, then Director of the City of Alexandria's Dept. of Recreation. His chance meeting with Dean on a cold and rainy November night in 1947 on the George Washington Parkway began a chain of barbershop events that has continued for over 59 years. Godfathers Number Three and Four were Jean Boardman and Louis E. Metcalf.

Dean had a long history with barbershopping that began well before there was a Society: he sang in his first quartet, The Troubadours, at the age of nineteen; he was the third person to to sign the charter for the DC Chapter in 1945; and was the force behind establishing a new barbershop chapter in Alexandria.