The Accordion World Loses Another Great: August “Gus” Greyhosky, age 94
August 1st 2021
Joan Grauman Morse, AAA Historian


On Thursday, July 15, 2021, the accordion world lost another one of its greats, August “Gus” Greyhosky. Gus lived all of his 94 years with passion, hard work, tremendous good humor, and an endless, joyous desire to learn new things, which he happily shared with others. I last spoke with Gus and his wife of almost 18 years, accordionist Sharon Walters Greyhosky, a few weeks before he died. Gus was laughing, making plans, and speaking of his new musical challenges: learning the “Locrian minor scale” and the “Coltrain Changes”. Thankfully Gus did not suffer long, and he passed away with his son Gary and his beloved wife Sharon by his side.
Born to Lithuanian parents in southwestern Pennsylvania, Gus spent his youth in Cokesburg, PA, a mining town, where “the accordion ruled”. Although he had no formal music training and did not read music in his youth, Gus played the accordion since about the age of five, and played well. Gus was drafted into the US Army at the end of WWII. His Russian language skills took him to Berlin where he worked as an interpreter. Upon returning to the US, he got a degree at Penn State, then went to flight school where he trained to fly fixed-winged airplanes and helicopters. Gus re-enlisted in the Army, and was sent to Vietnam as a combat pilot. On his first mission in his helicopter, Gus was shot down. Bruised and banged up, he got back up, refused a Purple Heart, refused to be sent home, received a new helicopter and flew combat missions for another 18 months. Gus had two tours in Vietnam, and remained with the Army a total of 28 years. He retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1976.
Upon retirement, Gus moved his family to Carlisle, PA, and he began to work for the Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau, a job he enjoyed until his second retirement in 1990. I never knew anyone like Gus, and I say this lovingly and with awe. Although he suffered several losses of loved ones through the years, Gus remained energetic, warm and totally positive. It seemed like there was nothing Gus couldn’t accomplish, although he never boasted about ANY of his accomplishments! A beautiful quote from Maya Angelou describes Gus so well: “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
A new life with his new wife in San Francisco Stay tuned for one of the sweetest stories I have ever heard: how Gus and his wife Sharon met at an accordion festival! First, a little background info: Gus never studied music, yet he loved music and he loved tinkering with his accordion. After retiring, he had more time for his accordion and for his lifelong passion: learning new things. At this point, his son Gary, an accomplished percussionist, was majoring in music. Gus began reading Gary’s music theory and classical music books. In Gary’s words, “He would ask me questions that I couldn’t answer, he was such a quick learner!”
Now for the “love story”: In the summer of 2003, Gus decided to attend his first accordion event: the AAA Festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Well-known Maryland accordionist “Mama” Stella Allison convinced her good friend Sharon Walters to fly east from San Francisco, California to join her at this festival. When they arrived at the festival’s banquet, Stella said to Sharon, “Why don’t you sit next to this gentleman while I chat with my old friend.” Sharon was hesitant, “But, I don’t know him, Stella!” Stella assured her, “You’ll be fine! I’ll join you soon.” In Stella’s words, “I spoke with my friend for about twenty minutes and, when I turned around, I couldn’t believe my eyes! Sharon and Gus were holding hands!!” Gus and Sharon were married in Carlisle, PA that November, with Mama Stella as Matron of Honor. The newlyweds settled in Sharon’s home in San Francisco. Gus was quickly embraced by the San Francisco Accordion Club and the couple began attending accordion festivals and camps together in California and Oregon.
By 2004, I was Stella Allison’s duet partner, and we were performing all over the country together. Thankfully, I had the tremendous pleasure of meeting Gus and Sharon in Oregon in 2005 and we remained very close friends from then on. The Greyhoskys helped me annually with the Frank Marocco Accordion Event (our international accordion orchestra camp that was held annually in Mesa, Arizona). We also traveled together, and visited each other’s homes often. Did I mention that Gus, who skillfully taught himself to read music notation when he was 78, played in our camp orchestra each year, and played very well?!
Gus never, ever let age stop him. One more quote from Maya Angelou that describes Gus: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Another terrific attribute was his sense of humor. Gus always had us laughing. He referred to himself as “Sharon’s Trophy Husband” and teased Sharon and her duet partner, the late Lynn Ewing, for being “paper-trained” — amusingly expressing his frustration with learning to read music. Sharon asked me to make him a “Trophy Husband” tee shirt for his birthday one year. I made the shirt, along with “paper-trained” shirts for Sharon and Lynn (see photo in this article). The Greyhoskys had to stop attending accordion events and club meetings in recent years as Sharon’s health began to fail. When the San Francisco Accordion Club started meeting on Zoom in 2020, Gus joined in and was a delightful addition to the monthly meetings! It warms my heart as I read words sent to me from the attendees of these meetings who never met Gus in person. They were in awe of his musical knowledge, his thoughtfulness and his endless enthusiasm, as was I. He was a wonderful friend to me and to so many others. He will be sadly missed.
I will end with portions of a lovely quote from accordionist Paul Betken who met Gus at one of our Frank Marocco Accordion Events: “Augie (Gus) was one of my most impressive accordion friends. He was a big man with big rational ideas. He always seemed to have a metaphysical command in our conversations because of his unique life experiences — I found myself rather in deference to him in a very good way. I can’t put my finger on it, but he was just a very loving, thoughtful, polite and interesting person….. Make no mistake about it, Augie was a very excellent accordionist…. He enjoyed all genres of of music and he was always exploring the old and the new of playing. His technique was wonderful along with his musical expression……. I am just happy that I had the opportunity to cross paths with him in life.”