Nunc Dimittis

John Hubert Corina, 86, of Athens, Georgia, died December 13, 2014. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he studied piano and organ with his father. As a young oboist, he taught in the Cleveland Music Settlement, performed with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, and was a bandsman in the Army at Fort Meade and West Point. Corina earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Case Western Reserve University and a doctoral degree in composition from Florida State University. He taught composition, oboe, and theory at the University of Georgia, where he performed with the UGA Baroque Ensemble and the Georgia Woodwind Quintet and established the New Music Center and the Electronic Music Studio. In 1985, he was awarded the university’s teaching excellence professorship; he was named Professor Emeritus of Music and retired in 1991.

As composer of over 130 works, Corina received 14 awards from ASCAP and other organizations. He was an organist/choirmaster for 50 years, serving at Young Harris Memorial UMC and Emmanuel Episcopal Church. He also conducted the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra and the Athens Choral Society, among other choruses, orchestras, and bands, and became the founding board chairman of the Athens Civic Ballet and founding director of the Classic City Band.  

John Hubert Corina is survived by his wife of 54 years, Carol; son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Sandra Corina; son, Donald Corina; daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Michael Mears; daughters and son, Mary Ellen Gurbacs, Gail Brant, and John L. Corina; granddaughter and grandson, Laura and Michael Johnson; granddaughters and grandson, Jordan, Sydney, and Brendan Corina; brother and sister-in-law, Lawrence and Jacqueline Corina, and other family members.

Myles J. Criss died on January 12 of melanoma, his cat Gracie at his side. He was born on April 7, 1933, in Winterset, Iowa. He attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and the Kansas City Conservatory. In 1952 he joined the U.S. Navy; his naval career included service on the hospital ship USS Haven, where he worked for the chaplain, played the ship’s organ, and had his first choir. The USS Haven sailed throughout the Pacific during the Korean War. He also served aboard the supply ship USS Alludra and the destroyer USS Dixie.

Honorably discharged from the Navy in 1956, Criss returned to Kansas where he enrolled at Washburn University in Topeka, studying organ with Jerald Hamilton. He transferred to Kansas University, studying organ with Laurel Everette Anderson and conducting with Clayton Krehbiel. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1960 and master’s degree in 1963. 

Criss served in organist and choirmaster positions at many churches, including at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City, where he subsequently designed the organ, developed choir programs, and founded the Canterbury Choral Society, at Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Topeka, Kansas, where he established a full choir program, and at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in Corvallis, Oregon. Semi-retiring from Good Samaritan in 2002, he accepted the position of organist at the Congregational Church of Corvallis. 

He founded the Topeka Festival Singers in 1984 and conducted them until 1987. He was made an honorary Canon and retired from Grace Cathedral in 1997. In December of 2013, Canon Criss moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he assisted with the music program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Criss was a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and the American Guild of Organists, which he served as dean three different times. He traveled extensively and knew by heart the stop lists of pipe organs around the world, many of which he played. He also played concerts and recitals throughout the U.S. Myles J. Criss is survived by nieces and nephews Sandra Bentley, Linda Mosteller, Marjorie Ross, Larry Kuhn, Anita Luce, Lynn Ellen Morman, David Morman, Debi Foster, and Steve Criss, and by a stepsister, Sharon Boatwright.

Bertram Schoenstein, 97 years old, died January 8, 2015, in San Rafael, California. Born September 11, 1917, Bert was the eldest remaining third-generation member of the pioneer San Francisco organbuilding family. As a youngster he helped his father, Louis, in the organ business, but coming of age in the depth of the Great Depression when there was little prospect for the organ business, he began a 40-year career as a master painter and decorator. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps. After retiring, he achieved his dream of a second career in organbuilding with Schoenstein & Co. from 1978 to 1995. Bert was a natural mechanic and practical problem solver. In addition to running the paint and finish department, he devised many clever fixtures and tools for the other departments and maintained plant equipment. Also a natural musician, as was the family tradition, he played the violin in several orchestras and ensembles including the Deutscher Musik Verein. Among his many mechanical interests was antique car restoration, specializing in Model T Fords. Bertram Schoenstein is survived by children Karl and Heidi, five grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

Charles Dodsley Walker, 94, died in New York City on January 17. At the time of his death he was the conductor of the Canterbury Choral Society and organist and choirmaster emeritus of the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, and the artist-in-residence of St. Luke’s Parish, Darien, Connecticut. During his career Walker held numerous positions, including at the American Cathedral in Paris, St. Thomas Chapel, and the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, the Berkshire Choral Institute, Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, Manhattan School of Music, and New York University. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he also served as president of the AGO from 1971–75.

An article in memoriam will follow in the April issue of The Diapason.

Harry Wilkinson, 92, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died January 15 of congestive heart failure. Born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1922, he spent most of his life in the Philadelphia area. He began his study of the organ at the age of twelve with Harry C. Banks of Girard College. The Girard College organ remained his favorite throughout his life. He studied organ with Harold Gleason and David Craighead at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, New York, earning a doctorate degree in music theory there in 1958. In 1995, Wilkinson was named honorary college organist and honorary lifetime member of the Girard College Alumni Association. A lifelong member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he was a Fellow of the AGO and served on a national level as councilor for conventions. Wilkinson was professor emeritus of music theory and composition and taught organ students at West Chester University, serving there for over 35 years. He also served on the faculties of Chestnut Hill College, Beaver College, and Arcadia University. As a church musician, he served as director of music and organist for St. Martin-in-the Fields Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill. Wilkinson recorded several discs with the Pro Organo label. Memorial gifts may be made to the Organ Restoration Fund, St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 4625 Springfield Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143. 

Christopher Hogwood—English conductor, musicologist, and harpsichordist—died September 24 at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 73. Born in Nottingham, England, on September 10, 1941, he received piano lessons as a child and enrolled at Cambridge University, where he switched from studying Greek and Latin to music, and went on to pursue keyboard studies with such talents as Rafael Puyana, Mary Potts, and Gustav Leonhardt.

Early in his career, he performed on the harpsichord with the Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields and was a founder, with David Munrow, of the Early Music Consort of London. He founded the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, with help from the Decca recording label, and created approximately 200 albums with its musicians.

Hogwood stepped down as the ensemble’s music director in 2006 and assumed the title of emeritus director. Even when he was leading the Academy of Ancient Music, he found time to appear with other ensembles, landing jobs as principal guest conductor with groups in Europe and the U.S., including a long association with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

His conducting projects were closely connected to his research and editing work. He was in the process of a completing a new edition of Mendelssohn’s orchestral works for Bärenreiter and sat on the board of the Martinů Complete Edition and the C.P.E. Bach Complete Works Edition. In 2010, he launched his latest project as general editor of the new Geminiani Opera Omnia for Ut Orpheus Edizioni in Bologna.
He wrote extensively on George Frideric Handel and gave lectures as well as master classes in Europe. As a conductor, Hogwood received the most acclaim for his renditions of well-known Baroque pieces, particularly Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. He sometimes made forays into 19th and early 20th-century music, and led performances of music by Schubert, Stravinsky, and Britten.

Hogwood was on the music faculty at Cambridge for many years and recently served as a professor of music at Gresham College in London. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1982 and a Commander of the British Empire in 1989.

Christopher Hogwood is survived by his sisters, Frances, Kate, and Charlotte, and his brother, Jeremy.

Carl B. Staplin died July 12 in Des Moines, Iowa, at the age of 79. Professor emeritus of organ and church music and former chair for the keyboard music department at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Staplin was also minister of music and organist emeritus at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Des Moines. He served as a member of the faculty at the University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana, from 1963 to 1967.

Born December 5, 1934, Carl Staplin was a choirboy and acolyte at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. He received organ training with Roberta Bitgood, followed by four years of study under Arthur A. Poister at Syracuse University. His private composition study was with Ernst Bacon. Following military service with the United States Army as the chaplain’s assistant in Frankfurt, Germany, Staplin studied at the Yale University School of Music, under the guidance of Charles Krigbaum and Finn Viderø; he earned his master’s degree in 1963. Private composition study was pursued with Richard Donovan. 

Appointed to the music faculty at the University of Evansville, he took a leave of absence to further his scholarly pursuits in 1965, and returned to graduate studies at Washington University, St. Louis, where he received an appointment as a graduate research fellow and received Phi Beta Kappa Honors while earning his Ph.D. in performance practice, following which were studies in organ performance and musicology with Anton Heiller, Howard Kelsey, and Paul A. Pisk. He received coaching in improvisation in Paris, France, during a 1984 sabbatical with Jean Guillou and premiered Guillou’s La Chapelle des Abîmes. His 1997 recording of Bach’s Clavierübung III was performed with the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church (Eric Knapp, conductor) on a Dobson mechanical-action organ (Opus 61) at Faith Church, Clive, Iowa, and was released by Calcante Recordings Ltd.  An earlier recording of other Bach works (1975) was made on a Holtkamp tracker instrument (First United Methodist Church, Perry, Iowa), and selections from both recordings have been heard on Pipedreams.

On a 1972 sabbatical, Staplin resided in Paris, France, where he studied with Marie-Claire Alain and André Marchal, studying French organ literature. While working in the Washington University library as part of his 1991 sabbatical research, he located a previously unidentified manuscript composed by J.S. Bach. In 1999, he received coaching by Harold Vogel while surveying Baroque-era German instruments. While in Europe he traveled extensively and recorded more than 35 organs in seven countries. He studied the English choir tradition in a number of English cathedrals and completed a series of five recitals devoted to Bach’s organ masterpieces, a total of 44 works. These recitals were performed in Des Moines, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Freeport, Illinois, and Perry, Iowa.

Staplin’s publications include his doctoral dissertation on the chorale preludes of J.S. Bach, and more than 20 organ, choral, and instrumental compositions released by eight national publishing firms. He presented over 200 concerts and workshops throughout the United States and Europe, appearing at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, and the Music Teachers National Association.

Staplin concertized under Phyllis Stringham Concert Management and was also a touring artist for the Iowa Arts Council. He also performed in Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland, consulted for organ installations in numerous churches and institutions, and served as organist for the Des Moines Symphony directed by Joseph Giunta and Yuri Krasnapolsky. A member of the Iowa Composers Forum, recent performances of his works were featured at Drake University, Iowa State University, Coe College, the University of Northern Iowa, and the Iowa Composers Forum Festival. 

Staplin’s former organ students, more than 300 total, occupy leading positions in churches and universities; many have been winners and ranked finalists in organ competitions, and have received grants for postgraduate study abroad.

Carl B. Staplin is survived by his wife of 53 years, Phyllis M. Staplin; two children, Elizabeth Tausner (Eric) and William Staplin (Ruth); and his five grandchildren, Mena, Benjamin, and Samuel Tausner, and Mary and Esther Staplin. 

David K. Witt, 72, died August 27. He had fallen and shattered his ankle August 23, and suffered a stroke during surgery from which he did not awake.

Witt graduated from Vanderbilt University cum laude with a bachelor of arts in mathematics, physics, and music. His career in software development, which began with GE and continued for more than 30 years at IBM, encompassed various programs, such as those related to retail store systems, antiballistic missile systems, and the NASA Gemini Space program.

Witt served as an organist in churches throughout the Southeast, Texas, and New Jersey for over 50 years and was integral in the design of new pipe organs in many of those churches. He served 39 years in the Raleigh area at Hillyer Memorial Disciples of Christ Church, Edenton Street United Methodist Church, and most recently at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church. He made recordings of his original hymn arrangements to raise money for the Methodist Home for Children, where he served on their board and as interim president and CEO. He was also a founding board member of the N. C. Child Advocacy Institute (now NC Child), and served as the Vice-Chair of Trustees with the Institute for Worship Studies, an institute dedicated to Christian worship renewal and education. Witt was active in the American Guild of Organists and served as dean of the Central North Carolina Chapter.

He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Patricia Carroll Witt (Pat), his daughter, Susan Craige and husband, Mark, of Raleigh, two grandsons, John Dakota (Koty) and David Paxton, and his nephew, James David (Jim) Nickle, son of his only sister, as well as many other nephews and nieces. ν

Organist and musicologist Walker Evans Cunningham died unexpectedly at his home in San Francisco on May 14. He was 65. Cunningham grew up in Blackstone, Virginia, where his mother encouraged him to pursue his love of music. He won a scholarship to Oberlin, where in 1970 he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from the Conservatory and a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and German from the College. 

Cunningham then taught at Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, where he was awarded an Andrew Mellon Foundation faculty grant to study with Marie-Claire Alain at the Haarlem Summer Organ Academy, and to do research in France. He spent 1973–74 as a research and performance fellow at the Institut de Musicologie, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he studied organ with Luigi Tagliavini. He earned both an M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was awarded multiple fellowships. 

Walker Cunningham performed many organ concerts in the United States, including a keynote concert for the Columbia Bach Symposium in New York City, and in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Austria. He took second prize at the Hofhaimer Competition in Innsbruck, Austria. Also a harpsichordist, he was a continuo player and accompanist with chamber, choral, and symphonic organizations such as the Berkeley Pro Musica Chorus, California Bach Society, and San Francisco Symphony. He served as organist and music director for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, organist and choirmaster for St. John the Evangelist Episcopal in San Francisco, and at other churches in the U.S. and Europe. He authored The Keyboard Music of John Bull (UMI Research Press, 1984). In 1992, he co-edited with Charles McDermott Canzoni d’intavolatura d’organo, a collection of Claudio Merulo organ intabulations. He recorded and produced the CD The Historic San Francisco Organ of the Church of St. John the Evangelist (Arkay Records, 1993), and was a reviewer for The Diapason.

Thanks to his own research and the help of his doctors, he survived two bouts with AIDS and 29 years of HIV. When AIDS brought an end to his performing career, Cunningham became a technical editor and writer at Cisco Systems, and later a consultant. Walker Evans Cunningham is survived by his sister Joy Cunningham of Austin, Texas.

Contributions in Walker Cunningham’s memory may be made to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Scholarship Fund, either online at https://new.oberlin.edu/office/development/donate or by check to Oberlin College, Department of Development, Room 005, 50 West Lorain Street, Oberlin, OH 44074. 

Carol Newton Hawk died March 5 at age 64. Born into a family of teachers and musicians, she began piano study at age five, and organ study, with her older brother, the late Robert Newton, at age 12. She later studied with Roger Nyquist. After attending DeAnza College in Cupertino, California, she married John Hawk and they moved to the Sacramento area. She served as organist at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in Fair Oaks, California for 29 years, and as an accompanist for music programs of local elementary schools. Carol Hawk served the Sacramento AGO chapter in many capacities, including as dean for six years, and was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Fraternity and the Sacramento Choral Society. Carol Newton Hawk is survived by her husband, two daughters, four grandchildren, her mother, and a brother.

Douglas L. Rafter, Portland’s longest-lived municipal organist, died July 3 in Portland, Maine. He was 97. A native of Wilmington, Vermont, Rafter moved to Portland in 1971. A concert organist, he had a repertoire of about 275 pieces of organ music memorized. He also taught music at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, at the University of Southern Maine, and privately. Rafter served as organist and choir director at Immanuel Baptist Church for 13 years, and then worked at other Portland-area churches until his retirement in 2005.

Over the years, he gave 1,700 concerts throughout the United States, playing his first concert in Portland in 1936, right after earning his associate’s certification from the American Guild of Organists. In March 2010, he was honored by the AGO for 75 years of consecutive membership, all but the last five of which had been in uninterrupted service as a church organist and concert performer.

Douglas Rafter was Portland’s municipal organist from 1976 until 1981, playing both classical and popular works. He played summer series concerts for 68 years, and was also noted for  his Christmas preludes before the annual Magic of Christmas concert.

Musician and organbuilder John A. Schantz, 93 years old, passed away at his home in Orrville, Ohio, on July 4. Born on June 14, 1920, he was the youngest child of Victor and Bess Schantz. His studies in piano and organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music were interrupted by service in the U. S. Army during World War II. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree in 1947, he joined the staff of Schantz Organ Company. With his brother Bruce and cousin Paul, John Schantz was part of the third generation of the family business. During his tenure, the Schantz Organ Company rose in prominence from a regional concern to an organbuilding firm of national (and later international) standing. He served as tonal director of the firm for many years, and as corporate secretary/treasurer, and chairman of the board of directors. 

Beyond work with the organ company, he was a lifelong, active member of Christ United Church of Christ in Orrville, an officer with the Orrville Chamber of Commerce, Orrville United Way, and the Orrville Public Library Board. He was a long-time member and officer of the MacDowell Club of Wooster, Ohio. John A. Schantz is survived by his spouse of 60 years, Marilyn, a son Timothy, daughters Molly, Melanie, and Suzanne, and ten grandchildren.

John Obetz, of Leawood, Kansas, died February 12, 2015. He was 81. Obetz, known for his “The Auditorium Organ” radio program, broadcast from the Community of Christ (previously RLDS) Auditorium, taught for more than 30 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and was a key figure in the installation of the Casavant organ in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Active in the American Guild of Organists, he served as a chapter dean, regional chairman, and on the AGO National Council for two decades. 

A full obituary will appear in a future issue of The Diapason.

Almut Rössler died February 14, 2015, in Düsseldorf, Germany, after a long illness. Born on June 12, 1932, in Beveringen (Ostprignitz), in 1977, Rössler was appointed honorary professor of organ at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule; she also served as church musician at St. John’s Church, both in Düsseldorf. 

She was an acknowledged expert on the organ music of Messiaen, whose complete works for organ she recorded. (See Marijim Thoene and Alan Knight, “The University of Michigan 51st Conference on Organ Music,” The Diapason, December 2011.) In 1972 Rössler played the European premiere of Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinite; in 1986 she played the world premiere of Messiaen’s last major organ cycle, the Livre du Saint Sacrement.

John Jay Tyrrell, 94, of St. Petersburg, Florida, architect, organ builder, and church musician, died January 19, 2015, following a brief illness. Born in Delavan, Wisconsin, on January 3, 1921, he graduated from Beloit College with a degree in music in 1938. He was drafted into the U.S. Navy from 1942 until 1946, reaching the rank of lieutenant and serving as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Henley. The ship was on its way to Japan, just prior to Hiroshima, when it was torpedoed and sank within ten minutes. The crew was in the water for ten hours, with John clinging to a lifeboat after having given his life jacket to a fellow crewman who had lost his.

Following the war, he entered Washington University in St. Louis, where he met and married his wife, Penny, in 1948. He subsequently graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949, with a degree in architecture.

John started his organ-building career at the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, in 1951, first as a draftsman working in the engineering department, under the tutelage of G. Donald Harrison. Following Harrison’s death, he was made vice president of the firm in 1956, president in 1960, and chairman of the board in 1966, working with tonal director Joseph Whiteford. During his tenure there he was involved with instruments at Lincoln Center, the Mormon Tabernacle, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, Boston, among many.

I first remember John from his visits to Knoxville, Tennessee, in connection with the sale and design of the organs at Church Street United Methodist and Broadway Baptist Churches, in the mid 1960s. At a time when many organbuilding firms employed high-pressure salesmen, he was a congenial person, always pleasant, always a gentleman in every way—someone who left a good impression on this college student.

After the decline of Aeolian-Skinner, he worked with a number of firms, retiring in 1988. During his lifetime, while living in various parts of the country, he held church music positions too numerous to mention.

In his retirement years, it was our distinct pleasure to have him associated with our firm from about 1992, during which time he made architectural renderings and sold several organs, including the large rebuilds at Rollins College and First United Methodist in Orlando. He had originally sold the latter organ, for which he also did the mechanical layout.

John Jay Tyrrell is survived by Penny, two children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Following interment in the church’s columbarium, a memorial service, which he had planned, was held for family and friends at Maximo Presbyterian Church, in St. Petersburg, on February 9.

John Tyrrell was a prince of a fellow, who lived a long and full life. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. 

—Randall Dyer

Douglas E. “Doug” Bush died in his home on October 4 after battling cancer. Born in 1947, Bush grew up on a farm in western Montana; his interest in music began while in his high school choir. Bush attended Ricks College (now Brigham Young University Idaho); after a year at Ricks College, Bush was called on an LDS mission to Switzerland, following which he attended Brigham Young University, earning a bachelor’s degree in music performance in 1972 and a master’s degree in music in 1974. He received a Ph.D. in musicology in 1982 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Bush concertized extensively in the United States, Mexico, and Europe. He taught for many years at BYU and served as an organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. He conducted numerous masterclasses and workshops, and published organ and choral music for church use. His musicological research focused on the use of the organ in the Roman Catholic and Protestant liturgies of the German Renaissance and Baroque periods, as well as the music of Samuel Scheidt, Nicolas de Grigny, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Bush had received several grants for European research, the Alcuin Fellowship for General Education at BYU (1991), several teaching awards, and BYU’s Alumni Professorship award in 2011. Douglas E. Bush is survived by daughters Sarah Bush, Rebecca Buchert (Martin), Susan Bush (Joshua Trammell), Elizabeth Bush Campbell (Scott), and Christa Groesbeck (Garrett); 12 grandchildren; father, Josiah Douglas Bush (Mary Bush); brother, Rick Bush (Jackie) and sister, Dianne Reeder.

Michael A. Rowe of Denver, Colorado, died on September 13. Chair of the 1998 Colorado OHS Convention, Rowe was active in the restoration, rebuilding, relocation, and appreciation of many pipe organs, including the 1919 four-manual, 58-rank Austin organ at Memorial Hall in Pueblo, Colorado, and the 1911 Kimball rebuilt at Immaculate Conception Cathedral (RC) in Denver, both projects undertaken by Rick Morel of Morel & Associates in Denver. 

Rowe was born January 29, 1945, in Edgewater, Colorado, and majored in theater at the University of Colorado. He subsequently received a teaching certificate from Regis College. He made Boulder his home and worked for the Boulder Valley School District. His personal passions included advocating for Boulder-Denver commuter rail service, and historic preservation projects locally and nationally. He worked to save and refurbish historic railroads and steam engines, including volunteering at Golden’s Colorado Railroad Museum, where he helped with locomotive and car restoration projects and with special exhibitions at the museum. Michael A. Rowe is survived by sisters Janice Kraft and Regina Carter, both of Bailey, and Patricia Melby, of Conifer, as well as nieces and nephews. Donations may be made in his name to the Organ Historical Society, PO Box 26811, Richmond, VA 23261.

Joseph William “Joey” Smith died October 24 in Atlanta, Georgia, as a result of injuries sustained from a severe beating by three individuals. He was considered to be brain-dead shortly after being admitted to the neurological intensive care unit of the hospital. Although he was an organ donor, most of his organs were so badly damaged by the beating that they were no longer viable. Born in Fayetteville, Georgia, on January 26, 1977, the son of Sarah Allen Anthony, Smith had been employed by Michael Proscia Organbuilder, Inc., Bowdon, Georgia, since 2005, and was considered the “computer genius” of the firm. He loved all forms of music and enjoyed playing the guitar. A person who was happy all the time, he was happiest when he was with his two sons. In his spare time he loved hunting and fishing. Joseph William Smith is survived by his mother and stepfather, Sarah Allen Anthony and Montgomery Anthony, Sr. of Woodland, Alabama; sons Cain Fristad of Lithia Spring, Georgia, and Maliki Smith of Carrollton, Georgia; brothers Chris Smith of Piedmont, South Carolina, David Ball of Hogansville, Georgia, and Montgomery Anthony, Jr. of Woodland, Alabama; and a host of other family and friends.

Walter S. Teutsch passed away on September 25 in Ghent, New York, seventeen days shy of his 104th birthday. Born in Augsburg, Germany, on October 11, 1909, Teutsch was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, a judge in the Bavarian State Court System. After receiving his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree, the younger Teutsch practiced law in Augsburg for twelve years, after which he began studies at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory, where he earned a master’s degree. In the mid-1930s, Judge Teutsch felt that life in Germany under the Nazis was becoming difficult, and he arranged for his children to come to the United States. Walter Teutsch, his brother, and sister all settled in Utah; Teutsch taught music at Westminster College, Salt Lake City. He married his lifelong sweetheart, Gertrude, in Salt Lake City, and had two daughters. In 1954 Teutsch went to California Western University, to develop a music and opera program. He served as organist and choirmaster at All Souls Episcopal Church, Point Loma, and Mission Hills United Methodist Church, San Diego; he also played numerous concerts on the Spreckels organ at Balboa Park. Teutsch was active in the AGO, as a member of the La Jolla and San Diego chapters. Walter S. Teutsch is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Karin and Daniel Haldeman. ν