Nunc Dimittis

Elise Murray Cambon died December 30, 2007, at Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Cambon received a B.A. from Newcomb College in 1939, a Master of Music in organ from the University of Michigan (1947), and a Ph.D. from Tulane (1975). For 62 years she served St. Louis Cathedral as organist, music minister, and director of the St. Louis Cathedral Choir and Concert Choir. She was named Director Emerita in 2002.
A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Cambon studied in Germany in 1953, attended Hochschule fur Musik in Frankfurt-am-Main, and continued her studies in organ with Helmut Walcha, harpsichord with Marie Jaeger Young, and conducting with Kurt Thomas. She also did post-graduate work at Syracuse University, Oberlin College, and Pius X School of Liturgical Music in Purchase, New York. She spent a summer at the Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes, France, studying Gregorian chant.
Dr. Cambon was a professor in Loyola’s College of Music (1961 to 1982), founding their Department of Liturgical Music, and also taught music at the Louise S. McGehee School and Ursuline Academy. She was one of the founders of the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She received the Order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government for encouraging French music in New Orleans. She led the St. Louis Cathedral Concert Choir on five pilgrimages to Europe, where they sang at St. Peter’s in Rome, Notre Dame de Paris, and other famous cathedrals and churches. In 2004, she made a gift of a new Holtkamp organ for the cathedral. Dr. Cambon was interviewed by Marijim Thoene for The Diapason (“Her Best Friends Were Archbishops—An interview with Elise Cambon, organist of New Orleans’ St. Louis Cathedral for 62 years,” October 2004).

Anita Jeanne Shiflett Graves died September 16, 2007, at age 86. Born September 20, 1920, in Lincoln, Illinois, she attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned a master’s degree in music at Northwestern University. She had worked as a church organist, choir director and funeral home organist, and taught at Drake University and San Jose State University. A funeral service was held at Campbell United Methodist Church in Campbell, California.

Kay Wood Haley died July 10, 2007, at age 90 in Fairhope, Alabama. Born March 26, 1917, in Sumner, Illinois, she began playing for church services in Flora, Alabama, at age 14. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and then transferred to the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Harold Gleason and graduated in 1938. From 1939–1983, Mrs. Haley was organist at Judson College in Marion, Alabama, and at First Baptist, First Presbyterian, and St. Paul’s Episcopal churches, all in Selma, Alabama. She helped found the Selma Choral Society and the Selma Civic Chorus, and helped lead the Alabama Church Music Workshop.

Gerald W. Herman Sr. died August 25, 2007 at age 81 in Gainesville, Florida. Born November 9, 1925, he began his 61-year organist career on April 28, 1946, at Rockville United Brethren Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and played for several other churches in the area. A job transfer with Nationwide Insurance in 1979 brought him to Gainesville, Florida, where he served as organist at Kanapaha Presbyterian Church and then at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Archer, Florida. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Charlotte, a daughter, and a son.

Theodore C. Herzel died September 28, 2007, in York, Pennsylvania. Born October 10, 1927, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, he held church positions in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Detroit, Michigan, and served as organist-director of music for 28 years at First Presbyterian Church, York, Pennsylvania, retiring in 1988. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Westminster Choir College and a master’s at the Eastman School of Music. He was an active member of the York AGO chapter and the Matinee Music Club.
H. Wiley Hitchcock, musicologist, author, teacher, editor and scholar of American as well as baroque music, died December 5 at the age of 84. In 1971 he founded the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College of the City of New York, and in 1986 he edited, with Stanley Sadie, the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He retired from CUNY in 1993 as a Distinguished Professor, but maintained a consulting relationship with ISAM until the end.
Born on September 28, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, Hitchcock earned his B.A. in 1944 from Dartmouth College and served in the military during WW II. After the war he studied music with Nadia Boulanger at the Conservatoire Américan and at the University of Michigan, from which he earned his Ph.D. in 1954. His dissertation was on the sacred music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
He started teaching in 1950 at Michigan and in 1961 moved to Hunter College in New York. A decade later he went to Brooklyn College and became founding director of ISAM. In his honor, the ISAM is to be renamed the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music. In addition to his work on Grove, Hitchcock edited numerous publications. His last book, Charles Ives: 129 Songs (Music of the United States of America), was published by A-R Editions in 2004.

Everett W. Leonard died June 9, 2007, in Katy, Texas, at age 96. Born March 4, 1911, in Franklin, New Hampshire, he began piano lessons at age nine and organ lessons in high school. He worked for 40 years for the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, DC. In addition, he served as organist at Central Presbyterian Church and Mount Olivet Methodist Church, both in Arlington, Virginia, and at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Punta Gorda, Florida, and at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, Port Charlotte, Florida. A longtime member of the AGO, he served as dean of the District of Columbia chapter.

W. Gordon Marigold, longtime author and reviewer for The Diapason, died November 25, 2007, in Urbana, Illinois. Born May 24, 1926, in Toronto, he earned a B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and earned an M.A. from Ohio State University. He also studied in Munich, Germany. Dr. Marigold taught German at the University of Western Ontario, Trinity College Schools, the University of Virginia, and at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. At Union College, he was a department head, division chairman, and college organist, and he supervised the installation of a new organ by Randall Dyer in 1991. He retired as professor emeritus of German in 1991, and moved to Urbana, Illinois.
Dr. Marigold received his musical training in piano, organ, and voice at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and in Munich. He served as organist at churches in Toronto, at First Methodist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he gave an annual series of recitals, and churches in Columbus, Ohio. He was heard in radio organ recitals broadcast by station WOSU in Columbus, and played on the annual Bach recital at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Champaign, Illinois.
Professor Marigold was an internationally known scholar of German Baroque literature and music, and author of five books, countless articles in scholarly journals (including The Diapason, Musical Opinion, and The Organ), hundreds of reviews of German literature for Germanic Notes and Reviews, and countless reviews of recordings and books for The Diapason. He was a recipient of many research grants for study and research in Germany.
Dr. Marigold is survived by his wife Constance Young Marigold, whom he married on August 22, 1953. A Requiem Eucharist was celebrated on December 1 at the Chapel of St. John the Divine in Champaign, Illinois. Linda Buzard, parish organist and choirmaster, provided music by Bach, Purcell, Byrd, and Willan, along with hymns Lobe den Herren, Austria, Slane, and Darwall’s 148th.
In addition to numerous reviews of new recordings and books, Dr. Marigold’s Diapason bibliography includes:
“Max Drischner and his organ writings: a neglected modern,” Oct 1955;
“Austrian church music experiences extensive revival,” May 1956;
“The organs at the Marienkirche at Lübeck,” Dec 1969;
“A visit to Preetz, Germany,” April 1971;
“Some interesting organs in Sweden,” May 1971;
“Organs and organ music of South Germany,” Oct 1974;
“Organs in Braunschweig: some problems of organ placement,” Aug 1982;
“18th-century organs in Kloster Muri, Switzerland,” Feb 1986;
“Organ and church music activity in Munich during the European Year of Music,” Aug 1986;
“A variety of recent German organs,” April 1989;
“Dyer organ for Union College, Barbourville, KY,” Dec 1991.
(Dr. Marigold continued to write reviews to within weeks of his death. The Diapason will publish these reviews posthumously.—Ed.)

Johnette Eakin Schuller died September 21, 2007, at age 66 in Brewster, Massachusetts. She earned degrees from the College of Wooster, Ohio, and the Eastman School of Music. She and her husband, Rodney D. Schuller, served for 31 years as ministers of sacred music and organists at the Reformed Church of Bronxville, New York. Johnette Schuller also held positions at Andrew Price Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee; the Presbyterian Church in Bound Brook, New Jersey; the Post Chapel in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland; and Calvary Lutheran Church in Verona, New Jersey.

Nancy Jane Blair died November 6, 2010. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, she graduated from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, and earned a master’s degree in church music from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where she also received a distinguished service award. Blair served as minister of music at the First Baptist Church of Osceola, Arkansas, from 1961–76, and organist-music associate at Briarlake Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, from 1976 until her retirement in 2002. A member of the Atlanta AGO chapter, she prepared the handbell group for the premiere of Alice Parker’s The Wells of Salvation during the 1992 AGO national convention.

Rodney Alan Giles died December 4 at age 63. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he earned a BMus in organ at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, studying with Bethel Knoche, and an MA in organ from Ohio State University, studying with Gordon Wilson. Giles served as minister of music and organist at the First Baptist Church of Kansas City from 1973–89; as college organist and adjunct instructor at Park College (now University) in Parkville, Missouri; university organist and instructor at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas; as a staff organist at the RLDS (now Community of Christ) Auditorium in Independence, Missouri (1967, and 1973–85); and at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, for five summers in the 1980s.
A member of the Greater Kansas City AGO chapter since 1962, he served as chapter dean in 1978–79. Giles moved to New York City in 1989 and served as organist-director of music at Hansen Place Central United Methodist Church in Brooklyn and later at West Park Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. From 2001 he spent winters in Florida, where he served as minister of music at First Congregational Church of Fort Lauderdale. Rodney Alan Giles is survived by his mother, two sisters, a brother, and nieces and nephews.

James Noel Grenhart died January 13 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. He was 69 years old. A gifted pianist-accompanist, organist, and choir director, Grenhart made his living as a financial analyst. He had played at Holy Comforter Church in Drexel Hill beginning in 2003, and then at the Church of the Redeemer in Springfield. Grenhart was a member of the Philadelphia AGO chapter. James Noel Grenhart is survived by a sister, a brother, and several nieces and nephews.

Hugh Allen Wilson died on December 18 in Lake George, Bolton Landing, New York. He was 85 years old. An organist, harpsichordist, and conductor, his first professional position was at the age of 14, as choir director-organist for St. James’ Episcopal Church in Lake George. He taught at Union College in Schenectady from 1962–96; in 1977, he conducted the glee club in a performance at the White House for Jimmy Carter’s first state dinner. Wilson attended Yale College, where he studied organ with H. Frank Bozyan, theory with Paul Hindemith, and musicology with Leo Schrade, graduating in 1946. He studied musicology from 1947–49 at Yale University, and studied organ with Marcel Dupré in France and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Holland.
Wilson was founder and co-conductor of the Bolton Festival of Music in 1948, founder and first dean of the Adirondack AGO chapter, and cofounder of what would become the Lake George Opera Festival. During his career, he gave more than 1,000 public performances; they included a performance of Honegger’s King David at Alice Tully Hall with narrator John Houseman in 1975 and at the National Cathedral in Washington in 1983, and the debut of an organ concerto written for him by Union College professor Edgar Curtis in 1966. Hugh Allen Wilson is survived by his longtime companion, Marshall Ford, and many friends and colleagues.

Lucien Deiss, C.S.Sp., died on October 9. His funeral was celebrated on October 13 at Seminaire des Missiones in Larue, France. Best known to Roman Catholics in the U.S. through his scriptural songs such as “All the Earth,” “Keep in Mind,” and “Grant to Us, O Lord,” Fr. Deiss was also widely known in Europe and the United States as a scholar in the fields of sacred scripture and patristics. He was selected by Pope Paul VI to coordinate the Lectionary psalter following the Second Vatican Council. His Biblical Hymns and Psalms was one of the first collections of congregational music for Roman Catholics. For this he was given an honorary doctorate in sacred music from Duquesne University. An advocate of the reforms of Vatican II, Fr. Deiss dedicated much of his life to liturgical catechesis through workshops and the well-known “Deiss days” sponsored by WLP (then World Library of Sacred Music).

Czech composer Petr Eben died October 25 at his home in Prague at the age of 78. Born January 22, 1929, in Zamberk, Eben began piano study at age six and organ at nine. At 10, he composed his first musical pieces. As a teenager, he was imprisoned in the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp. After the war, he studied piano and composition at Prague’s Academy of Music.
He taught for several decades, first at Prague’s Charles University, and later at the Academy of Performing Arts. From 1977–78, Eben was teaching composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. In 1990 he became professor of composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and president of the Prague Spring Festival.
Over his career he composed some 200 pieces, including works for organ and piano, orchestral and chamber compositions, oratorios, masses and cantatas as well as pieces for children. Among his best-known works were the organ cycle Job; the oratorio Sacred Symbols for the Salzburg Cathedral; Windows (four movements for trumpet and organ inspired by Marc Chagall’s stained glass designs for a synagogue in Jerusalem); and Prague Te Deum. He concertized around the world, performing his compositions as well as improvisations on organ and piano, including at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, London’s Royal Festival Hall, and the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.
Eben’s music is regularly performed throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. He was awarded many prizes for his works: 1990, by the Czech government for his organ cycle Job; 1991, the Ordre Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture; 1992, Professor (honoris causa) of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester; 1993, the Stamitz Prize of the German Künstlergilde; 1994, doctorate (honoris causa) from Prague Charles University; and in 2002 he received a high Czech decoration, the Medal of Merit. Eben is survived by his wife Sarka and three sons, Marek, David and Krystof.
Eben’s works for organ include:
Concerto for Organ and Orchestra No. 1 (Symphonia gregoriana), 1954.
Concerto for Organ and Orchestra No. 2, 1983.
Windows on the Pictures of Marc Chagall (trumpet and organ), 1976.
Fantasia for Viola and Organ Rorate Coeli, 1982.
Landscapes of Patmos (organ and percussion), 1984.
Tres iubilationes (brass and organ), 1987.
Two Invocations for Trombone and Organ, 1987.
Sunday Music, 1957–59.
Laudes, 1964.
Ten Chorale Preludes, 1971.
Two Chorale Fantasias, 1972.
Small Chorale Partita, 1978.
Faust, 1979–80.
Mutationes, 1980.
Versetti, 1982.
A Festive Voluntary (On Good King Wenceslas), 1986.
Hommage à Buxtehude, 1987.
Job (organ), 1987.
Two Festive Preludes, 1990, 1992.
Biblical Dances, 1990–91.
Amen, es werde wahr, 1993.
Momenti d’organo, 1994.
Hommage à Henri Purcell, 1994–95.

Albert Fuller, harpsichordist, conductor, teacher and author, died September 22 at his home in Manhattan, at the age of 81. As co-founder in 1972 and artistic director of the Aston Magna Foundation in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he was among the pioneers of the revival of playing baroque music on the original instruments for which it was conceived. A frequent recitalist, Fuller also recorded extensively, including the first American original-instrument complete set of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. The 1977 recording, made at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, became the initial release of the Smithsonian Institution’s recording program and went on to sell more than 100,000 copies.
Born July 21, 1926, Fuller grew up in Washington, D.C., where he was a boy soprano with the choir at the National Cathedral and studied organ with Paul Callaway. He went on to study harpsichord at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and at Yale University, where his teachers included Ralph Kirkpatrick and Paul Hindemith, and then went to Paris on a Ditson fellowship. He made his New York debut at Town Hall in 1957, and in 1964 joined the faculty of Juilliard as professor of harpsichord. He was also on the faculty of Yale University, 1976–79.
In 1972, Fuller founded the Aston Magna Foundation. Up to 30 performers gathered for several weeks each summer to study and play early music on the original instruments. Fuller left the Aston Magna Foundation in 1983 and went on to found the Helicon Foundation, a New York-based ensemble whose repertoire included music by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms.

Rudolf “Rudy” O. Inselmann died July 6 in Newport Beach, California at the age of 72. He majored in piano at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, then attended Capital Bible Seminary and became an ordained Lutheran minister. He received an MA in organ from Indiana University and a doctorate in sacred music from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After teaching music at the University of El Paso, he joined the faculty of Christ College, now Concordia University, Irvine, California. He served as organist at Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia; St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, San Clemente; St. Kilian Catholic Church, Mission Viejo; and Our Lady Queen of Angels, Newport Beach. Dr. Inselmann was dean of the Orange County AGO chapter from 1998–2000; he was also a longtime member of the Music Teachers Association of California.

Henry Ray Mann died June 30 in Greenville, Michigan. He was 72. A graduate of the University of Richmond, he earned a master of sacred music degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he served as organist-director in several churches and formed an organbuilding firm in partnership with Larry Trupiano. Henry Mann was known for his skill and artistry in the manufacture and voicing of wood pipes. He retired to Trufant, Michigan in 1992, subsequently serving as organist at Settlement Lutheran Church.

Bruce E. Mathieson died July 19 in Morgantown, West Virginia, from injuries sustained in an accident. He was 50 years old. Early in his 42 years of organ playing, he won two junior organist competitions. He was a graduate of Holyoke Community College with an associate degree in music. Mr. Mathieson served in the U.S. Navy for 24 years, and was the organist on the U.S.S. Enterprise during his service on that ship; he also played for Pope John Paul II while in Rome. After retiring from the Navy, he worked for West Virginia University and was organist at Point Marion Baptist Church in Point Marion, Pennsylvania; he also assisted the choir of Westover United Methodist Church in Westover, West Virginia. He was a charter member of the new Monongahela AGO chapter in West Virginia. Bruce Mathieson is survived by his wife of 29 years, Karla Landry Mathieson, a son, a daughter, his mother, two brothers, three sisters, and two grandchildren.

Roy G. Wilson died May 31 at the age of 92 in El Paso, Texas. A graduate of New Mexico State College, he earned a master’s degree from Texas Western College and focused his career on school administration in several El Paso schools. A lifelong musician, he served Grace United Methodist Church for over 50 years as organist, choir director, or as both. He regularly provided music for the Grace pre-school program and area school districts, and accompanied for solo and ensemble contestants. A member of the El Paso AGO chapter, he served as dean on several occasions. Mr. Wilson is survived by two daughters, a son, eight grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren.

Mary Ann Dodd died January 1 in Cooperstown, New York. She was University Organist Emerita at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where she had served as university organist and special instructor in organ from 1973–93. In 1976 she selected Holtkamp to build the three-manual Brehmer Memorial Organ. She also taught at the State University of New York in Binghamton as an adjunct lecturer 1987–90 and as the Link Visiting Professor in organ in 1989.
Born and raised in Pullman, Washington, Dodd held the BMus degree from the University of Arkansas (1956) and the MMus degree from the University of Tennessee (1971). She performed and lectured throughout the United States with special emphasis on contemporary organ music. An active member of the American Guild of Organists, she had been a member of its national committee on new music and the committee for the AGO improvisation competition, and served on the national council as Region II councillor. Her reviews and articles appeared frequently in The American Organist and The Diapason. She was co-author (with Jayson Engquist) of the book Gardner Read: A Bio-bibliography (1996). At the time of her death, Mary Ann Dodd was working on a book on contemporary organ music, focusing on the career of the late Leonard Raver.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Jack G. Dodd, a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

H. Ronald Poll, age 70, passed away January 28 at home in Salt Lake City, Utah. A charter member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, he served three years as the organization’s president. He also served on several committees and was dedicated to strong positive goals, art and technology, and in furthering the cause, reputation and expansion of true pipe organs.
Ron’s love for the pipe organ had its roots as a young boy when he and his brother David would sit for hours listening to their organist mother’s 78-rpm, and later 331⁄3-rpm LP, recordings. He was impressed with the beauty and musical expression of the pipe organ.
After a time with the Utah National Guard and service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ron worked for a period doing installation, voicing and tuning with his M. P. Möller representative brother David, the Wicks Organ Co., and others. He was employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an organ technician and supervisor. Among the dozens of organs he worked on is the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle instrument of G. Donald Harrison.
Ron organized his own organ building and service firm, H. Ronald Poll & Associates, employing two sons, Michael and Timothy, who are continuing the firm’s operation. Ron’s code was well stated by Henry Ward Beecher: “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.” Ron constantly sought for perfection. He was faithful to the highest ethical and performance standards and in bringing joy to others through his creation.
Ron worked on many instruments from coast to coast. Among his more recent accomplishments are the three-manual instruments for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City and the Provo L.D.S. Tabernacle.
Ron is survived by his wife, Mary, nine children, 19 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, his mother, four brothers and five sisters. Services were held February 2 in Taylorsville, Utah, where Mormon Tabernacle organist Clay Christiansen provided the music on one of Ron’s smaller instruments.
—David Poll

Bruce V. Schantz died on January 5 in Orrville, Ohio, at the age of 93. Born October 17, 1913, in Orrville, he began studies at Oberlin College, but left to handle the sales department of the Schantz Organ Company with his cousin Paul Schantz. He covered territory in Ohio and Indiana during the Depression and took night classes at the University of Akron. He was hired by Goodyear Aircraft just before the U.S. entered World War II, and worked there in management during the war years. He then returned to Orrville to join the family business. Bruce Schantz managed the Schantz Organ Company along with his brother John, his son Victor, his cousin Paul, and Jack Sievert. He served as the company’s president, chairman of the board, and chairman emeritus. He was involved in many community projects, including the transformation of the Community Chest into the Orrville United Way and chairing the drive that made Wayne College possible. He was a past president of the Orrville Chamber of Commerce and the Exchange Club. In 1970 he was named the Paul L. Powell Citizen of the Year for the City of Orrville. He is survived by his wife Grace, two daughters, five sons, a brother, and 12 grandchildren. A funeral was held January 13 at Christ Church, United Church of Christ, and a memorial service was held January 21 at Wayne College.

Malcolm Wechsler died November 16, 2006 in New Fairfield, Connecticut, at the age of 70. Born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, he studied piano as a child and earned a bachelor’s in organ performance at Oberlin College. In 1963 he received a master’s in organ performance from the Juilliard School of Music. He held a number of church positions and in 1966 was appointed music director at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in London, Ontario, also teaching at the University of Western Ontario. He later taught at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. In 1985 Wechsler returned to New York to work with the Opera Orchestra of New York and begin Ph.D. studies at City College of New York. In 1987 he was appointed American sales representative for N. P. Mander, and in 1994 he became organist of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Stamford, Connecticut. An active member of the AGO and the OHS, he reported on the OHS conventions in 2001 (North Carolina) and 2003 (Pennsylvania) for The Diapason. A funeral service was held at St. Andrew’s Church on November 21, 2006.

Martin H. Wittig, 66, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, died at his home on January 18. Born August 12, 1940 in Waymart, Pennsylvania, he was a Vietnam War veteran who served with the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa, Japan. At the time of his death, he was organist at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in North Little Rock. He previously served as organist at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in North Little Rock. His many business ventures included ownership of a gas station and three car washes. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Diane Wittig, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Clyde Holloway died December 18, 2013, in Houston, Texas. He was 77 years old. The Herbert S. Autrey Professor Emeritus of Organ at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Holloway earned B.Mus. (1957) and M.Mus. (1959) degrees from the University of Oklahoma, studying with Mildred Andrews, and the S.M.D. degree in 1974 from Union Theological Seminary, studying with Robert Baker.

Holloway’s concert career began in 1964 when he won the National Young Artists Competition of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in Philadelphia. He performed under the auspices of Karen McFarlane Artists, and was a featured artist at numerous AGO conventions, also appearing in recital in Mexico City, the West Indies, and Europe.

His doctoral dissertation, The Organ Works of Olivier Messiaen and Their Importance in His Total Oeuvre, remains an important monograph concerning this music. Holloway worked with the composer on several occasions, examined his works at the organ of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris, and performed under his supervision. As a Fulbright Scholar at the Amsterdam Conservatory, he worked with Gustav Leonhardt in the study of organ, harpsichord, and chamber music.

Clyde Holloway began his teaching career in 1965 as the youngest member of the Indiana University School of Music faculty. In 1977, he joined the faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he established the organ program and served as Chairman of the Keyboard Department and Director of Graduate Studies. The school’s widely acclaimed Fisk-Rosales organ embodies his unique understanding of how numerous organ-building traditions and tonal designs are manifested in organ literature and will be considered his most profound contribution to Rice University, Houston, and the larger musical world. He also served as organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston for many years; in 1993, he was named Honorary Lay Canon and Organist and Choirmaster Emeritus.

Renowned as a gifted pedagogue, Dr. Holloway served on the AGO’s Committee for Professional Education, addressed two conferences of the National Conference on Organ Pedagogy, led workshops and masterclasses, and served as a member of the jury for numerous competitions, including the Concours de Europe, the Fort Wayne Competition, the Music Teachers National Association Competition, the National Young Artists Competition of the American Guild of Organists, and the Grand Prix de Chartres. In 1994 he was invited to perform for the Bicentennial Festival of the celebrated Clicquot organ in the Cathedral of Poitiers, France, and served as a member of the jury for the international competition held at the end of the ten-day festival. 

Sylvie Poirier, 65 years old, passed away December 21, 2013 in Montréal of cancer. Born in Montréal on February 15, 1948 into a family of artists, her father was a goldsmith jeweller, and her mother, a painter and sculptor, was a pupil of the renowned painter Paul-Emile Borduas. Influenced by her parents, she began drawing and painting, and studied piano from an early age and later studied organ at l’Ecole de Musique Vincent d’Indy, Montréal. In 1970 she gained her baccalaureat in the class of Françoise Aubut and went on to study at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal with Bernard Lagacé, with whom she obtained her Premier Prix in 1975. In 1976 Poirier studied at l’Université de Montréal with the blind French organist Antoine Reboulot. From 1977–1983 she was professeur affilié at l’Ecole de Musique Vincent d’Indy, presenting private music and drawing courses around Montréal.

In 1983 she became the Founding President of “Unimusica Inc.” whose objective was to bring together the art forms of music, painting, enamels, as well as poetry and photography. At the invitation of the oncologist founder of “Vie nouvelle” at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Montréal, Poirier taught a course specifically designed for cancer patients entitled “Psychology of Life through Drawing” in the 1980s. 

She gave recitals in North America and Europe and broadcast many times for Radio Canada. Her organ duet career with her husband Philip Crozier spanned eighteen years, with eight commissioned and premièred works, numerous concerts in many countries, several broadcasts at home and abroad, and three CDs of original organ duets.

Sylvie Poirier also recorded Jean Langlais’ Première Symphonie, and Petr Eben’s Job and The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart; she gave the latter work’s North American première of the published version in Montréal in 2005. Poirier was also an accomplished painter and portraitist; examples of her work can be found at sylviepoirier.com.

She was predeceased by her only son Frédéric (30) in 2007. Sylvie Poirier is survived by her husband, Philip Crozier.

Phares L. Steiner died in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 14, 2013 at age 85. Born in Lima, Ohio, Steiner earned a bachelor’s degree in organ at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and a master’s degree in organ performance at the University of Michigan in 1952, where he studied with Robert Noehren and where he began his career as an organ builder, at first working with Noehren. In 1953 with Noehren as consultant, Steiner designed the prototype of an electric-action slider chest. After service in the Army he worked with Fouser Associates in Birmingham, Michigan from 1955 to 1957. He established Steiner Organs Inc. in 1959 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1962 relocated to Louisville, where he was joined in 1966 by Gottfried Reck from Kleuker in Germany. They incorporated in 1968 as Steiner Reck Inc.; Steiner was responsible for tonal matters of more than 90 organs, many of which were mechanical action. 

After retiring from Steiner Reck in 1988, he continued pipe organ work on a freelance basis, including working at Webber & Borne Organ Builders, and R.A. Daffer in the Washington, D.C. area while living in Columbia, Maryland. Phares Steiner returned to Louisville in 2003 with his family, where they became members of the Cathedral of the Assumption, home to one of his largest instruments.  

A charter member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, Steiner was also an active member of APOBA at Steiner Reck and a member of Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity. He also served as organist at several churches, including St. Louis Catholic Church in Clarkesville, Maryland, and Trinity Catholic Church, Louisville. 

Phares L. Steiner is survived by his wife Ellen Heineman Steiner, daughter Adrienne, son Paul, and brother, Donald F. Steiner M.D.

Marianne Webb, 77, of Carbondale, Illinois, died December 7, 2013, at Parkway Manor in Marion, Illinois, from metastatic breast cancer, which she had for the past 20 years. She enjoyed a lengthy and distinguished career as a recitalist and professor of music at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC).

Miss Webb was born on October 4, 1936, in Topeka, Kansas where she exhibited an early passion for organ music. While in Topeka, she began her studies with Richard M. Gayhart and continued with Jerald Hamilton at Washburn University, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, in 1958. She obtained the Master of Music degree, with highest distinction, from the University of Michigan (1959), as a scholarship student of Marilyn Mason. Further study was with Max Miller of Boston University and Robert Noehren at the University of Michigan.

After teaching organ and piano at Iowa State University for two years, she continued her studies in Paris as a Fulbright scholar with André Marchal. Further graduate study was with Arthur Poister at Syracuse University and Russell Saunders at the Eastman School of Music.

Marianne Webb taught organ and music theory and served as university organist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale from 1965 until her retirement in 2001 as professor emerita of music. She continued to serve as visiting professor and distinguished university organist for an additional 11 years. During her tenure, she built a thriving organ department and established, organized, and directed the nationally acclaimed SIUC Organ Festivals (1966–1980), the first of their kind in the country. The school’s 58-rank Reuter pipe organ she sought funding for and designed was named in her honor.

Miss Webb married David N. Bateman on October 3, 1970, in Carbondale. Together they gave the endowment that established in perpetuity the Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman Distinguished Organ Recital Series that presents each year outstanding, well-established concert organists in recital for the residents of southern Illinois.

As a concert artist, Marianne Webb toured extensively throughout the United States, performing for American Guild of Organists (AGO) chapters, churches, colleges and universities. In addition, she maintained an active schedule of workshops, master classes, and seminars for church music conferences. A member of the AGO, she served the guild as a member of the national committees on Educational Resources, Chapter Development, and Membership Development and Chapter Support. Locally, she re-established the Southern Illinois Chapter of the AGO in 1983 and served as its dean for six years. She performed recitals and presented workshops at numerous AGO national and regional conventions. For many years she concertized under the auspices of the Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists. She recorded on the ProOrgano and Pleiades labels and was featured on the nationally syndicated American Public Media program “Pipedreams.” 

Miss Webb maintained a balanced career as both performer and teacher. Her students have distinguished themselves by winning local, area, and national competitions. A sought-after adjudicator, Miss Webb was a member of the jury for many of the country’s most prestigious competitions. She also served as an organ consultant to numerous churches in the Midwest.

A special collection, which bears her name, is housed in the University Archives of Morris Library on the SIUC campus. Upon completion, this collection will include all of her professional books, music, recordings, and papers. Her “Collection of Sacred Music” has been appraised as “one of the largest private gatherings of sacred music in the world with a particular emphasis on the pipe organ.”

Among numerous honors during her long and distinguished career, Miss Webb has received the Distinguished Service Award from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, life membership in the Fulbright Association, the AGO’s Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award recognizing her outstanding leadership in the Guild, and the St. Louis AGO Chapter’s Avis Blewett Award, given for outstanding contributions to the field of organ and/or sacred music. From the Theta Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota at Washburn University she received the Sword of Honor and the Honor Certificate.

Miss Webb is survived by her twin sister, Peggy Westlund; a niece, Allison Langford; a nephew, Todd Westlund; a godson, R. Kurt Barnhardt, PhD; and her former husband, Dr. David N. Bateman.

Throughout her lifetime Miss Webb was confronted with great adversities, which she overcame to become a nationally recognized organ teacher and recitalist. She leaves an impressive legacy of students holding positions of prominence in colleges and churches throughout the United States. She will be remembered not only for her musical artistry and excellence in teaching, but as a woman of quiet strength, courage, and abiding faith. In gratitude to God for her lifelong career, she established the St. Cecilia Recital Endowment in 2007 to present world-renowned concert organists in recital during the biennial national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

At a later date, a memorial organ recital played by Paul Jacobs will take place in Shryock Auditorium, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Memorials may be sent to SIU Foundation to benefit the Distinguished Organ Recital Series Endowment. 

—Dennis C. Wendell

William Robert “Bob” Brittenham died March 17 in New York City. He was 82. Born in Rock Island, Illinois, he graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1952. He worked as a computer programmer in Milwaukee and later for IBM in Poughkeepsie, where he received numerous awards, including a corporate award for creating and designing the system programming language PL/S.
Mr. Brittenham began playing the organ at age 14, and held positions at Capitol Drive Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Our Savior Lutheran Church in Fishkill, New York, and First Presbyterian Church in Poughkeepsie, New York, for which he compiled a ten-CD musical history, along with other organ and choral recordings. He served in the 33rd Seabee Battalion in the South Pacific during World War II, playing the organ for church services while on the island of Peleliu. He is survived by his wife Marjorie Lorraine, five children, nine grandchildren, brother Rex Rollins Brittenham, and nieces and nephews.

Mary Sherman Caskey died on March 20 at the age of 83, in Cornwall, New York. Born in Fremont, Ohio, she received a music degree from Oberlin College, and also attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where she studied organ with her friend and mentor Claire Coci.
Mrs. Caskey served as organist at Bantam Episcopal Church in Bantam, Connecticut, Moulton Memorial Baptist Church in Newburgh, New York, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Cornwall, and at Grace Episcopal Church in Middletown, New York for 30 years, where she created the Festival Brass Group, with whom she presented a concert at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. She was active in local organizations, including with Meals on Wheels and the local AGO chapter. Mary Caskey is survived by her son Jeremy Carroll, his wife Anne, and son Tyler.

Bess Hieronymus, 85 years old, died March 22 in San Antonio, Texas. Professor emerita in the University of Texas at San Antonio Department of Music, she had developed and spearheaded the organ studies program there.
Born in Temple, Texas, she began playing piano at age three and had her first organist position at age twelve. She earned a bachelor of music degree in piano from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, which awarded her an honorary doctorate in humanities in 1995, and a master’s degree in music from Smith College, where she wrote her thesis under the direction of Alfred Einstein. She earned a DMA in organ performance and musicology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Hieronymus served on the faculty of Trinity University, San Antonio College, and for over 30 years at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the first woman to be appointed full professor there. She built a nationally known organ department and supervised the installation of the 1982 Casavant organ, named the Bess Hieronymus Pipe Organ in 2004, in the school’s Recital Hall. The Bess Hieronymus Scholarship Endowment in Organ and an eponymous faculty endowment were established in her honor. Dr. Hieronymus also organized the William Hall Pipe Organ Competition in San Antonio.
She concertized in many countries and served as organist-choir director at Madison Square Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, Alamo Heights Methodist Church, Temple Beth-El, and at the First Presbyterian Church, where she served for over 27 years and was named organist emerita. Her numerous awards include the Yellow Rose of Texas Education Award, and a resolution from the Texas House of Representatives for her musical contributions to the State of Texas. Bess Hieronymus was preceded in death by her parents and older brother.

David Ramsey died January 17 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 68 years old. He made his debut as an organist at age nine, at Woodbine Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Nashville. He received a bachelor of music degree in 1961 from Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), and a master of sacred music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, studying with Vernon deTar and Alec Wyton. He joined the faculty of Rhodes College as accompanist and associate conductor of the college choir, and was named Distinguished Service Professor of Music in 2001. He served as director of music-organist at Holy Communion (Episcopal), St. John’s United Methodist, and First Presbyterian churches in Memphis.
A 50-year member of the AGO, he served as dean of the Memphis chapter five times. A skilled improviser, Mr. Ramsey also played for the local professional baseball team, often quoting hymns during his playing if he knew a church group was in attendance. David Ramsey is survived by his sister Gayla Sutton, brother-in-law Barry Sutton, nephew Eric, and aunt, Charlene Turner.

Rev. Dr. Jaroslav J. Vajda, composer, hymn writer, and musician, died on May 10. A Lutheran pastor, Rev. Vajda was named editor of Concordia Publishing House’s This Day magazine in 1963, and served Concordia as book developer and editor from 1971 until his retirement in 1986. Vajda was the author of over 200 hymn texts, including “Now the Silence,” “God of the Sparrow,” “Christ Goes Before,” “Go, My Children, with My Blessing,” and “Now the Silence.” He also made effective translations from Slavic languages. His hymns and translations can be found in nearly 50 hymnals of various Christian denominations worldwide. Pastor Vajda was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. The complete collection of his hymns, Sing Peace, Sing Gift of Peace, was published in 2003. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Louise, two daughters and two sons, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.