Nunc Dimittis

Otto Alexander Altenburg died on October 18, 1997, at the age of 72. He was a Navy veteran, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and President of Altenburg Piano House in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Altenburg Company is the oldest family-owned piano house in the U.S., and has remained in family hands since its founder made the first Altenburg piano in 1847. During his tenure as president, Mr. Altenburg expanded the house's operations to 11 showrooms, including one at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He continued to improve his own pianos while offering several lines of European and domestic instruments. Altenburg was also interested in pipe organs. He sponsored concerts to celebrate the openings of new houses of worship, and furnished organs to churches throughout the U.S. and abroad. He was an elder and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth. Mr. Altenburg is survived by his wife Nancy, two sons, two daughters, a sister, and two grandchildren.

John-Michael Caprio, Director of Music at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, died on December 25, 1997. A native of Newark, New Jersey, Caprio was appointed to the cathedral in 1991. During his tenure he oversaw the restoration of the cathedral's historic Kilgen organs, and was conductor for several cathedral ensembles, including the Cathedral Choir, Chamber Singers, Schola, and Cathedral Singers. In 1976 he was appointed executive director of the Commission on Church Music of the Archdiocese of New York, and was also the founding director of the New York School of Liturgical Music. Mr. Caprio was also the founder and conductor emeritus of The Riverside Symphonia, a professional chamber orchestra based in central New Jersey. In October 1995 he coordinated and conducted the music for both the Papal Mass in New York City's Central Park and the rosary service celebrated by Pope John Paul II in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Prior to his appointment to St. Patrick's, Mr. Caprio served as director of music and organist at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Lambertville, NJ; the Church of the Resurrection, Rye, NY; St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral, Newark; and Church of St. Philip the Apostle, Clifton, NJ. He was a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and Rutgers University. In September of 1997, Caprio was inducted into the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Sister Lucilda Meyer, FSPA, 94, died on April 30, 1997 at Villa St. Joseph, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Sister Lucilda was born on September 30, 1902 on a farm south of Dedham, Iowa. She began piano lessons at age eight, walking two miles to the school for lessons. She entered St. Rose Convent on August 26, 1920, and continued studying music with visiting professors from La Crosse Teachers' College. She earned a Master's degree in piano from McPhail School of Music in Minneapolis. A second graduate degree in organ, theory and composition was earned from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee. In 1940 she was awarded the AAGO certificate. Sister Lucilda served as a music instructor and organist for 57 years. From 1952-1979 she was a member of the music faculty at Viterbo College of La Crosse. She retired to the Villa St. Joseph in 1979 where even in retirement she served as organist and choir director at the Villa and at St. Joseph Ridge Parish. Sister Lucilda was a charter member of the La Crosse AGO chapter, and served as dean and secretary for many years.

Catherine Ritchey Miller died in Cary, North Carolina, on January 10 at age 93. A graduate of the University of Montana, she joined the AGO in 1930. She served as organ instructor and college organist at Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina, for many years, retiring in 1973. Mrs. Miller served as organist at Edenton Street United Methodist Church, Raleigh, from 1948 to 1967, and at White Memorial Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, 1967-1971. In 1989 she was appointed organist emeritus at White Memorial, and in 1990 was made an honorary life member of the Central North Carolina AGO chapter. She is survived by her husband of 69 years, Dr. William D. (Ted) Miller, a sister, and a brother.

Thelma Olava Michelson died on March 3 at her home in Park Ridge, Illinois, after a long illness at the age of 96. She was a Chicago area music director, church organist and choir director most of her life. Throughout the years she was associated with Moorland Lutheran Church, Ebenezer Lutheran Church, Chicago; St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Park Ridge; St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Evanston for 21 years; and Congregation Solel of Highland Park for 14 years. She was a member of Edison Park Lutheran Church, Chicago, for over 50 years. Mrs. Michelson was born in Grand Meadow, Minnesota, in 1901, and began piano lessons at an early age. She became organist of Grand Meadow Lutheran Church while in high school and was valedictorian of her high school graduating class. She graduated cum laude from St. Olaf College in three years, and then went on to teach organ and piano there. She moved to Chicago in 1923 to become organist at Moorland Lutheran Church, where she married Harry Michelson in 1925. She earned the Master of Music degree from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, studying organ with Wilhelm Middleschulte, and a second Master's in organ and church music from Northwestern University. She was an active member of the AGO and the Chicago Club of Women Organists, for whom she organized the Gruenstein Competition for many years. Mrs. Michelson collaborated with another Middleschulte pupil Margrethe Hokinson on two books of choral music, Alleluia, Books I & II, published by Neil Kjos Publishing Co. She is survived by her son Rolf, one brother, two sisters, and one grandson.

Ronald Sauter, of Frank J. Sauter & Sons, died April 17 at the age of 67. For 41 years he built and repaired pipe organs at his family-owned business in Alsip, Illinois. A Chicago native, he studied French horn with Helen Kotas Hirsch of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for five years. Like his late brother Francis, he joined his father's pipe organ business and maintained a life-long love of music. He was a member of the Southwest Symphony and DuPage Symphony orchestras. He played in the 5th Army Band and was in the National Guard Band. Survivors include his wife, five daughters, and 10 grandchildren. A funeral mass was held at St. Adrian Catholic Church in Chicago.

Fred Tulan died on March 15 in Stockton, California. A native Stocktonian, he had an international career as an organ consultant and concert artist. Born on September 5, 1930, he performed Schoenberg's unfinished Organ Sonata for the composer in 1941 at the age of 11. A 1954 graduate of the University of the Pacific, he continued his education and earned a doctorate in music. Included was six years of European study of organ in Paris and of pedal harpsichord in Heidelberg, Germany. Further organ study was with Charles Courboin at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral. He performed recitals in 17 countries, including such venues as Notre-Dame in Paris, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, Washington National Cathedral, and the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. He performed eight times at Davies Symphony Hall and several concerts at Grace Cathedral and St. Mary's Cathedral, all in San Francisco. He was engaged by the San Francisco Symphony and Davies Symphony Hall as consultant for the new Ruffatti and Noack organs. He served for six years on the executive board of the San Francisco AGO chapter, and was a member of the program committee and Chairman of the Commissioned Works committee for the 1984 AGO national convention in San Francisco. He was honored twice by the Stockton Arts Commission, in 1976 "For outstanding contributions to the cultural life of the city," and in 1985 "For lifetime career achievement." Dozens of internationally prominent organists wrote works especially for him, including such names as Guillou, Newman, Pinkham, Peeters, Cochereau, and many others. He premiered works by many noted composers, among them Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Schoenberg, and Virgil Thomson, and played private recitals for such notables as Francis Cardinal Spellman and T.S. Eliot.

Henry Murlin Kelsay,
82, died August 23 in Springfield, Missouri. He was born on February 17, 1923
in Versailles, Missouri. After graduation from high school in Booneville,
Missouri, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, rising to the rank of 1st
lieutenant and serving as an air corps navigator. He fought in several World
War II battles and air campaigns in southern France and Italy, and was
decorated with numerous medals and citations. Kelsay graduated from Union
Theological Seminary in New York City, and went on to serve as music director
at several churches in the Little Rock, Arkansas area, including Pulaski
Heights Methodist Church and Christ Episcopal Church. He served as dean of the
Central Arkansas AGO chapter 1954-55 and 1959-61. Later in life he
became interested in interior decorating and was successful in that endeavor.

At the time of his death, Kelsay was a member of St. James
Episcopal Church in Springfield, Missouri. A memorial service took place there
on September 17. He is survived by his sister-in-law and three nephews.

--Virginia Strohmeyer-Miles

Noel Mander, MBE,
FSA, prominent British organbuilder, died September 18 at his home in Suffolk,
England, at the age of 93.

Born on May 19, 1912 in Crouch near Wrotham, Mander was
brought up in South London. Having left school (which he hated), he went to
work for A & C Black, publishers. The office work did not suit him,
however, and through his uncle, Frederick Pike, he met Ivor Davis who had
worked for Hill, Norman & Beard. After working with him for a while, Mander
started on his own in 1936, the first organ being that at St. Peter’s
Bethnal Green opposite St. Peter’s School, which years later was to
become the organ works. Unfortunately, Christ Church Jamaica Street, Stepney, where
he rented workspace, together with the organ he was working on and all his
equipment, were lost in the first air raid on East London 1940.

Shortly after that, he joined the Royal Artillery, seeing
service in North Africa and Italy, where he worked on a number of instruments,
including the organ in Algiers Cathedral, which had been silent for years.
Having been invalided out of active service in Italy, he joined the Army
Welfare Service and during his convalescence he repaired a 17th-century organ
in Trani.

After the war he assisted the London Diocese in getting
organs working again in bomb-damaged churches. He set up a workshop in an old
butcher’s shop in Collier Street before moving in 1946 into the old
buildings of St. Peter’s School in Bethnal Green, where the firm remains
to this day. In 1948 he married Enid Watson with whom he had five children,
living over the workshop in Bethnal Green. Most of his early work revolved
around the rebuilding of organs, many of which survive to this day.

He always had an affection for historic instruments and
restored a number of antique chamber organs, setting new standards for the time
with his sympathetic appreciation and restoration of them. Of particular note
was the restoration of the 17th-century organ at Adlington Hall in Cheshire in
1958-59, which was in a completely desolate state. It had not been
playable for perhaps a century, 
but with painstaking care the organ was restored and remains one of the
most important survivors in England.

In the 1960s he became aware that interest was growing in
tracker-action organs in the rest of Europe, and this encouraged him to
investigate this form of action himself, initially in the restoration of
instruments (which otherwise might have been electrified) and then in new
organs. Ultimately a number of such instruments were built including the export
of some to places such as Bermuda and the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial
Foundation in Fulton, Missouri.

Having been involved with the rebuilding of a number of
large organs, he was awarded the contract to rebuild the organ in St.
Paul’s Cathedral in London during the 1970s. This project, lasting almost
five years, was perhaps his greatest pride and was completed just in time for
the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations at St. Paul’s. In 1978 H.M.
Queen Elizabeth made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He
retired in 1983 to his home in Suffolk, but retained an interest in what the
firm was doing right to the end. The 60th anniversary of the Mander firm was
marked in 1996 by publication of a collection of essays in his honor entitled
Fanfare for an Organ Builder.

Noel Mander’s interests were by no means restricted to
organs. He was a keen historian and an avid bookworm. He was a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries and very active in the Council of Christians and Jews
for many years. He became a very popular member of the Earl Soham community in
Suffolk, where he retired to in 1983. He was also the British representative
for the Sir Winston Churchill Foundation in Missouri and secured a number of
significant pieces of antique furniture for the Wren church rebuilt there,
including, during the last year of his life, a fine 18th-century pulpit that
had once stood in a City church.

Philip Marshall, who
served as organist at both Ripon and Lincoln cathedrals, died on July 16. Born
in Brighouse in 1921, his early studies were with Whiteley Singleton, a pupil
of Edward Bairstow. He gained an Associateship of the Royal College of Music,
and in 1946 won three prizes in the Fellowship examination of the Royal College
of Organists. He earned his BMus at Durham in 1950, by which time he was
assistant to Melville Cook at Leeds Parish Church. He also served as organist
at All Souls, Haley Hill, Halifax, where he met Margaret Bradbury, whom he
married in 1951, and who survives him. The Marshalls moved that year to Boston,
working at the Parish Church and Grammar School. By 1957,
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Philip Marshall had completed his
doctorate at Durham, studying with Bairstow’s York successor, Francis
Jackson, and was appointed organist at Ripon Cathedral. Founding the choir
school, rebuilding the cathedral instrument and producing a chant book were
highlights of his tenure at Ripon.

An accomplished model engineer, organbuilder and composer as
well as an outstanding organist, accompanist and teacher, Dr. Marshall served
as organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral for 20 years
until retirement in 1986. The Dean and Chapter named him Organist Emeritus in
the early 1990s.

Dorothy Hildegard Nordblad died of congestive heart failure on September 9 at the Moorings, a
retirement community in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was 93. A lifelong
member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Chicago, she served for 37 years as
organist and director of junior choirs at Edison Park Lutheran Church, where
she directed 60 children in three choirs. Nordblad also taught history, math
and music to hundreds of children, serving the Chicago public schools for 40
years.

The daughter of Swedish immigrants, she was born in Chicago
in 1911 and graduated from Senn High School before attending Northwestern
University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in education in 1932
and a master’s degree in education in 1946.

Her teaching career began at Stewart School, and in the late
1950s Nordblad moved to Beaubien Elementary School on the Northwest Side. In
addition to teaching, she was assistant principal, a position she held until
her retirement in the 1970s. After she moved to the Moorings retirement home,
she organized and directed the choir there, continuing as its director for more
than seven years. Funeral services were held on September 14 at Ebenezer
Lutheran Church, Chicago.

Donald W. Williams,
of Ann Arbor, died September 22 at the Chelsea Retirement Center, Chelsea,
Michigan, following a seven-month battle with cancer. He was 66.

Williams received his bachelor’s degree (1961) and
master’s degree (1962) from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee,
where he studied with Scott Withrow. In 1979 he received the DMA from the
University of Michigan, where he studied with Marilyn Mason. At Michigan, he
was given the Palmer Christian Award by the Organ Department of the School of
Music in recognition of his accomplishments in teaching, performing, and choral
conducting.

Dr. Williams served as organist and choirmaster at Zion
Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor from 1963 until 1995, when he became
organist-choirmaster at Chelsea First United Methodist Church, a position he
held until his death. He was a member of the organ faculty of the National
Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, from 1966 to 1970, and was adjunct
lecturer in organ at the University of Michigan in the early 1970s. He taught
organ performance and church music at Concordia University in Ann Arbor (1976-95,
1999 until his death). He was co-founder of the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale, which
he directed with Richard Ingram and Ruth Datz from 1987 to 2001, and was
founder and conductor of the American Chorale of Sacred Music.

Williams performed at churches and cathedrals in this
country and abroad, including the National Cathedral and the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New
York City, St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, and various European venues.
From 1981 to 1985 he performed as a member of Principal VI, a group of
organists from the greater Ann Arbor area. In 1986, he gave the world premiere
of Vincent Persichetti’s last composition, Give Peace, O God.

In addition to the various positions he held in the Ann
Arbor chapter of the American Guild of Organists, Williams was chair of worship
standards and repertoire of the American Choral Directors’ Association
(1995-2001), and a member of the board of the Boy Choir of Ann Arbor from
2000 until his death. He was a life member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Funeral services were held on September 26 at First
Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. Williams is survived by his 97-year-old
father, Joel Williams, of Marietta, Georgia.

Organist, choir director, composer, and teacher Roberta Bitgood died on April 15 at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, New London, Connecticut, after a brief illness. She was 99. Dr. Bitgood, formerly of Quaker Hill, had been a resident of the Odd Fellows Home of Connecticut (Fairview) in Groton. She was also known locally as Roberta Wiersma, her married name.
During a long career in sacred music, Bitgood served as minister of music and organist in churches and synagogues throughout the United States. She worked first in New Jersey (Bloomfield), later in California (Riverside), and later still in Connecticut (Mystic and Waterford), as well as in upper New York state (Buffalo) and Michigan (Detroit, Bay City, and Battle Creek). She published more than 70 choral and organ compositions, including several pieces for organ and other instruments, and two choral cantatas based on biblical narratives. Her enthusiasm for making music accessible to all, and the broad scope of her musical activities, made her one of the most well-known 20th-century American music educators. She was known to organists worldwide as a committed yet down-to-earth professional leader, and to volunteer choir singers in many states as an inspiring and witty teacher.
Roberta Bitgood was born in New London on January 15, 1908, and began study of the violin at age 5. As a student at the Williams Memorial Institute (1920–24), she was already well known as a gifted performer on the violin and organ in local churches and school orchestras. Graduating with honors from Connecticut College for Women, she received postgraduate and conservatory training in New York, where she was awarded the William C. Carl Medal upon graduation from the Guilmant Organ School (1930), became a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (also 1930), and earned a master’s degree in music education from Teacher’s College at Columbia University (1932), a master’s degree in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary (1935), and later the doctoral degree in sacred music (1945), also from Union.
Dr. Bitgood was honored for her achievements and service to her profession and maintained an active relationship with her alma mater through fundraising efforts and performances at annual college reunions. In 1974 she was awarded the Connecticut College Medal, and in 1975 was elected president of the American Guild of Organists, continuing until 1981. In 1976, upon retirement from full-time employment in Michigan, Dr. Bitgood returned to her family home in Connecticut, serving for another 18 years in local churches and synagogues.
In 1993, the New London AGO chapter established an annual scholarship competition for new organists in Dr. Bitgood’s honor, as part of a celebration of her contributions to sacred music and her 85th birthday. After retiring from professional life in 1999, Dr. Bitgood remained at home under the care of her family until 2003, when she moved to Groton. A memorial service took place April 21 at St. James Church, New London. Contributions may be made to the New London AGO-Bitgood Scholarship (P.O. Box 423, Quaker Hill, CT 06375), or to the Visiting Nurses Association of Southeastern Connecticut (Waterford).

Giuseppe G. Englert died of cancer on March 29 in Paris. He was 80. Born to Swiss parents in Fiesole, Italy, in 1927, he studied theory and composition with Willy Burkhard at the Zurich Conservatory (1945–48). From 1958 to 1963 he took part in the international summer courses at Darmstadt, attending seminars given by Leibowitz and Cage, among others. From 1970 to 1982 he taught at the University of Paris VIII–Vincennes, where he became a member of the computer department’s Art et Informatique group in 1973. From 1964 to 1969 he was a co-director of the Centre de Musique, an organization founded by Keith Humble that promoted performances of new music at the American Center for Students and Artists in Paris. He joined the Groupe Art et Informatique de Vincennes (GAIV) in the computer department of the same university in 1973. As a composer and performer he toured Europe, Israel, and the United States. Since 1986 he was associated with the Groupe d’Etude et Réalisation Musicales (GERM) founded by Pierre Mariétan in Paris.
In the 1950s Englert studied organ with André Marchal and substituted for him at the church of St. Eustache in Paris. He accompanied André Marchal on a number of his American tours and gave lectures on organbuilding at several American universities. In 1956 he attended the Organ Institute at Methuen Memorial Hall, where he was the translator for André Marchal. He assisted Peter Bartok in the Unicorn recordings of Marchal in 1957 at MIT in Cambridge. In 1961 in Oberlin, Ohio, he lectured on French organbuilding and at the 1963 Midwinter Conference on Church Music at Northwestern University, Evanston. He was married to Jacqueline Marchal in 1954. American organists familiar with Langlais’ Organ Book may remember that it was dedicated to Jacqueline Marchal as a wedding gift and the last piece, “Pasticcio,” contains the names of both Jacqueline and Giuseppe.
Englert’s works include orchestral pieces, chamber music, compositions for organ, cello, and works for ‘new music theatre’ and electronic music on tape for live performance using analog and digital means of production. In 1975 and 1976 he worked in the digital electronic music studio at SUNY/Albany, in 1977 at the New York Experimental Intermedia Foundation, and in 1978 in San Diego for the Ford Foundation at the Center for Music Experiment (CME).
Englert’s works for organ include: Palestra 64 (1959–64) and GZ50 Musica Barbara pro Organo (1979), the latter recorded by Gerd Zacher. In reference to his compositions for organ he stated:
The organ has always played a major role in my musical thinking. But it may be precisely because I know the instrument so well that I’ve written so little for it. The problem with the organ is that no two instruments are identical. Consequently the interpreter needs far more freedom because he or she has to play a piece differently depending on the instrument and the hall or church in which it stands. When I began working with a computer, I was thrilled by the possibility of programming the necessary freedom into an organ composition, in other words, of using a computer program to determine and define indeterminacy. That led to GZ50, the organ piece I wrote for Gerd Zacher’s fiftieth birthday. It gives Zacher enormous freedom of interpretation. Time values are notated proportionally, but the duration of each page is not fixed. That leaves tempo completely to the performer, and the same holds true for tone color.
Until his last days he was surrounded by his former students and his nurses who recalled that they took him to a piano where he improvised a fugue. A large number of friends, colleagues, and former students attended the graveside funeral held April 2 at Père-Lachaise Cemetery. During the interment, Marchal’s recordings of portions of Bach’s Orgelbüchlein were played, interspersed with readings and tributes. Englert is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Englert-Marchal, a nephew and a niece. Contributions may be made to the Académie André Marchal, c/o Ralph Tilden, “Longview,” P.O. Box 2254, Banner Elk, NC 28604.
—Ann Labounsky

Kenneth W. Matthews died January 19 in San Francisco at the age of 54. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, his first music lessons were with his father, who played organ in churches and in restaurants. Matthews earned a BA in music from Stetson University in 1976 and an MA in sacred music from Yale Divinity School in 1978. He then moved to San Francisco to study with Richard Purvis at Grace Cathedral. He also studied in Paris with Marie-Louise Langlais and played recitals in France.
Matthews was director of music at Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco from 1998 until his death. He had previously served All Saints Episcopal Church and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in San Francisco, the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere. He also supervised the support staff at Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, 1990–96. He played recitals at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and at national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. A memorial service took place at Old First Presbyterian Church on February 24.
Monsignor Richard J. Schuler, a major figure in sacred music in the 20th century and founder of the Church Music Association of America, died April 20 at the age of 87. Monsignor Schuler served as pastor at St. Agnes Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, for 32 years, from 1969–2001, and was the founding director of the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale in 1956.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 30, 1920, he attended DeLaSalle High School and the College of St. Thomas before entering the St. Paul Seminary. He was ordained a priest on August 18, 1945, and was assigned to Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary to teach Latin and music. He held music degrees from the Eastman School of Music (M.A.) and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D.), and in 1954 spent a year of study of Renaissance music manuscripts at the Vatican Library on a Fulbright scholarship from the United States government.
An excellent organist and overall musician, he was also a pioneer in the use of large-scale polyphony and symphonic sung Masses after the Second Vatican Council. He is the author of many articles and lengthy studies on music and the liturgy. A funeral mass took place on April 24 at St. Agnes Church in St. Paul. Members of the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale sang the Mozart Requiem with orchestral accompaniment.

Gordon T. Whitley died April 20 at Obici Hospital in Suffolk, Virginia, from congestive heart failure. He was 66. Born November 16, 1940, to Moses and Mary Whitley in Suffolk, he attended Peabody Conservatory. His business included ownership of a beauty salon located in his home. Churches he had served as organist and choirmaster included St. Bride’s Episcopal, Norfolk, Virginia, Faith Lutheran Church in Suffolk, and Murfreesboro (North Carolina) Baptist Church. At the time of his death he was a countertenor in the choir at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Whitley was a member of St. Grace and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Baltimore. A former dean of AGO chapters in Maryland and Virginia, he was a member of Northeastern North Carolina AGO chapter, serving as dean from 1997–1999. He was a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and the Friends of European Cathedrals. Survivors include a niece and a sister-in-law. A memorial service was held on April 22 at R. W. Baker Funeral Home Chapel in Suffolk.
—Rodney Trueblood

Alec Wyton died on March 18 at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, at the age of 85. He had been a resident of Ridgefield, Connecticut, for the last 20 years. His career included two decades as organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. He was president of the American Guild of Organists 1964–69 and twice served as dean of the New York City chapter.
Born in London on August 3, 1921, he received his early musical training as a boy chorister and held his first job as organist at age 11. He earned the BA from the Royal Academy of Music and the MA from Oxford University and was awarded fellowships in five professional societies. In 1946 he was appointed organist-choirmaster at St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton, and also served as conductor of the Northampton Bach Choir and Orchestra. In 1950 he was appointed organist-choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1954 he was appointed to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he also served as headmaster of the cathedral choir school 1954–62.
Wyton left the cathedral in 1974 to become organist-choirmaster at St. James’ Church, Madison Avenue, in New York City. At that time he also became coordinator of the Standing Commission on Church Music that produced The Hymnal 1982 for the Episcopal Church. In 1987 he left St. James’ Church to become minister of music at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut, a position he held until his retirement in 1997.
Wyton’s published compositions number more than 100. In addition to his work on the Standing Commission on Church Music, he edited numerous publications, including Anglican Chant Psalter (Church Publishing, Inc.), and he was a member of the editorial team that produced Ecumenical Praise (Hope Publishing).
Wyton founded the church music department at the Manhattan School of Music in 1984, serving as chairman until 1990. He also taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was chairman of the music department at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Susquehanna University and Virginia Theological Seminary. Services were held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Kent S. Dennis died January 1 at the age of 78 in Midland, Michigan. Trained as a chemist, Dr. Dennis had a long career at Dow Chemical Co. in Midland; he retired in 1986 after 32 years as a senior research associate. He served as organist at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Midland for 47 years, and was named organist emeritus in 2003. There he performed annual organ recitals for 46 years; he also taught organ students for many years. A charter member of the Saginaw Valley AGO chapter, serving as dean for three terms, he also served on the board of managers of the Midland Center for the Arts and as president of the Midland Symphony Orchestra, which, with the Music Society, honored him as Musician of the Year in 1987.
In 2002 Steven Egler commissioned an organ piece, Fantasia on Dennis, by David Gillingham in honor of Dr. Dennis. With his technical background, he built a pipe organ in his home, and when his health declined, he donated the instrument to St. Joseph the Worker Church in Beal City, Michigan. He was predeceased by his parents, a sister, and a brother. Memorials may be made to the Kent S. Dennis AGO Scholarship Fund, Saginaw Valley AGO Chapter, Gregory Largent, Dean, 121 South Harrison St., Saginaw, MI 48602.

August Humer died January 17 in Linz, Austria, at the age of 59. He had studied organ and harpsichord with Anton Heiller and Isolde Ahlgrimm in Vienna; after finishing his diploma, he traveled to the U.S., where he began an active career as a recitalist under the management of Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists. In 1972–74 he won prizes at the international competitions in Innsbruck and Nuremberg, and subsequently performed in Europe and in North America.
In 1972 he was appointed head of the organ and historical keyboard instruments department at the Bruckner Konservatorium in Linz, Austria. He became organist at Linz Old Cathedral in 1975, and made numerous recordings on its organ, a three-manual instrument by Franz Xavier Chrismann (1768) and Josef Breinbauer (1867). Professor Humer was a frequent visiting lecturer in Europe and the U.S., and served as an adviser to the historical instrument collection of the Upper Austria Regional Museum.

Herbert James Keeler died September 6, 2006, in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the age of 67. He began piano studies at age six, and in his teens began playing the organ in his father’s church. In 1961 he graduated from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he earned two music degrees, one in organ. In 1966 he moved to New York City and began a 29-year career with Western Electric, retiring as a computer systems analyst. Mr. Keeler served as organist for numerous churches and was an active member of the AGO. He was preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his wife of 40 years, Carole. A memorial service was held September 17, 2006, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Greensboro.

Paul S. Robinson died February 15 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the age of 99. Born March 8, 1907, in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Westminster College in 1929 and began study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia that same year. His first venture into North Carolina was in 1932 as the summer organist at Duke University where he continued for 10 years. After obtaining a master’s degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, he became a year-round North Carolina resident in 1938 as organist for Centenary United Methodist Church in downtown Winston-Salem. There he started his long association as organist and accompanist for the Mozart Club’s annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah.
The 1941 presentation was December 7, during which the Messiah radio broadcast was interrupted by the news of the Pearl Harbor attack. Two months later, Paul was inducted into the Army’s Third Armored Division as a chaplain’s assistant. He traveled with them in England, France and Germany, where he played a folding reed organ for services.
Discharged in 1945, he returned to Centenary United Methodist staying until he started doctoral studies, also at Union Theological Seminary, where he received a Doctor of Sacred Music degree in 1951. In 1952, he came to Wake Forest College for a temporary position at about the same time as another temporary instructor, Mary Frances McFeeters. Within a few years, they became indispensable both to Wake Forest and to each other. Paul and Mary Frances were married in 1955, and they moved with the college to the new Winston-Salem campus in 1956. He served as professor of music and university organist until his retirement in 1977, and was the organist for Wake Forest Baptist Church from 1956 to 1993. He continued accompanying Messiah until 1997.
He is survived by his wife, Mary Frances Robinson; two daughters, and two grandchildren. Donations in his memory may be made to Wake Forest Baptist Church, P.O. Box 7326, Winston-Salem, NC 27109. —Scott Carpenter

William E. Seifert died December 26, 2006 in Campobello, South Carolina, at the age of 71. A graduate of Wofford College, he later earned a master of divinity degree from Duke University and a master of education degree from Western Carolina University; he was a United Methodist minister for many years and also taught in South Carolina public schools. After retirement he worked for the Dower Organ Building Co., builders of the organ at Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross in Tryon, North Carolina, where he was a member. Mr. Seifert was dean of the Spartanburg AGO chapter from 1988 to 1989, and at the time of his death was the chapter’s chaplain. He is survived by his wife, two sons, two daughters, three sisters, and seven grandchildren.
John Edward Williams died on March 16 at his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, after a bout with esophageal cancer. He was 87. For 43 years he had served First Presbyterian Church as organist/choirmaster and was elected an elder of the congregation. On his retirement in 1991, Converse College conferred on him the honorary degree Doctor of Music in recognition of his significant contribution to the cultural life of the community. The church further honored him in 1995 by dedicating a new Schoenstein organ, named for him, in their chapel. He had supervised the installation of the church’s large Aeolian-Skinner sanctuary organ in 1968. Recognized as a leader in church music circles, he was widely known and highly esteemed throughout his denomination and the whole region. He was especially helpful to fellow musicians of all denominations.
Dr. Williams graduated in music from Illinois Wesleyan College in 1941, joined the U.S. Navy, and served throughout World War II in London, where he played for American servicemen and, on occasion, for Queen Elizabeth and her father, King George VI. He also performed at the Glasgow Cathedral. After the war he entered the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York, graduating in 1948 with an MSM degree. There he studied organ with Robert Baker and Hugh Porter, composition with Harold Friedell, and the history of music with Clarence and Helen Dickinson.
From Union he came directly to Spartanburg and set about mustering support for the founding of a local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Success came in 1954 when he became a charter member of the new chapter and, at the same time, inaugurated the Spartanburg Oratorio Society, directing for several years its performances of major choral and orchestral masterpieces. He was known and loved for his lively sense of humor, witty repartee, and buoyant personality. He maintained high artistic standards and refined taste. He enjoyed popular music and jazz, but he never allowed these secular elements to intrude into his music for worship.
He was married to Patricia Gilmore Williams, a distinguished local artist and portraitist who predeceased him by several years. He is survived by a sister in Illinois, two married daughters, a married son, five grandchildren, and a great-grandson. A memorial service was held at First Presbyterian Church on March 20. Donations in his memory may be sent to the Dr. John E. Williams Music Scholarship Fund in care of First Presbyterian Church, 393 E. Main St., Spartanburg, SC 29302.
—John M. Bullard

Joy Anne Moore Marsh died peacefully at her home in Plano, Texas, on July 9. She was 69. Born in Dallas on July 19, 1935, she graduated from North Dallas High School in 1953. She earned her bachelor of music degree in organ from Southern Methodist University in 1957, studying with Dora Poteet Barclay, and then completed her master’s degree in music literature in 1961 at the University of Texas, Austin. Her thesis was “Form and Style in the Organ Works of Olivier Messiaen.” Mrs. Marsh taught music in the public schools of Midland and Dallas. A 40-year resident of Plano, Texas, she also taught private piano. She is survived by one sister, Mary E. Moore Skalicky, concert organist of Big Spring, Texas, three daughters and three grandchildren, and was preceded in death by her husband Noble Earl Marsh.

Jack H. Ossewaarde died December 30, 2004 at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. He was 86. Born November 15, 1918 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Ossewaarde began his music training at age seven, and sang with the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Boys’ Choir in Kalamazoo. He became organist and director of music at North Park Reformed Church, Kalamazoo, at age 14, and also served as organist at Bethany Reformed Church while still a teenager.

After graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School in 1936, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Michigan. He was organist and music director at First Baptist Church, Ann Arbor, and an instructor at U-M before being inducted into the U.S. Army shortly before the United States entered World War II. After serving in the Army, Ossewaarde studied at Union Theological Seminary. In 1946 he was appointed organist and choirmaster of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The following year he was appointed organist at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, where he served for six years. He then served Christ Church Cathedral in Houston for five years, before being appointed to St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City, where he served for 25 years until his retirement. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Donna Ossewaarde, a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, one great-grandchild, a brother and sister-in-law, and a sister and brother-in-law.

Calvert Shenk died from cancer on July 9 at his home in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. He was 64. Most recently Mr. Shenk served as assistant professor of music at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. He also worked at Assumption Grotto Church in Detroit, where he assisted as organist, chant master and composer.

Born November 21, 1940 in Joplin, Missouri, Shenk earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance from Northwestern University, and continued studies with Theodore Marier (Gregorian chant), Gerre Hancock (improvisation) and David Willcocks (choral conducting). He held music positions at St. Henry Parish, Chicago, Illinois; Armed Forces School of Music, Norfolk, Virginia; St. Philip Parish, Battle Creek, Michigan; St. Catherine Parish, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Cathedral of St. Paul, Birmingham, Alabama. In addition, he worked as adjunct instructor at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, as music critic for the Battle Creek Enquirer and News, as choral director at St. Philip Catholic Central High School, and as associate director, accompanist and composer-in-residence for the Battle Creek Boys Choir.

He played recitals thoughout the midwest, east and southeast, and performed at the 1986 AGO national convention in Detroit. Internationally, he presented an organ recital at Eglise Notre-Dame in Douai, France, and led the St. Catherine Church Choir on a tour of Italy in March 1987. Mr. Shenk was a Fellow of the AGO and served as dean of the Southwest Michigan chapter, as well as educational concerns chairman of the Birmingham, Alabama chapter. He was a member of the Hymn Society, the Church Music Association of America and the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians.

A prolific composer, his works are published by MacAfee Music, GIA Publications and CanticaNOVA Publications, and he was co-author of the Adoremus Hymnal (Ignatius Press). A funeral mass was held on July 13 at Assumption Grotto Church, Detroit. Mr. Shenk is survived by his wife of 37 years, Ila Marie Connors Shenk.