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Robert Cameron Clark, 85, died August 23 in Houston, Texas. Born September 13, 1931, in Fairbury, Nebraska, he began piano lessons in the fourth grade with Margaret Dietrich and attended Kansas City public schools whose music department was led by noted music educator, Maybell Glenn. At age 14, he held his first church job where he played an Estey reed organ. 

In 1952, he graduated from Central Methodist College (Fayette, Missouri), where he studied organ with Orpha Ochse and Luther Spade and piano with Opal Hayes and Nannie Lou Wright. In 1954, he completed his graduate studies in New York City at Union Theological Seminary’s School of Sacred Music, where in addition to organ study with Clarence Dickinson (1952) and Ernest White (1953), he studied Baroque performance practice and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt. His dissertation on Olivier Messiaen included a translation of the composer’s Technique de mon langage musical.

After holding positions at Baker University (Baldwin City, Kansas), Christ United Presbyterian Church (Canton, Ohio), and Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa), he taught at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for 17 years (1964–1981). A Rackham School of Graduate Studies research grant (1976) enabled him to study organs in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Focusing on organs in Saxony and Thuringia, Clark played nearly all the organs built by Gottfried Silbermann, research that contributed to the initial impetus for building a Silbermann-inspired C. B. Fisk organ (Op. 87) at the University of Michigan. During his research in then East Germany, his study of manuscripts in the East Berlin Stadtsbibliothek led to his co-authorship of a new edition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orgelbüchlein (1984).

Beginning in 1981, Clark taught at Arizona State University where he played a decisive role in the design of ASU’s organ hall and the construction of the Paul Fritts organ. Both were focal points for a symposium, The Historical Organ in America (1992), attended by musicians and organ builders from around the world. Clark retired from ASU in 1998 as professor emeritus of music.

Throughout his career, Clark served as adjudicator for regional, national, and international competitions including those of St. Albans and Grand Prix de Chartres. His several CDs include Bach at Naumburg, the notable first recording of the fully restored Hildebrandt organ in the Wenzelskirche, Naumburg, Germany.

Robert Clark is survived by his children Susan Clark Joul, Barbara Clark, Robert Clark, and Jill Meiburg; grandchildren, Ivy Joul, Henry Meiburg, Sebastian Meiburg, and Maxwell Meiburg; and a sister, Carol Chamberlin.

Edna I. VanDuzee-Walter, 96, died peacefully at home in Round Lake, New York, August 8. She was born May 27, 1921, in Bradford, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Lorenzo and Oral C. Lawton. Early in life she played the piano and showed an unusual affinity for music. She graduated from Turin High School in Turin, New York, and later received two degrees in music education from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York.

Edna married Robert F. VanDuzee in 1945, who predeceased her in 1988. She is survived by her second husband, Norman Walter, a daughter, Barbara Jean (Allan) Michelin of Wappinger’s Falls, New York, and a son, Robert F. (Stephanie) VanDuzee, Jr., of Brigantine, New Jersey, as well as several nieces and nephews.

In 1947, Edna moved to Round Lake where she became a member of the local Methodist church, and served the congregation as choir director for over two decades. She taught music in several public schools, gave private lessons, and ran a musical nursery school in Round Lake between 1969 and 1986. She was a member of the Round Lake Woman’s Improvement Society, serving several terms as president, and was also active in civic affairs.

Beginning in 1968 and for some forty years, she was curator of the Round Lake Auditorium and its famous Davis & Ferris organ. She organized concerts, did fund-raising, and raised awareness of the organ’s historical significance on a broad scale. She was also an enthusiastic member of the Organ Historical Society and the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She was the recipient of several honors, including the Distinguished Service Award of the Organ Historical Society.

Her funeral was held on August 16 at the Round Lake United Methodist Church, and she was buried in Memory Gardens Cemetery, Colonie, New York. Memorial contributions may be made in her memory to the Round Lake Auditorium, Post Office Box 85, Round Lake, New York 12151.

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Wilbur R. Dodge, 83, died November 20, 2017, in Binghamton, New York, an engineer, physicist, professional photographer, English country dancer, organist, organbuilder, and organ technician. He graduated from Clarkson University and Harpur College (now Binghamton University) with degrees in electrical engineering and physics and followed in his father’s footsteps working at Ansco Film Company.  With Norman Smith, he started their company, R D & D before he moved on to Link Aviation where he worked on simulators for the Gemini and Apollo missions.

Dodge was a member of the choir and guest organist for various churches in the community including Trinity Memorial and Christ Churches. He also maintained and tuned pipe organs in churches throughout the region. He was dean of the Binghamton Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, 1999–2001. 

Wilbur R. Dodge is survived by his partner, Anneliese Heurich; children: Glenn Burch (Bellefonte, Pennsylvania), Michael and Tammy Burch (Deland, Florida), Barbara Burch (Paisley, Florida), and Laura Appleton (Binghamton); several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held at Christ Episcopal Church in Binghamton on January 20.

Mark Coan Jones died December 24, 2017. Born February 25, 1957, in Asheville, North Carolina, he studied organ with Marilyn Keiser and with Donna Robertson at nearby Mars Hill College. For the past 22 years, Jones was director of music and organist for The Pink Church (First Presbyterian Church), Pompano Beach, Florida. He previously served St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Pompano Beach; First Presbyterian Church, Newton, North Carolina; and Trinity Episcopal Church, Asheville.

Jones appeared with the Florida Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Lynn University Conservatory Orchestra, Young Artists Chamber Orchestra, Palm Beach Atlantic Symphony, and Miami Bach Society, and in collaborations with chamber groups and area choruses, including the Nova Singers, Florida Philharmonic Chorus, Master Chorale of South Florida, Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches, Fort Lauderdale Christian Chorale, and Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida. He arranged music for organ and brass and performed with the Dallas Brass, Avatar Brass, Empire Brass, Lynn Conservatory Brass, and Eastman Brass. He performed extensively across Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia, in collaborations and solo recitals. 

Jones’s organ compositions have been performed in venues across the United States and in Europe, and have been broadcast nationally. His Three Lenten Hymn Meditations, Trumpet Tune in D, and Lenten Hymntunes have been recorded and performed by various organists.

From 2006 through 2014, Mark was principal accompanist for the von Trapp Children, the great-grandchildren of the singing family made famous by the Rodgers & Hammerstein movie The Sound of Music. His solo appearances and concerts with the von Trapps included performances around the world.

Mark Coan Jones is survived by his parents Hubert Mack and Shirley Williams Jones of Asheville, his sister Suzanne Jones Hamel and husband Richard Anson Hamel of Covington, Kentucky, and his partner Hilarion (Kiko) Suarez Moreno of Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Yuko Hayashi died January 7 in Salem, New Hampshire, at the age of 88. She was born in Hiratsuka, Japan, on November 2, 1929. For more than 40 years she was professor of organ at the New England Conservatory and department chair for 30 years. As a performer, she concertized extensively on three continents—Asia, North America, and Europe—giving recitals and masterclasses in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. She was the recipient of the coveted Arion Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music as an “outstanding performer and master teacher of the historical organ.” She was also awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the New England Conservatory.

Hayashi graduated with a degree in organ performance from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1948 and for five years was organist for the symphony orchestra of NHK, the Japanese national broadcasting company. She came to the United States in 1953 on scholarship, sponsored by Philanthropic Educational Organization and studied for one year at Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri. She then transferred to the New England Conservatory in Boston where she was awarded three degrees in organ performance: Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Artist Diploma. In 1960 she began teaching at the conservatory and was appointed chair of the department in 1969 by then president Gunther Schuller. Her primary teachers were George Faxon, Donald Willing, Anton Heiller, and Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord).

Her frequent travels to Europe began in 1966 when she went to the Haarlem Organ Academy in the Netherlands and began life-long associations with Anton Heiller, Luigi Tagliavini, and Marie-Claire Alain. In 1971, she studied with Michel Chapuis in France and was introduced to many historic organs in North Germany and Holland by Harald Vogel and Klaas Bolt. This was the beginning of many exchanges of concerts and masterclasses across the Atlantic Ocean between Boston and Europe. It was during this time that Hayashi became organist of Old West Church in Boston, performing on a new mechanical-action organ built by Charles B. Fisk. She served as organist there for nearly 40 years and was the founder and executive director of the Old West Organ Society until her retirement in 2010.

Beginning in 1970, Hayashi crossed the Pacific Ocean yearly to give recitals and masterclasses in Japan. With Italian organist Umberto Pineschi and the assistance of Japanese organ builder Hiroshi Tsuji and his wife Toshiko Tsuji, she founded the Italian Organ Academy in Shirakawa. She was influential in persuading organ committees from universities, churches, and concert halls to commission mechanical-action organs from organbuilders from around the world. Most noteworthy are the instruments for International Christian University (Rieger), Toyota City Concert Hall (Brombaugh), Minato Mirai Concert Hall, Yokohama (C. B. Fisk, Inc.), and Ferris University, Yokohama (Taylor & Boody, Noack Organ Company, and J. F. Nordlie Pipe Organ Company organs).

In 1989, Yuko Hayashi took a leave of absence from the New England Conservatory to accept a position as professor of organ at Ferris University, Yokohama. She taught there for six years before returning to Boston. She also became titular organist at St. Luke’s International Hospital Chapel, which houses an organ built by Marc Garnier of France. She was responsible for relocating a historic 1889 organ built by Hook & Hastings to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Yokohama where her father served as priest for many years.

Yuko Hayashi is survived by two brothers, Makoto Hayashi and Satoru Hayashi, and several nieces and nephews, all residing in Japan. A memorial service for Yuko Hayashi will be held at Christ Church, Andover, Massachusetts, April 28, at 11:00 a.m. Memorial contributions may be directed to: Old West Organ Society, c/o Jeffrey Mead, Treasurer, 72 Trenton Street, Melrose, Massachusetts 02176;  St. Andrew’s Cathedral, 14-57 Mitsuzawa-shimo-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama City, Kanagawa, 221-0852, Japan; or St. Luke’s International Hospital Chapel, c/o Organ Committee, 9-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 140-8560, Japan.

Pierre Pincemaille, 61, died, January 12, an international concert organist, church organist, music professor, and composer. Born in Paris, France, December 8, 1956, Pincemaille was awarded five first prizes at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (harmony, counterpoint, fugue, organ interpretation, and organ improvisation) and won five international improvisation competitions: Lyon (1978), Beauvais (1987), Strasbourg (1989), Montbrison (1989), and Chartres (1990).

In 1987, Pierre Pincemaille was appointed titular organist of the prestigious 1841 Cavaillé-Coll at the Gothic Saint-Denis Cathedral-Basilica. He loved accompanying beautiful liturgy there, amidst the tombs of the Kings of France. Highly inspired by Pierre Cochereau, Pincemaille founded a concert series there, from 1989 to 1994. For his 30th anniversary there, he performed his last concert on November 5, 2017, programming choral works he cherished, conducted by Pierre Calmelet: Louis Vierne’s Messe Solennelle and three of his own recently composed vocal motets (to be published), as well as J. S.
Bach’s Pièce d’Orgue, BWV 572, symbolizing for him the three periods of life.

Pierre Pincemaille also performed with orchestras under the direction of conductors such as Mstislav Rostropovitch, Myung-Whun Chung, Riccardo Muti, Charles Dutoit, and John Nelson. His recordings include the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé and César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor’s ten symphonies, selected pieces by Jehan Alain, Pierre Cochereau, Olivier Messiaen, and Louis Vierne, his own improvisations and transcriptions of Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Petrushka, as well as works with orchestra by Camille Saint-Saëns, Hector Berlioz, Joseph Jongen, and Aaron Copland. Several of Pierre Pincemaille’s compositions were published: Prologue et Noël varié [Prologue and Variations on a Noel] (Sampzon, Delatour France, 2007), a 4-voice a cappella Ave Maria (Lyon, À Coeur Joie, 2013), and En Louisiane for trombone and piano (Delatour France, 2017).

Recently, Pierre Pincemaille taught counterpoint at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, harmony at the Conservatory in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and organ improvisation at the Conservatory in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés for the past 17 years. For the past 14 years, he formed a generation of French and foreign organ improvisers, many who have won prizes in international competitions: among them, six Parisian organists: David Cassan (at the Oratoire du Louvre), Thomas Lacôte (La Trinité), Samuel Liégeon (St.-Pierre-du-Chaillot), Hampus Lindwall (St.-Esprit), Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard (St.-Eustache), and Olivier Périn (St.-Paul-St.-Louis).

Among his honors and distinctions, Pierre Pincemaille was a Knight in the following three orders: the Academic Palms, Arts and Letters, and St. Gregory the Great. 

Pierre Pincemaille is survived by his wife, Anne-France, and their three children, Claire, Marc, and Éric.

—Carolyn Shuster Fournier, Paris, France

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Margaret Smith McAlister died September 11, 2017. Born November 20, 1923, she was a lifelong resident of Tampa, Florida. McAlister’s early organ study began at the age of 13 with Nella Crandall, organist of First Christian Church, Tampa. At age 14, McAlister became organist at Highland Avenue Methodist Church. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music education and a certificate in organ studies from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University), where she studied with Margaret Whitney Dow and Ramona Beard. Her organ studies continued as a graduate student at The Juilliard School in New York City with Vernon de Tar.

In 1947, McAlister became organist at First Presbyterian Church, Tampa, where she served faithfully until her retirement in 2012. During her 65-year tenure at the church, she also served as music director at various times. She served two terms as dean of the Tampa Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and several terms as AGO district convener for Florida. Each year, the Tampa Chapter of the AGO provides a scholarship in McAlister’s name to a local organ student. 

McAlister was a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, national music honorary, and was a member of the music faculties at University of Tampa and Clearwater Christian College. She served as music department accompanist for 25 years at Hillsborough Community College, Ybor Campus, Tampa. McAlister served as state chairman and member of the national executive board of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and was a Certified Associate Church Musician in that organization. McAlister also served as a member of the worship subcommittee of the Presbytery of Tampa Bay.

Margaret Smith McAlister is survived by a sister, six children, seven grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. A funeral service was held September 23 at First Presbyterian Church, Tampa. The choir, which she had accompanied for 65 years, performed her favorite anthem, My Eternal King, by Jane Marshall, as well as two responses composed by McAlister.

Hugh John McLean, organist, choirmaster, and musicologist, died July 30, 2017, in Naples, Florida. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on January 5, 1930. McLean began organ study as a teenager with Hugh Bancroft in Vancouver. At age 15, he was appointed organist to St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Winnipeg, and at 17, presented his first broadcast organ recital on CBC. Attending the Royal College of Music, England, on an organ scholarship in 1949, studying with Arthur Benjamin (piano), William Harris (organ), and W. S. Lloyd Webber (composition), McLean was the first Canadian to be named Mann Organ Scholar at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, under Boris Ord, 1951–1956. He made his London debut in 1955 at the Royal Festival Hall with Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the premiere of Malcolm Arnold’s Organ Concerto, a command performance in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. Returning to Vancouver, Hugh served as organist and choirmaster at Ryerson United Church (1957–1973). He founded and conducted the Vancouver Cantata Singers, the Hugh McLean Consort, and the CBC Vancouver Singers. He taught at the universities of Victoria (1967–1969) and British Columbia (1969–1973) before joining the faculty of music at the University of Western Ontario, London. While at Western (1973–1995) he served as dean (1973–1980) and taught organ, harpsichord, and music history. During his tenure as organist at St. John the Evangelist, London, he collaborated with organbuilder Gabriel Kney on the installation of an organ for the church, and again for the Roy Thompson Hall organ, Toronto, performing at the instrument’s inaugural gala concert in 1985.

McLean retired from University of Western Ontario to assume the post of organist and choirmaster at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Winter Park, Florida (1995–2010). The parish Senior Choir undertook four summer sojourns as guest choir in residence in Anglican cathedrals of the UK and Ireland. In addition to broadcasts on the CBC, McLean also broadcast with the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Swiss Radio, and NHK Japan. The first Canadian organist to tour the USSR, he also performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and two of Bach’s churches (Muhlhausen and Leipzig’s Thomaskirche). He gave many Canadian premieres including Hindemith’s Organ Concertos No. 1 and No. 2, Vancouver (1970–1972) and appeared as organ soloist with the Toronto Symphony in 1979, 1982, and 1985. Specializing in 17th- and 18th-century musicology studies and awarded Canada Council grants to research at archives in Japan, Poland, and the the former East Germany, he served on the editorial board of the new C. P. E. Bach edition and wrote 19 articles for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Hugh John McLean is survived by his wife, Florence Anne, and their children, Ross Alan and Olivia Anne, his sons Robert Andreas, John Stuart, and Hugh Dundas (by his late wife, Gunlaug Julie Gaberg), nine grandchildren, two sisters, and several nieces and nephews.

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Ronald Kent Arnatt, 88, died August 23, 2018. He was born January 16, 1930, in London, England, and was a boy chorister at Westminster Abbey and King’s College, Cambridge. He was educated at Trent College, Derbyshire, Trinity College of Music, London, and Durham University. From the latter, he was granted a Bachelor of Music degree in 1954. In 1970, Arnatt was awarded a Doctor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey.

Over the course of his career he held numerous positions, including instructor, American University, Washington, D.C.; director of music, Mary Institute, St. Louis, Missouri; professor of music and director choral activities, University of Missouri, St. Louis; director of music and organist, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis; founder and conductor, St. Louis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus; conductor and music director, Bach Society of St. Louis; director of music and organist, Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts; president, American Guild of Organists; director of music and organist, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Beverly, Massachusetts; professor of church music and department head, Westminster Choir College; and editor, ECS Publishing, Boston. He was also the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and prizes.

Ronald Arnatt married Carol Freeman Woodward, who died in 2017. They had two daughters who survive, Ronlyn and Sylvia. He is also survived by nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Jon L. Bertschinger, 65, died July 13, 2018, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was born July 25, 1952, in Burlington, Iowa. Bertschinger began taking piano lessons at an early age, followed by organ lessons on the new M. P. Möller organ at his church, Messiah Lutheran Church, in Burlington, in 1958. He sang in and accompanied one of the five choirs at that church while in junior high school.

Bertschinger began work for the Temple Organ Company when it moved to Burlington in 1966, helping to install the rebuilt organ at First Methodist Church in 1967. He was still working with David Cool, son of the company’s founder, Fred Cool, when the church burned in 2007, and he accomplished the tonal finishing for the new 60-rank organ for the rebuilt church.

Bertschinger was on the volunteer staff for the Auditorium and Temple in Independence, Missouri, performing recitals under the direction of Jan Kraybill, former director of music for the Community of Christ Church. He also had regular church jobs in St. Joseph, sometimes two at a time, playing over the years at Westminster Presbyterian, Trinity Presbyterian, First Christian, and, up until his death, Brookdale Presbyterian.

Wesley Coleman Dudley, II, 85, of Williamsburg, Virginia, and Bar Harbor, Maine, died July 25 in Williamsburg. He was born in Buffalo, New York, December 15, 1932. He attended Nichols School and graduated from St. Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire, before receiving his bachelor’s degree from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. After two years in the United States Navy in Hawaii, he returned to Buffalo in 1958 to work at Worthington Pump Company. Six years later he became an entrepreneur, managing Auto Wheel Coaster Company, North Tonawanda, New York, before joining his family’s management office. He began spending winters in Williamsburg, Virginia, and summers in Bar Harbor, Maine, allowing him to explore his two dominant passions: pipe organs and boating.

A quiet philanthropist, he supported many projects anonymously, but there was one exception, the public radio program, Pipedreams. He was also a frequent donor to the Organ Historical Society.

Wesley C. Dudley was preceded in death by his daughter, Katherine Mary Dudley. He is survived by his wife of sixty-two years, Lucinda Nash Dudley, and his children, Nanette (David) Schoeder, Donald M. (Janet) Dudley, three grandchildren, Nicholas Schoeder, Katherine Dudley, and MacLaren Dudley, their mother Meg Dudley, and two step-grandchildren, Grace and Madeleine Waters. Memorial contributions may be made to Minnesota Public Radio, attn. Jamie Ziemann, 480 Cedar St., St. Paul, Minnesota 55101, or to the Dudley Scholarship at the Eastman School of Music, attn. Suzanne Stover, 26 Gibbs St., Rochester, New York 14604.

Steven E. Lawson, 63, of New York, New York, died suddenly, August 19, of natural causes. He had completed his usual Saturday evening practice at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, where he had served as assisting organist for 21 years, and failed to show up on Sunday morning.

Lawson was born September 9, 1954, in San Diego, California, attended elementary school in Fullerton, California, and high school in Topeka, Kansas. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance at Oklahoma City University, where he studied with Wilma Jensen, and the Master of Music degree in organ performance at Indiana University, also studying with Wilma Jensen. At Indiana University, he minored in carillon performance and accompanied the University Singers, working with conductors Robert Shaw and Margaret Hills. Before his appointment at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, Lawson served St. Luke’s Lutheran Church near Times Square in New York City for ten years.

As an active member of the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, Lawson served as registrar, webmaster, and editor of the chapter’s concert calendar, but his towering achievement was the New York City Organ Project (NYCOP). Starting with his interest in gathering the histories of various pipe organs in churches he served or played in, the NYCOP grew into a seemingly limitless body of information, published online as part of the website of the New York City AGO Chapter. Thousands of organs are diligently documented with histories, specifications, and photographs. (For example, see the documentation of organs at the Church of the Heavenly Rest: www.nycago.org/organs/nyc/html/HeavenlyRest.html.) Friends and colleagues have joked that no one knew the organs of New York City as well as Lawson, given the countless hours he traveled around the city carrying heavy photographic equipment.

Lawson’s passion for collecting and making available this type of information drew him to the Organ Historical Society’s Pipe Organ Database, where he continued his vast contribution to the art of the organ, expanding his boundaries from New York City to include the entire United States. He worked closely with the OHS Database Committee, contributing and updating countless entries of organs, and behind the scenes with the development of a new, more user-friendly version of the database.

Steven E. Lawson is survived by his parents, George W. Lawson and Doris E. Lawson, and his cousin Linda Driskel.

­—John Bishop

Frank G. Rippl, 71, died August 11, in Appleton, Wisconsin. Born in Neenah, Wisconsin, Rippl earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Appleton, where he minored in organ, studying with Miriam Clapp Duncan. He received a Master of Music degree in Orff-Schulwerk from the University of Denver. Rippl also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, as well as the Royal School of Church Music in England.

In 1979 he co-founded the Appleton Boychoir, for which he conducted and played organ for 26 years until his retirement from the organization in 2010. He initiated the Boychoir’s popular Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held each Christmas in Memorial Chapel, Lawrence University. During Rippl’s tenure, the choir performed as choir-in-residence at the Green Lake Festival of Music under Sir David Willcocks and toured nationally and internationally.

Rippl taught elementary vocal music in the Appleton Area School District for 33 years. Upon retirement from school teaching, he pursued additional organ study with Wolfgang Rübsam. In 1996 he founded the Lunchtime Organ Recital Series held each summer in the Appleton area, attracting organists from all over the country.

Rippl began playing the organ at St. Mary Catholic Church, Menasha, later at Saint Bernard Catholic Church, also of Menasha. He was organist and choirmaster of All Saints Episcopal Church, Appleton, for over 46 years (1971–2018), retiring January 7. At his retirement, the parish established a choral scholarship for Lawrence University students to sing in the church’s choir. (For information on Frank Rippl’s retirement celebration, see the April 2018 issue, page 8.)

Rippl served as dean of the Northeastern Wisconsin Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, was active in the Organ Historical Society (OHS) and the Packerland Theatre Organ Society, and performed on Minnesota Public Radio’s Pipedreams. He penned numerous OHS convention reviews for The Diapason. He accompanied silent movies on the organ for over 20 years for the American Theatre Organ Society. He loved teaching and the pipe organ, and combined these two passions by giving organ lessons to many students.

In 2007, Rippl received the Rotary Club Paul Harris Service Award for service to the community; he played for the Appleton chapter’s weekly meetings for many years. While a student at Lawrence he was Vince Lombardi’s favorite pianist at Alex’s Crown Restaurant, as cited in David Moraniss’s When Pride Still Mattered. In 2014 he became director for the new Memory Project choir, “On a Positive Note,” for those suffering from memory loss and their families.

Frank Rippl is survived by his wife of 43 years, Carol Jegen, his brothers Bill Rippl, Rick (Marie) Rippl, and Dan (Becky) Rippl, as well as numerous extended family members. His funeral was held August 21 at All Saints Episcopal Church, Appleton. Memorial donations may be directed to All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Appleton, the Appleton Boychoir, or his family for an organ scholarship.

James Ralph Verdin, of Indian Hill, Ohio, died August 8. He was born July 30, 1936, in Cincinnati. He grew up in Mariemont and graduated from Mariemont High School in 1955. After graduation, Verdin served in the United States Army.

Verdin was president and chief executive officer of the Verdin Company of Cincinnati, a family-owned business since 1842 that installs bells, tower and street clocks, electronic carillons, and organs across the United States and abroad. Notable installations include the World Peace Bell, the Ohio Bicentennial Bell Project, and the Verdin Mobile Bell Foundry.

Verdin’s vision to redevelop and transform the Pendleton Neighborhood in Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, led to the founding of the Pendleton Art Center, Pendleton Square Complex, the old Car Barn (Nicola’s Restorante), and the restoration of St. Paul’s Church. The church became the corporate offices of the Verdin Company and is now the Bell Event Centre.

A funeral Mass was celebrated August 16 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Cincinnati. James Ralph Verdin is survived by his wife Carole (nee Conners), daughter Jill (Sam) Crew, and grandchildren Caroline Verdin Crew and Samantha Verdin Crew. Memorials may be made to Summit Country Day School, 2161 Grandin Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45208.

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Donald A. Grooms, 78, died May 7, following complications caused by a stroke. Born in Paris, Texas, he was an honor graduate of Paris High School. During his high school and college years, he served as organist for several churches. He studied organ under Helen Hewitt at North Texas State University. In 1965, he graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and in 1971, he was elected a Fellow to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Grooms served as a Major in the Army, attached to the 25th Evacuation Hospital, Da Nang, Vietnam, after which he relocated to New York City where he was associated with the international division of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals for 20 years. Following his retirement from Pfizer, Dr. Grooms became a partner in Petty-Madden Organ Builders, a position he held well into his seventies.

Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB, 87, a monk and priest of St. Meinrad Archabbey, St. Meinrad, Indiana, died on June 9 at the monastery. He was a jubilarian both of profession and priesthood. Born in Williamsburg, Iowa, on October 30, 1930, he was given the name John Joseph at his baptism. He attended St. Ambrose College, Davenport, Iowa, for several years before transferring to St. Meinrad College. Invested as a novice monk on July 30, 1952, he professed simple vows on July 31, 1953, and his solemn vows on August 6, 1956. Fr. Columba completed his theological studies in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood on July 5, 1958. The following year, he received a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’ Anselmo. He then pursued graduate studies, earning his doctorate in church music at Rome’s Musica Sacra in 1963. He studied semiological interpretation of chant under Dom Eugène Cardine, OSB, monk of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre in Solesmes.

When Fr. Columba returned to Saint Meinrad in 1964, he was named choirmaster of the monastic community and began to teach in both the College and the School of Theology. His lasting contribution was to introduce chant in English into the celebrations of the Divine Office and the Eucharist. The monastery’s collection of his chant compositions numbers nearly 2,000.

In addition to his many years teaching at Saint Meinrad, he taught courses on liturgical music for 12 summers at St. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, Indiana. Other summer teaching assignments included University of Wisconsin, Madison, and California State University-Los Angeles. Through his many workshops to parishes and religious communities, and through the collections of his antiphons published by GIA and Oregon Catholic Press, his work is known by many cantors, choirs, and parish communities throughout the United States.

Fr. Columba was a charter member of the Benedictine Musicians of the Americas, a member of the American Musicological Society, the American Guild of Organists, the National Catholic Music Educators Association, the Church Music Association of America, and the Composers’ Forum for Catholic Worship. He was also a standing member of the Chant Division of the National Pastoral Musicians Association. In 2015, he was named the second recipient of the Spiritus Liturgiae Award, given by the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein, Illinois.

In addition to his music scores, Fr. Columba contributed to the literature on chant and sacred music. These include his 2003 book, Gregorian Chant Intonations and the Role of Rhetoric; “The Organ,” an article in a book sponsored by the National Liturgical Conference and the Church Music Association; and, in 2006, his translation of and notes to the first volume of Agustoni and Göschl’s An Introduction to the Interpretation of Gregorian Chant. Fr. Columba also contributed entries on the Kyrie, Gloria, Agnus Dei, Benedicamus Domino, and Ite Missa Est for the New Catholic Encyclopedia.

The funeral Mass for Fr. Columba Kelly was celebrated June 13. Burial followed in the Archabbey Cemetery.

Henry Willis, IV, the last living family member of the Henry Willis & Sons organbuilding dynasty, died at a hospital near his home in India on June 23, at the age of 91. Willis was born January 19, 1927, to Henry Willis, III and Clara Constance (Sinclair) Willis at Streatham Hill, London. Educated at Gladstone Preparatory School, London, Westminster School, London, and Giggleswick School, North Yorkshire, he left school in 1944 to join the Royal Army during World War II. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in 1945 and commissioned to the Queen’s Royal Regiment in 1946, where he was placed in charge of a Japanese prisoner of war camp and the repatriation of British prisoners.

Willis joined the family organbuilding firm in 1948 as a laborer (at the insistence of his father) and then trained as a pipemaker and voicer under George Deeks. He was sent to manage the Liverpool Branch in 1954, principally to oversee the restoration of the great 1855 Willis concert organ in St. George’s Hall, which had been severely damaged by wartime bombing, theft, and general mishandling. He returned to London to manage the Head Office in 1965 due to his father’s worsening health. Following Henry Willis, III’s death on February 27, 1966, he began the search for property to construct a purpose-built organ factory in Petersfield, where he opened a shop in 1968 on land that had been the site of old dairy buildings.

Willis was invited to attend, and became one of the founding members of, the American Institute of Organbuilders at its first annual convention in 1974, thereby beginning a relationship with his American organbuilding colleagues. A frequent attendee and lecturer at subsequent conventions, his last appearance was in Washington, D.C., in 1993, where he lectured on and demonstrated organ pipemaking and voicing. His acerbic wit and entertaining style covered quite a bit of useful information to those who “listened between the lines” during those lectures and demonstrations. His wife, Barbara, was a charming lady who did her best to keep Willis as well-behaved as possible, especially during times set aside for evening socializing!

In 1997 Willis stood down as Managing Director of Henry Willis and Sons. New management and new ownership relocated the firm to the Liverpool Branch in 2001 where the firm now survives him. He was a Freeman of the City of London and served as Master of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, of which he was the longest holder of the Livery.

Henry and Barbara Willis moved to India in 2008 where his mother’s family had been coffee planters in the 19th and 20th centuries. They purchased land and built a house there, in which he and Barbara have lived up to the present. He died peacefully at home in the Nilgris District of Tamil Nadu.

—John-Paul Buzard

The Kotzschmar Organ

At 2:23 a.m. on January 24, 1908, a fire started, ironically, in the wiring of a new-fangled fire alarm system that was housed in the office of the city electrician on the third floor of City Hall in Portland, Maine. Public alarm was quickly raised, but freezing temperatures hampered the operation of the primitive fire fighting equipment, and the building was completely destroyed.

City leaders lost no time recovering from the disaster. The New York architectural firm of Carrère & Hastings, newly famous for their design of the New York Public Library completed in 1908, was engaged to design the new building, which was built, decorated, and furnished in just a few years and was ready for dedication in the summer of 1912.

Less than four months after the City Hall fire, on April 15, 1908, Portland’s most highly revered musician, Hermann Kotzschmar, passed away. A German immigrant, he had been encouraged to move to Portland by Cyrus Curtis, an interior decorator, prominent citizen, and music lover, who had heard Kotzschmar perform in Boston. When Kotzschmar and his wife moved to Portland, they lived in the Curtis home until they were established and could find a home for themselves.

Hermann Kotzschmar became organist at First Parish Church in Portland, formed an orchestra and choral society, and was the beloved teacher of scores of young musicians. The friendship that developed between Curtis and Kotzschmar was so close that Cyrus Curtis named his son Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (1850–1933). Cyrus H. K. Curtis made quite a success of himself, founding the wildly popular The Saturday Evening Post and The Ladies’ Home Journal, and later acquiring The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Evening Post, and The New York Evening Post. He amassed a vast fortune and was a prolific philanthropist.

After learning of Hermann Kotzsch-mar’s death, Cyrus H. K. Curtis approached his lifelong friend, Adam Leighton, former mayor of Portland and chair of the City Hall building commission, offering to purchase a huge pipe organ to be installed in the auditorium of the new City Hall as a gift to the people of the city of Portland. He commissioned the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut, to build the organ, and wrote to Mr. Leighton, 

I have given them carte blanche to build [the] organ, unhampered by any organist or music committee, and without any prejudice or pre-conceived notions of my own, knowing that they are better qualified to build the right kind of instruments than I could be or any committee whose member might differ in their views as to what was best.

He continued, 

As this organ is to be a memorial to Hermann Kotzschmar, I have asked [Austin] to provide some sort of place in the organ front for a bust of Mr. Kotzschmar and I am writing Mrs. Kotzschmar for photographs of her late husband with the idea of putting them into the hands of the best sculptor I know.

The cost of the organ was not to exceed $30,000, and Curtis’s gift made necessary alterations in the plans for the building, at a cost totaling $23,244.75, which was quickly authorized by the City Council.

On July 1, 1912, Mayor Oakley Curtis and the Portland City Council approved the formation of a music commission of three persons who would serve three-year terms. The commission would be responsible for the maintenance of the organ and the selection and hiring of the municipal organist. The virtuoso Will C. MacFarlane was appointed the city’s first organist; he was on the bench on Thursday, August 22, 1912, for the dedication of City Hall and the Kotzschmar Organ. The program opened with Léon Boëllmann’s Suite Gothique, followed by a prayer and Owen Brainard of Carrère & Hastings presenting the mayor with the keys to the building.

Chairman Leighton gave a report to the assembly that included the announcement that the cost of the building was $930,934.34. His report concluded, 

And now, Your Honor, Mayor Curtis, please accept from the fellow members of the building commission their hearty good-will, along with the formal relinquishment of stewardship of this beautiful structure, which is destined, we believe, to enhance Portland’s title to the compliment it so often receives of being the most beautiful city of the New World.

Cyrus H. K. Curtis then took the stage:

Mr. Mayor: 

I present to the City of Portland through you, this memorial to Hermann Kotzschmar, who for more than fifty years was pre-eminent in this city as organist, composer, and teacher, a man who was loved by all classes for his kindly spirit, his high ideals, and his devotion to music.  

He cared little or nothing for material things or for fame­—he never sought them, but here is his monument—a monument to one who did something to make us better men and women and appreciate that indefinable something that is an expression of the soul.

Cyrus H. K. Curtis purchased three different Aeolian organs for his home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, and in 1926 he purchased the immense Austin organ (146 ranks!) for Irvine Auditorium in Philadelphia as a gift to the University of Pennsylvania. The depth of his devotion to the art of music is seen in the heritage left by his daughter, Marie Louise Curtis Bok, who worked at South Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School, teaching underprivileged children.¹ She realized the need for a high-quality school of music that would be available to anyone, and in 1924, founded the tuition-free Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in honor of her father, so the influence of Hermann Kotzschmar is actively alive in Philadelphia as well as in Portland.

The Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ

The Kotzschmar organ had a wonderful career as a cultural icon in the center of the city’s artistic life. A succession of brilliant musicians served as municipal organist through the first half of the twentieth century. But by the 1970s, the organ had fallen onto hard times. The city’s budget was strained, and its leaders found it difficult to preserve the budget for the care and use of the organ ahead of essential services.

In 1980, Berj Zamkochian, organist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, brought a group of friends to see the Kotzschmar Organ. Among them was Maurice Prendergast, late of Kennebunk, Maine, who was impressed by the organ but dismayed by its condition. A few days later, he visited the offices of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and presented executive director Russ Burleigh with a check for $10,000 to be used for repairing the organ. As the organ was owned by the city, Burleigh felt that it would be inappropriate to accept the gift on behalf of the orchestra, and conferred with PSO president Peter Plumb. The idea of forming a non-profit group devoted to the care of the organ emerged, interested parties negotiated with the city to assume the responsibility for the care of the organ, and in 1981, the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ (FOKO) was founded, with Peter Plumb as founding president.

A board of directors was established, fund raising began, and FOKO presided over critical repairs to get the organ back on its feet. Concert programming was renewed, and the organ regained its active presence. When the City Hall auditorium was renovated in the 1990s, the organ was removed from the hall for safe keeping, and the stage was significantly enlarged. Through heroic efforts by FOKO and the herculean devotion of organ curator David Wallace, in 1997 it made its triumphant return to the newly renamed Merrill Auditorium.

Transition and growth

Ray Cornils was appointed Portland’s tenth municipal organist in 1990.² Ray’s tenure of 27 years in that position is the longest in the history of the position. His consummate musicianship, his gracious and welcoming personality, his affinity for working with young people in FOKO’s vast educational efforts, and his skill at nurturing the complex relationships between FOKO and the City of Portland have been essential to the growth and success of FOKO. Ray was patient with the failing and recalcitrant organ, coaxing it through its dying breath on numerous occasions and helping scores of visiting organists navigate its treacheries. Ray’s ability to show the organ in its best light, no matter the circumstances, was central to its continued prominence.

Ray was equally essential to the lengthy task of the renovation of the organ, working with the organ committee through dozens of complex meetings, assisting in raising funds, and continuing as the ambassador for the Kotzschmar Organ. He helped play the organ out of the hall as the renovation began and played it back into Portland as a renewed instrument. In many ways, Ray Cornils has been “Mister Music” for the city of Portland and the state of Maine.

David Wallace first met the Kotzschmar Organ at the age of six, the beginning of his devotion to the instrument, and the formation of his career as an organbuilder. David’s zeal was essential to the organ’s survival through budget cuts, near abandonment, and the immense chore of bringing it back to life after the renovation of the hall. Although news reports heralded the return of the “restored” Kotzschmar Organ, David knew as well as anyone that its days were still numbered.

In 2007, the reality of the organ’s condition was made clear to the board of directors, and plans for a serious and comprehensive renovation of the organ were formed. You can read in depth of the history of that process, from startled realization, to the thrill of the organ’s second triumphant return to the hall in 2014 on FOKO’s website at www.foko.org/2012-renovation/.

During the 2016 annual meeting of FOKO’s board of directors, Ray Cornils announced his retirement, to be effective after the traditional holiday concerts, “Christmas with Cornils,” in December 2017. A search committee³ was formed in October 2016, whose work started with the realization that the newly renovated organ could serve as a vehicle for a new life for the organization. Purposefully intending to remain open to structuring a new position around the talents of the next municipal organist, the committee solicited applications, reviewed recorded submissions, and selected six finalists who would travel to Portland for live interviews and auditions in May and June of 2017. After the auditions, the committee quickly reached a unanimous decision.

The Eleventh Municipal Organist

On Monday, September 18, 2017, the board of directors of the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the search committee to appoint James Kennerley as Portland’s eleventh municipal organist. That evening, at its regular bi-monthly meeting, the Portland City Council welcomed an ensemble named Burundi Drummers Batimbo United in a colorful thunderous performance in City Council chambers. They took special action to change residency requirements for Class C board members of the non-profit Portland Fish Exchange, made several special proclamations brought forward by Mayor Ethan Strimling, and acted on the order to appoint James Kennerley as municipal organist, effective January 1, 2018.

James Kennerley began his formal musical education as a chorister at Chelmsford Cathedral, where proximity to the organ inspired his interest in the instrument. He holds degrees from Cambridge University and The Juilliard School, and the prestigious diploma as a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. After holding positions at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Christ Church, Greenwich, Connecticut, and St. Mary the Virgin (Times Square) in New York City, he presently serves as organist and choirmaster at the Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch in New York City, where he directs a professional choir of 18 voices.

James won first place in the 2008 Albert Schweitzer National Organ Playing Competition and was winner of the 2013 composition competition of the Association of Anglican Musicians. He is active in New York and abroad as an organist, harpsichordist, singer, and conductor.

Recently, James and I sat together in my apartment in New York City to chat about the start of his work in Portland. He spoke eloquently about the role of the performer, bringing thought-provoking expression, musical and artistic statements both old and new, and outright entertainment to sacred congregations and secular audiences alike. But while serving a church is to be organist to the people of the church, serving as a municipal organist is to be an ambassador, a host, and a musician all at once.  

He expressed his excitement about getting to know the people of Portland and to drawing audiences to the city from afar. James and his wife, Emily, had gotten to know Portland earlier through visits with friends who live there—friends who consider Portland to be a hip and up and coming place to live, “the Brooklyn of the East Coast!” It is a city of about 65,000 residents (the size of a usual neighborhood in New York City), in a metropolitan area of about 250,000, and is home to a fleet of flourishing arts organizations including the Portland Art Museum and the Portland Symphony Orchestra.

The recent renovation of the Kotzschmar Organ is testament to the population’s commitment to the arts. It’s hard to believe that $2,400,000 could be raised for such a purpose in a city that size. By contrast, with all its cultural wealth, there is no public secular pipe organ in New York City.

James spoke of the newly renovated organ in the beautiful auditorium as a fresh canvas on which to paint a new musical picture. His vision as host is to welcome the city’s residents and visitors into City Hall, into a world of the arts including offerings from all disciplines.

By comparison, he spoke of the chef and owner of a fine restaurant, welcoming patrons into comfortable surroundings where an exciting world of things both familiar and unexpected is waiting.  Perhaps one weekend, we’ll depart from the usual menu and venture into an interesting world of exotic cuisine. Perhaps one week, we’ll invite a guest chef to approach the home stove and present something new to the neighborhood.

And as we talked, he took the restaurant metaphor further. He and Emily had just returned from a vacation in Europe, where they traveled off the beaten touristy path to remote villages in Spain where no one spoke English and where restaurants didn’t offer English menus. With little or no command of Spanish, and by cobbling together some understanding of Latin, and wisps of other languages, they ordered meals and were sometimes surprised by what turned up.

James compared that experience to the average citizen who shows up for a concert, is handed a menu in a foreign language, and takes his chances from limited knowledge as to what’s coming. The maître d’hôtel escorts the diner to his seat, unfolds the napkin, offers a glass of water, and explains the intricacies, the ingredients, and philosophies of each dish. The performer as host, as maître d’hôtel, can introduce a composer, place the music in the appropriate geographic and political context, and draw the average listener into an enlightened experience that is otherwise unattainable. The more you know about something, the easier it is to order and enjoy something unfamiliar.

The hot seat

The search committee established a tough audition process. Merrill Auditorium is a very busy place where time is at a premium, and the committee balanced the desire to hear the largest possible number of live auditions with the need to provide candidates with time to prepare at the organ. Candidates were given two hours of practice time to prepare one hour of audition performance. Just look at all those knobs. It was a daunting task.

James Kennerley had never played the Kotzschmar Organ before his audition, and in those two precious hours, he mined the tonal ore of the instrument to the deepest depths, and produced a program that included sophisticated serious music, glimpses into whimsy and fantasy, and a virtuosic romp of his own creation on the Brazilian smash hit, Tico-Tico no Fubá.  

Portland audiences, you have no idea how much you’re going to love welcoming James Kennerley as your eleventh municipal organist. Come early, come often. Bring your friends, lots of friends. We’ll be happy to recommend restaurants. It’s a big hall. There are plenty of seats. It’s going to be a blast.

Notes

1. Marie Louise Curtis’s first husband was Edward Bok, editor of her father’s magazine, The Ladies’ Home Journal. Their son, Curtis Bok, was Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Their grandson, Derek Bok, was president of Harvard University. Marie Louise Curtis’s second husband was the violinist Effrem Zimbalist, director of the Curtis School of Music. His son, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., was an actor, renowned for his starring roles in 77 Sunset Strip, and The F.B.I. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr’s., daughter, Stephanie, played Laura Holt in the NBC detective series, Remington Steele.

2. Will C. MacFarlane served two tenures, from 1912–1918, and 1932–1934.

3. Members of the search committee included John Bishop, Tom Cattell (president of the FOKO board of directors), Andy Downs (director of public facilities for the city), Elsa Geskus, Tracy Hawkins, Brooke Hubner (executive director of FOKO), Peter Plumb, Larry Rubinstein (chair), Harold Stover, and Mark Terison.