Nunc Dimittis

Carlo Curley, Margaret Garrett Hayward, Daniel T. Moe, The Rev. Carl E. Schroeder, Florence Emily Westrum

Carlo Curley died at his home in Melton Mowbray, England, on August 11. He was 59. Born into a musical family in North Carolina in 1952, he attended the North Carolina School of the Arts. His organ studies were with Arthur Poister, Robert Elmore, Virgil Fox, and George Thalben-Ball.

Early in his career, he was invited by the President to play at the White House, and made history as the first classical organist to give a solo organ recital there. Carlo Curley played before crowned heads of Europe, including the late Princess Grace of Monaco, the Princess Royal of England, and several Command Performances for the Danish Royal Family; he made private recordings for the Sultan of Oman. Curley played in every state and province in North America and Canada, as well as Europe, Asia, Australia, and Hong Kong; he recently toured Japan with the King’s Singers. 

Carlo Curley also appeared on TV and radio. His network TV appearances in the United States, England, Australia, and Japan are well known. In England, he made innumerable appearances for the BBC, including organ spectaculars from the cathedrals at Ely, Lichfield, Norwich, Guildford, and Gloucester. Recently the U.K.’s Classic FM broadcast live his concert at Westminster Abbey, given in aid of the Abbey Choir School and the Royal School of Church Music. Carlo Curley’s recordings included CDs and the first-ever commercial video of a classical organ performance, Organ Imperial. His recordings have been voted “Best of the Month” by Stereo Review in the USA, “Record of the Year” in Scandinavia, and “Laser Disc of Exceptional Merit” by FM Fan in Japan, where his CDs enjoy particularly brisk sales.

Margaret Garrett Hayward of Centerport, New York, died February 1. She was 94 years old. A 1938 graduate of Skidmore College, she studied organ with a number of teachers, including Stanley Saxton, Palmer Christian, Paul Callaway, and Thomas Richner. She played at churches on Long Island for nearly 55 years, including 17 years at Locust Valley Dutch Reformed Church; she also served at Bayshore Methodist, Old First Presbyterian of Huntington, St. Paul’s Methodist, Trinity Episcopal, Huntington Episcopal, and others. Margaret Hayward retired in 1998 but continued to play as a substitute.

Daniel T. Moe died May 24 at age 85 in Sarasota, Florida. Born in Fargo, North Dakota, Moe served in the Naval Air Corps (1944–46) as a clarinetist and saxophonist. He later graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and earned master’s (University of Washington) and doctoral (University of Iowa) degrees. Moe was a faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory from 1972–92, where he directed the choral ensembles. He retired to Sarasota, Florida; at the time of his death he was conductor emeritus of the Key Chorale, and composer in residence at the Church of the Redeemer. His composition Cantata for Peace was performed in 1993 during the visit of Pope John Paul II. Daniel T. Moe is survived by his wife, five sons, seven grandchildren, two brothers, and a sister. 

The Rev. Carl E. Schroeder died June 12 in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. He was 78. Schroeder earned three diplomas from the Peabody Conservatory; he served two large Lutheran churches in Baltimore, then came to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1964, where he served as organist and choirmaster of Trinity Lutheran Church, the former Zion Lutheran Church, the former St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, and All Saints Anglican Church. He also taught organ, piano, and theory at Elizabethtown College, founded and directed the Music Sacra choral society, and served five terms as dean of the Lancaster AGO chapter. Other activities included private teaching, writing book and music reviews, music composition, and playing recitals. Schroeder studied at Scott Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and was ordained a priest, after which he became the rector at All Saints Anglican Church in Lancaster. He retired from All Saints in 2010. Rev. Carl E. Schroeder is survived by his wife, Jane Elizabeth (Hymes), a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, two sisters, and two brothers.

Florence Emily Westrum died August 6 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was Organist Emerita at First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor. Born in Beardsley, Minnesota, February 15, 1921, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music education at Hamline University and taught school for a year before moving to Berkeley, California, to work at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where her future husband, Edgar F. Westrum, Jr., was working on the Manhattan Project. After their marriage, the couple moved to Chicago and then to Ann Arbor, where Edgar became professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan. Florence was a founding member of the First Presbyterian Church, where she served initially as music director and organist, and then as organist. She was active in the American Guild of Organists and in the Faculty Women’s Club, and volunteered at the University Hospital and Ronald McDonald House. Florence Emily Westrum is survived by her husband of 69 years, Edgar F. Westrum, Jr., four children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

David Albert John Broome, Linda Lanier-Keosaian, Donald G. Larson, Elizabeth “Betty” Lankford Peek, Jane Elizabeth Sawyer

David Albert John Broome, 81, of Windsor Locks, Connecticut, died March 17 after a long illness. He is remembered as one of the world’s foremost reed voicers. Born in Leicester, England on February 21, 1932, he served two years in the Royal Air Force. In 1948, David began his career in organbuilding at J.W. Walker Sons, Ltd in London, England and immigrated to the United States after marrying Caroline Mason in Leicester on October 27, 1956. The Broomes settled in Windsor Locks, Connecticut in 1958 after moving from Hartford, where David had been recruited to join Austin Organs. 

By 1978, he had risen to the executive post of vice president and tonal director at Austin, a position he held until his retirement in 1999. Broome was responsible for the finishing and tonal design of more than 150 organs worldwide, including those at Brompton Oratory, London; Nassau Cathedral, Bahamas; Adelaide Cathedral, Australia; Riverside Church Chapel and First Presbyterian Church, New York City; Czestochowa National Shrine, Doylestown, Pennsylvania; St. John’s Episcopal Church, West Hartford, and Trinity College Chapel, Hartford. 

Since his retirement from Austin, David and his son Christopher operated Broome and Company, voicing reeds for restorations and new installations, including those at Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania; Woolsey Hall, Yale University, and the Duke University Chapel. David Broome is survived by his wife of 56 years, Caroline (Mason) Broome, four children, ten grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. 

Linda Lanier-Keosaian died January 28; she was 72. She received her BMus degree in organ from Westminster Choir College, and her MSM degree from Union Theological Seminary. At the time of her death, Lanier-Keosaian was working on her Ph.D. in music education at New York University; her doctoral dissertation concerned different interpretive approaches to Franck’s Choral No. 3 in A Minor. As a church organist and choir director, she served numerous churches, include Connecticut Farms Presbyterian in Union, New Jersey, First Congregational in Chatham, Massachusetts, Wilton Congregational in Wilton, Connecticut, and most recently, the Church of the Annunciation in Oradell, New Jersey. 

She and her husband, Rev. Gregory Keosaian, served for 20 years as musician and pastor, respectively, for several Presbyterian churches in New Jersey, including Second Presbyterian in Rahway and Trinity in Paramus. A longtime AGO member, Lanier-Keosaian was a music teacher and choral conductor in the New Jersey public school system for more than 25 years. She founded the New Jersey High School Women’s Choir Festival and was co-founder of the Essex County Choral Festival. Linda Lanier-Keosaian is survived by her husband of 30 years, Gregory Keosaian, two children, and five grandchildren.

Donald G. Larson died February 26 in Decatur, Georgia.  Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he was raised on a farm near Moorhead, Minnesota. He received his bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Minnesota and his master’s degree in church music from Northwestern University, where he was a student of Thomas Matthews. He served as a chaplain’s assistant in the U.S. Army and as organist at Wheaton College in Illinois. He moved to Atlanta in 1960.

Larson spent more than 30 years as music teacher and counselor at Georgia Perimeter College and was awarded professor emeritus status in 1995. He also served as minister of music at three Atlanta-area churches. A long-time member of the Atlanta AGO chapter, he served on the executive committee several times and for 32 years offered monthly classes in training for the Guild exams. Donald G. Larson is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jacqueline, a son, a daughter Marcia, and grandchildren.

Elizabeth “Betty” Lankford Peek died March 24. She had served as associate minister of music at Covenant Presbyterian Church for more than 47 years. Born June 10, 1929, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she graduated from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, in 1950, and earned the MSM degree from Union Theological Seminary, where she studied organ and composition with M. Searle Wright.

On June 6, 1952, she married Richard Maurice Peek, whom she met at Union. The Peeks were invited to interview for positions at Charlotte’s new Covenant Presbyterian Church. They began their ministry at Covenant July 1, 1952. Over the next 47 years, the Peeks developed and led a music ministry that became one of the most renowned church music programs in the nation.

Arriving long before the city had a full-time symphony orchestra or a performing arts center, the Peeks introduced Charlotte to world-class music by producing free concerts and sponsoring visits by choirs and organists from around the world. There are three pipe organs in the sanctuary building, and the bell tower houses Charlotte’s first cast-bronze carillon.  

Mrs. Peek directed the children’s choirs at Covenant, and also directed the handbell choirs, the first in Charlotte. During worship services and also during special performances she often served as organist while Dr. Peek conducted. She led and participated in numerous music and worship conferences, and served as president of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians from 1978 to 1980. In the mid-eighties she was appointed to the committee to develop a new hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

In 1991 the Peeks led Covenant’s adult choir on the first of several concert tours in Great Britain and Europe, with programs in St. Paul’s Cathedral, York Minster, St. Giles Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, and other well-known churches. When Mrs. Peek and her husband retired in December 1999, Covenant published a 164-page book about the couple. Dr. Peek died in 2005. Mrs. Peek is survived by two sons and two grandchildren.  

Jane Elizabeth Sawyer died July 12, 2012 in Boulder, Colorado; she was 60 years old. The longtime director of music at the First Congregational Church in Boulder, she played the organ, directed vocal and handbell choirs, and was instrumental in rebuilding the church’s organ and in bringing in noted organists for recitals. Sawyer earned bachelor’s degrees in math and music at the University of Wyoming, earned a master’s degree in organ at Southern Methodist University, and did doctoral work in music theory at the Eastman School of Music, where she also was an instructor. In Rochester, New York, she served as director of music and organist at Irondequoit United Church of Christ from 1988 to 1997; she held other church positions in Boulder, Rochester, Dallas, and Laramie, Wyoming. Sawyer served on the executive board of the Denver AGO chapter and was a member of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers and the Choristers Guild. Jane Elizabeth Sawyer is survived by her brother.

James Earl Bratcher, Garland P. Bruce, Delores Bruch Cannon, Henri Delorme, Morley J. Lush

James Earl Bratcher died on August 14. He was 77. In 1974 he formed the New Mexico Symphony Chorus and served as assistant conductor of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Bratcher earned degrees in voice, organ, and education from the University of New Mexico; after completing his master’s degree, he moved to New York City, where he enrolled in the Union Theological Seminary. He performed with the original Robert Shaw Chorale and as a soloist in concerts with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, among others. 

Bratcher taught at Bethel College in Tennessee and Columbus College in Georgia, then returned to Albuquerque in 1970 and directed choirs and taught English at Eldorado High School. In the late 1980s, he joined a Lutheran Benedictine monastery in Michigan; when the order became cloistered, he moved to Orlando, Florida, as a Franciscan monk. There he established a home for AIDS patients and homeless men; he returned to Albuquerque in 1995.

Bratcher was one of the originators of Opera Southwest, which began in 1972 as Albuquerque Opera Theatre, serving as its artistic/music director from 1979–1987 and in the mid-1990s. A member of the University of New Mexico John Donald Robb Musical Trust board of directors since 2003, Bratcher arranged and edited John Donald Robb compositions and traditional Hispanic music, most recently editing Robb’s Requiem for its April 2012 debut by the Bach Society of St. Louis. He was completing manuscripts for the second edition of Robb’s Hispanic Folk Songs of New Mexico at his death. He also staged Robb’s folk opera Little Jo at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in 2005, and designed the program for a February 2012 Robb Concert. In 2004, Bratcher received the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award for Excellence in Music. 

Garland P. Bruce died July 9 in Bluefield, West Virginia. He was 82. A Bluefield native, in his youth he played in small churches as a substitute pianist and organist; he studied organ with Elizabeth French. For more than 30 years he was organist-choirmaster at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield, where he built the music program; the annual Christmas candlelight service was the area’s largest musical event. Bruce appeared on the March of Dimes telethon on WVVA, and played at venues throughout the area. Garland P. Bruce is survived by his wife of 45 years, Mary Josephine, four stepchildren, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Delores Bruch Cannon, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, died October 22. Born September 22, 1934, in Independence, Missouri, she earned an associate’s degree from Graceland College in 1954 and a B.S.Ed. in 1956 from Central Missouri States. She taught high school English and music for two years at the Laboratory School in Odessa, Missouri, and subsequently music in elementary schools in Independence, Missouri. 

She received an M.M. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1969 and a D.M.A. from the University of Kansas in 1979. Her college teaching career began at Emporia State University in 1975, followed by three years as an assistant instructor at the University of Kansas. In 1978 she was appointed assistant professor and artist in residence at Park College. She joined the organ department in the School of Music at the University of Iowa in 1979 and was appointed professor of music in 1987; she was head of the organ department from 1989–92, and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts in 1992–93. She retired from the University of Iowa in 1999. 

Her interest in historic instruments led to fellowships and research grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Mexico. She performed in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Europe. She held leadership positions at local, regional and national levels in the American Guild of Organists. As a founding member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Cannon served on its national board of directors and was a contributing editor for the journal CrossAccents. As a member of the Organ Historical Society, she was a founding member of the Eastern Iowa chapter. Cannon was married to Ron Bruch and later to Donald Cannon, who survives her, along with sons Cris Alan Bruch and Gregory Scott Bruch; a sister, a brother, stepdaughters, and stepsons, along with numerous other family members.

Henri Delorme, organist of the Clicquot organ of Souvigny, France, died on August 18, just before his 69th birthday. As a young man, while studying French, Latin, and Greek to become a teacher, Henri Delorme studied organ with Joseph Hetsch and Michel Chapuis, piano with Hélène Boschi, and musicology with Marc Honegger. After he had passed the agrégation (the highest competitive exam for teachers in France), he spent most of his teaching career at the Lycée Banville in Moulins (Allier), where he was appreciated for his diverse cultural background, his good humor, and love for the humanities, which he endeavored to impart to and share with his pupils. 

Upon the untimely death of organist and organ scholar Henri Legros, Delorme became the incumbent organist (titulaire) of the François-Henri Clicquot organ (1783) of Souvigny, from 1971 until his death. He wrote articles for Marc Honegger’s music dictionary (Dictionnaire de la Musique) and also published the exhibition catalogue and the papers of the symposium he had organized for the 1983 bi-centenary of the Souvigny organ. The publication also included an inventory of the organs of the Allier region. During his career, he wrote several articles on the organ for various journals.

Henri Delorme conducted many organ classes for various age groups, from primary school pupils to university students and professional musicians. He was a guest teacher for the Souvigny week of Summer Institute for French Organ Studies (SIFOS), founded by Gene Bedient and Jesse Eschbach. Delorme was an indefatigable advocate of his instrument and gave organ recitals in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, and the USA.

The founder of the Association Saint-Marc, which now runs the music festival of Souvigny, he was the chairman of the Fédération Francophone des Amis de l’Orgue (FFAO) from 1992 to 2002. He was also the official organ adviser for historical organs in the Auvergne region and in Brittany from 1996 to 1998.

Learned, curious, good-humored, Henri Delorme was an endearing man and very special organist, with a great gift for improvising in the French classical style. He knew, understood, and played the Clicquot organ in Souvigny better than anyone else and contributed greatly to its reputation. His death will be a great loss to the organ world.

—Pierre Dubois

Pierre Dubois is Professor of English at the University of Tours, France. He has been deputy organist at Souvigny since 1984 and is artistic director of the Souvigny music festival (Journées Musicales d’Automne de Souvigny).

In the mid-1970s, when I first began hearing about historic French organs, the name of a town that surfaced regularly was Souvigny. Little did I know that a few years later, I would not only visit the church but have the opportunity over many subsequent trips to study in detail the treasure of St-Pierre et Paul: the 1783 organ of François-Henri Clicquot. Equally important, I would become an acquaintance and subsequently a good friend with the Souvigny organist, Henri Delorme. 

Jesse Eschbach and I hatched the concept of the Summer Institute for French Organ Studies in 1985 and we took our first small group to Souvigny/St-Dizier the summer of 1986. Henri Delorme was first and foremost a gentleman in the best sense of the word. He was always generous with his time, his knowledge, his musicianship, his scholarship, and his willingness to help visitors understand and appreciate French culture and an important part of that: the French organ. In 1994 I organized a small Bedient organ recital tour for him in America.

To quote my colleague, Jesse Eschbach, “Henri was a big voice in France and we will feel his loss acutely.”

—Gene Bedient

Morley J. Lush, age 93, died July 11 in Concord, Massachusetts. Born in Cambridge, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard. He was the chief engineer and president of Rawson Lush Instrument Co., a maker of scientific instruments in Acton, Massachusetts. Lush served as organist and choir director for the Church of the Good Shepherd, Acton, was a bell ringer at Christ Church, Cambridge, and producer of the radio show The King of Instruments on WCRB for 50 years. He was an active member of the Acton Historical Society and the Boston AGO chapter. Morley J. Lush is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Nutter Lush, a daughter, a son, three grandsons, and a brother.

Toni Desiree Hines, Donald G. Larson, Robert Eugene Ward, Randel Lynn Wolfe, Zella Mae Woods

Toni Desiree Hines died January 19. A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Hines worked in Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia; in the latter city she was organist in residence and program coordinator at the Traverse Arts Project from 2007 to 2011, where she was the driving force of its International LGBT Arts Festival. Hines moved to Kansas City in 2011 to study at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and was appointed the Curdy Organ Scholar at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, where she worked with the cathedral choirs as conductor, accompanist, and bell ringer. She was a member of the Greater Kansas City AGO chapter. Toni Desiree Hines is survived by several brothers and sisters, and the cathedral community.

Donald G. Larson, age 81, died February 26 in Decatur, Georgia. He received a BA degree in music from the University of Minnesota, and a master’s degree in church music from Northwestern University. Larson served as a chaplain’s assistant in the U.S. Army. For more than 30 years he was a music teacher and counselor at Georgia Perimeter College, where he was named professor emeritus in 1995. Larson also served as minister of music at three Atlanta-area churches, and as a longtime board member of the Atlanta AGO chapter. Donald G. Larson is survived by his wife of more than 61 years, Jacqueline, a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren.

Robert Eugene Ward died April 3 in Durham, North Carolina, at the age of 95. Ward studied composition with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson at the Eastman School of Music and later with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. He taught at the Juilliard School, then at Columbia University, and worked as vice president and managing editor of Galaxy Music Corporation. Ward was president of the North Carolina School of the Arts 1967–74, and a professor at Duke University. His opera The Crucible won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1962; he composed many choral works, and Celebrations of God in Nature and The Promised Land for organ.

Randel Lynn Wolfe, age 52, died April 14 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He earned a BMus degree from California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, an MSM from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, and a DMA in choral conducting and organ from the University of Kansas, with postgraduate study at Uppsala University in Sweden. Wolfe served the AGO as dean, and was a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and Chorus America. He was on the board of the RSCM in America, and had served as an instructor at Alvernia University. Randel Lynn Wolfe is survived by his mother, two brothers, and his longtime partner, David B. Kersley.

Zella Mae Woods died March 6. She was 89. She taught music at Fresno Pacific University for 16 years, and had studied with Richard Purvis at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. She was organist at Fresno First Baptist Church for 33 years, and also played for First Presbyterian, College Community Congregational, Bethel Lutheran, and St. George’s Greek Orthodox churches in Fresno. Woods also was the accompanist for the Fresno Community Chorus, the Fresno Pacific Choral Society, and Fresno Choral Artists. She served the San Joaquin Valley AGO chapter as board member and dean, and as past president of the Fresno Musical Club, the Fresno chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the central district of the California Federation of Music Clubs. Zella Mae Woods is survived by a son, a daughter, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Nunc Dimittis

Jonathan E. Biggers, associate professor of music and Edwin Link Endowed Professor in Organ and Harpsichord at Binghamton University, died unexpectedly on September 27 at his home in Vestal, New York. Born on February 10, 1960, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to Robert E. and Margaret V. Biggers, Jonathan earned bachelor and master degrees in music from the University of Alabama, and a doctorate in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music. He was awarded a Fulbright grant to study at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva, Switzerland. He won a unanimous first prize at the 1985 Geneva International Pipe Organ Competition, and also won the 1990 Calgary International Organ Festival Concerto Competition. Biggers presented hundreds of concerts in church and university settings throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, appeared as the featured soloist with orchestras in both the U. S. and Canada, and was featured many times on NPR “Pipedreams,” the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, and on radio and Television Suisse Romande broadcasts in Geneva, Switzerland. Jonathan E. Biggers is survived by his brother and sister in law, Fred and Caroline Biggers of Staunton, Virginia, and their children Claire and Sam to whom he was simply Uncle Jonathan.

George Bernard Bryant, Jr., died October 9 at the age of 77 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. Born June 17, 1939, in Nyack, New York, Bryant began playing the organ at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Nyack, while in high school, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ. He returned to Nyack to serve as organist for St. Ann’s Church from 1966 until retirement in 2014. He was a founding member of the Rockland County Music Teachers Guild and served on the music commission of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. In 1978, he became organist of Temple Beth Torah, continuing until 2014. In 1992, Bryant formed the Rockland County Catholic Choir, an organization that has toured Europe and Canada on several occasions. The George Bryant scholarship was created in 1997 to promote organ students and their studies. 

Emily Ann Cooper-Gibson died at her home in Marshall, Texas, on May 19, 2016, after an extensive illness. Born in 1935, she won the American Guild of Organists National Competition at the 1956 national convention in New York City. She studied with Robert Ellis at Henderson College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas (BM, 1957), David Craighead at the Eastman School of Music (Performer’s Certificate and MM, 1961; DMA, 1969), and André Marchal in Paris, France (Fulbright Fellow, 1958–59). Cooper-Gibson taught at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, and Hardin-Simmons University, Abeline, Texas, and served at churches in Abeline, Texas; Rochester, New York; Washington, D. C.; Potomac and Bethesda, Maryland; and McLean, Virginia. From 1957 through 1998 she played recitals throughout the United States and Europe. Active in the AGO, she served as dean of several chapters. Emily Ann Cooper-Gibson is survived by Gerald Gibson, her husband of over 50 years.

James A. Wood of Concord, New Hampshire, died October 16 at the age of 90. He was born on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, February 8, 1926. After graduating from Nantucket High School he studied at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, majoring in organ with E. Power Biggs and George Faxon, and choral conducting with Sarah Caldwell. During World War II he served as an Army medic in Europe. After the war he continued his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and Trinity College in London, England.

He served as director of music at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Nashua, New Hampshire, for 23 years, and at Saint Paul’s Church in Concord, New Hampshire, from 1970 until his retirement. In 1956 he joined the faculty of Saint Paul’s School in Concord and became head of the music department and director of chapel music in 1970. In 1955, he was a founder of the Actorsingers of Nashua, a community group of vocalists and actors producing musicals and operettas. He was a dean of the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and was named honorary member in 2008. He was also a president of the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association.

James A. Wood was pre-deceased by his wife, Constance A. Wood, a daughter, Licia A. O’Conor, and a grandson, Alexander. A memorial service was held at the Old Chapel at St. Paul’s School on October 22. Donations in his memory may be made to St. Paul’s School Music Department, 325 Pleasant Street, Concord New Hampshire 03301, or St. Paul’s Church Food Pantry, 21 Centre Street, Concord, New Hampshire 03301.

Nunc Dimittis

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.