The Scholarship Foundation of Indian River County hosted an evening to “Come Together” last Thursday at the Quail Valley River Club, getting a little help from their friends at An Evening with Kenneth Womack, author of “Maximum Volume,” about the life of the late Sir George Henry Martin, often dubbed as the “Fifth Beatle.”

Many got into the spirit of “Yesterday,” costumed in everything from go-go boots to flop-tops. Looking like they’d just stepped off the cover of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, were Jonathan Sternberg, Michael Stutzke, Bobby Sexton and Tyler Puttick, aka Ringo, John, Paul and George, respectively.

Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while listening to Beatle songs sung by Jack Maravell, mingling out on the veranda and enviously ogling several classic cars of the era. All guests went home with a copy of the book, 10 of which had a little dot signifying the holder as a winner of one of the colorful Beatles lunch box centerpieces.

“It’s fun to see everybody dressed up,” said Camilla Wainright, SFIRC executive director, crediting the idea behind the event to Jim Slevin.

An award-winning author and the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University, Womack has penned a number of books, including several on the Beatles. He decided to write “Maximum Volume” after discovering that no book, other than Martin’s own biography, had ever been written about him.

“There just seemed to be a hole in the scholarship. George is such an interesting part of that story that I thought that hole was unacceptable,” said Womack. There was so much information he split it into two volumes.

“Maximum Volume” covers Martin’s early years and his unlikely partnership with the Beatles up to 1966. “Sound Pictures,” due for release in September, continues the narrative up to Martin’s death in March 2016.

“’Maximum Volume’ is what George was trying to do in the early days. He didn’t think the Beatles would last; he thought it would be just a flash in the pan. So he wanted to make a big splash with a lot of volume; he recorded a lot between 1962 and 1966. ‘Sound Pictures’ is what you get with Sgt. Pepper; songs that evoke soundscapes.”

Womack said he was born right before “Revolver” was released and was introduced to the Beatles through an animated Beatles TV series.

“The cartoons were really bad, but they used their songs. I think it’s like everyone who experienced the Beatles after their heyday; it becomes immediately clear that they’re just better than everybody else,” said Womack. The popularity of the Beatles clearly hasn’t waned; he said their songs were streamed more than any other last year.

The Scholarship Foundation has awarded more than $11.1 million in scholarships to 2,865 local students since 1965.

“We’ve also evolved into a counseling service, to help families make appropriate selections financially,” said Joan Cook, board president. “We want them to come out of school with no debt to set them up to succeed.”

For more information, visit SFIndianRiver.org.