Nunc Dimittis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Martha Novak Clinkscale, American musicologist and researcher in the history of the early piano, died in Dallas on April 24 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Born in Akron, Ohio (June 16, 1933), Dr. Clinkscale held piano performance degrees from the University of Louisville (Kentucky) and Yale University, and the PhD in musicology from the University of Minnesota. Her two-volume study Makers of the Piano 1700–1820 and Makers of the Piano 1820–1860 (both published by Oxford University Press) comprises nearly a thousand pages of carefully detailed information about extant instruments: an invaluable and oft-quoted source.
The introductory essays to these books immediately reveal both a mastery of vocabulary and the wide-ranging extent and geographical distribution of the many colleagues who contributed information about the instruments listed. Two short examples from the second volume: “Those musicians who preferred the caress of the clavichord’s tangent found in the early square pianoforte a felicitous addition to their musical experience” (p. ix); “[This book] is not intended to be a frivolous addition to its owners’ libraries. It seeks to inform . . .” (p. x).
Precise and carefully crafted prose as well as the avowed intent to maintain a consistency of style were also hallmarks of the author’s approach to life. John Watson, creator of the technical drawings accompanying the second volume and primary collaborator in a related online database Early Pianos 1720–1860, summed it up succinctly: “She was an elegant woman.”
Martha Clinkscale served the American musical community in many capacities, including as editor of the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society (1993–6) and as treasurer of the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society (2004–8). She taught at the University of California, Riverside (1979–96) and the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University (1998–2004), where she was also a member of the organ department’s examining juries each semester of her years in Dallas.
Survivors include daughter Lise Loeffler-Welton and son Thor Loeffler, as well as professional colleagues and friends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
—Larry Palmer

Anna G. Fiore-Smith died in Fall River, Rhode Island, on November 11, 2009, at the age of 81. She studied piano at the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School, and studied organ with Homer Humphrey and later with George Faxon at the New England Conservatory; she also studied with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau, France, winning first prizes in piano, organ, chamber music, and solfège. Fiore-Smith served as organist and choir director at St. Stephen’s Church, the Church of the Ascension, and Temple Beth El, all in Providence, R.I., and later at the Barrington Congregational Church; she also taught organ at Barrington College. A former dean of the Rhode Island AGO chapter, her name was given to a chapter award that is bestowed on a member organist who typifies her devotion to the organ. She was also active in the Greater Fall River Symphony Society, and was a member of its first executive board. Anna G. Fiore-Smith was preceded in death by her husband, Harold N. Smith; she is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Faust D. and Susanne Fiore, and many nieces and nephews.

Martin Owen Gemoets died on February 3 in Galveston, Texas. He was 42. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Houston, and a master’s degree in organ from the University of North Texas at Denton in 1996. A member of the Dallas and later Fort Worth AGO chapter, Gemoets held the AAGO and ChM certifications and promoted interest in the certification exams, writing articles on music history for the Fort Worth chapter’s newsletter. He was working toward his FAGO certification. He had recently relocated to Galveston. Martin Owen Gemoets was interred next to his father in Houston during a private graveside service.

Donald M. Gillett died April 3 in Hagerstown, Maryland, at the age of 90. He was the last president of the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts, which closed in 1972. Born April 8, 1919, in Southwick, Massachusetts, he earned a degree in business administration from the University of Maryland. He served four years in the Army Air Corps, stationed in Midland, Texas, as a chaplain’s assistant.
Don’s musical interest started when he was four years old, his parents having taken him to a number of organ recitals at the Municipal Auditorium in Springfield, Massachusetts. He started piano lessons at age six with Dorothy Mulroney, the Municipal Auditorium organist. After moving to Washington, D.C., he studied piano and organ with Lewis Atwater, organist at All Souls Unitarian Church and also Washington Hebrew Congregation. Don’s interest in organbuilding also started with the study of the organ.
His first organbuilding job was with Lewis & Hitchcock in Washington, D.C. Four years later in 1951, with a desire to learn voicing and tonal finishing, he was hired at Aeolian-Skinner, working under G. Donald Harrison and reed voicer Herbert Pratt. In later years, Don became a vice president and head tonal finisher. Upon the retirement of Joseph Whiteford in 1968, Don was offered the opportunity to buy up controlling interest in Aeolian-Skinner, and then became president and tonal director.
In the early 1970s, Aeolian-Skinner was building its last three instruments: St. Bartholomew’s NYC, Trinity Wall Street, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The company was in the final stages of Chapter 11 and eventual closing. Don’s last finishing for Aeolian-Skinner was the Kennedy Center.
In March 1972, Riley Daniels, president of the M. P. Möller Organ Company in Hagerstown, offered Don a job at Möller as head flue pipe voicer. After the death of John Hose, Möller’s tonal director, Don became tonal director, and eventually vice president. He retired from Möller in 1991.
Also an avid art collector, he served on the Board of Directors of the Washington County (Maryland) Museum of Fine Arts. Donald M. Gillett is survived by his companion of 40 years, Warren S. Goding of Hagerstown; sister-in-law, Jane Mace of Palm City, Florida; and cousin, Mary Davis of Fort Lee, New Jersey.
—Irv Lawless
Hagerstown, Maryland

Frances M. Heusinkveld, 83 years old, died February 22 in Forest City, Iowa. She attended Northwestern Junior College in Orange City, Iowa, and Central College in Pella, where she studied piano and began organ lessons. She pursued a master’s degree in piano at the University of Iowa and later eared a Ph.D. in organ literature there. Heusinkveld taught in various schools in Iowa, including Upper Iowa University and for 33 years at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, where she taught theory, music appreciation, piano, and organ. She was also organist of the United Methodist Church in Storm Lake, where she helped the church install a Bedient organ in 2002. Heusinkveld earned the Service Playing, Colleague, and AAGO certifications, and served as dean of the Buena Vista AGO chapter; she also played the cello and was a member of the Cherokee Symphony Orchestra. She enjoyed the study of foreign languages and traveled extensively. Frances M. Heusinkveld is survived by two brothers and many nieces and nephews.

Richard Dunn Howell died January 26 in Dallas. He was 78. Born in Great Bend, Kansas, he began playing for church services at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita at the age of 13. He graduated from Wichita University in 1954 and Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in 1957; he received a master of sacred music degree from Southern Methodist University in 1966. Howell taught elementary music in Richardson and Dallas, and played for many children’s, youth, and adult choirs. He also directed various handbell ensembles. In the course of his activities, he worked with Austin Lovelace and Lloyd Pfautsch. Richard Dunn Howell is survived by his wife of 52 years, Bradley Sue, three children, and three grandchildren.

Austin C. Lovelace, composer and church organist, and Minister of Music, Emeritus, at Wellshire Presbyterian Church in Denver, died April 25 at the age of 91. Born March 26, 1919, in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, he began serving as a church organist when he was 15 and went on to do workshops and recitals in 45 states and six countries. He earned his bachelor’s degree in music at High Point College in North Carolina in 1939 and his master’s (1941) and doctorate (1950) in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Lovelace was a chaplain’s assistant in the Navy and served as minister of music at a number of churches, including First Baptist Church and First Methodist in High Point, North Carolina; Holy Trinity Episcopal, Lincoln, Nebraska; Myers Park Presbyterian Church and Myers Park Baptist, Charlotte, North Carolina; First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro; First Methodist, Evanston, Illinois; Christ Methodist, New York City; Lover’s Lane Methodist in Dallas, and Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church and Wellshire Presbyterian in Denver.
He was still filling in as organist at area churches when he was 87. He taught at several colleges, including Queen’s College and Davidson College in North Carolina, Union Theological Seminary, Iliff School of Theology in Denver, and Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.
Lovelace was fond of jazz. Twice, he had Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington, both with their bands, join the choir at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church for performances. Lovelace, known for his sense of humor, wrote five books, including “Hymns That Jesus Would Not Have Liked.” A prolific writer and composer, Lovelace has several hundred compositions in print, as well as numerous articles and books on church hymnody; he was involved with twenty denominations in the development of their hymnals. A past president and Fellow of the Hymn Society of America, Lovelace was also active in the American Guild of Organists, including serving as dean of the North Shore chapter. In 2009 he received the American Music Research Center’s Distinguished Achievement Award, and was honored by the Denver Chapter of the American Guild of Organists with a hymn festival.
Austin Lovelace is survived by his wife of 69 years, Pauline Palmer (“Polly”) Lovelace, daughter Barbara Lovelace Williams, and a grandson.

Southern Methodist University’s emeritus professor of organ and sacred music Robert Theodore Anderson succumbed to Parkinson’s disease on May 29 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Born in Chicago on October 5, 1934, RTA (as he was affectionately known by hundreds of students and friends) received his early training at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Undergraduate work was accomplished at Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington), where he studied organ with Lillian Mecherle McCord. At Union Theological Seminary in New York, he was awarded the degrees Master of Sacred Music (magna cum laude) in 1957 and Doctor of Sacred Music in 1961. He was an organ pupil of Robert Baker and studied composition with Harold Friedell and Seth Bingham.
A Fulbright Grant awarded in 1957 permitted Anderson to study in Frankfurt with Helmut Walcha. During the two years he spent in Germany, he served as guest organist at Walcha’s Dreikoenigskirche, and toured as a recitalist under the auspices of the American Embassy.
Anderson began teaching at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in 1960. He retired from the school (because of ill health) in 1996, but continued to teach for several more years to complete the degree programs of his final organ majors. Dr. Anderson was promoted to full professor in 1971, and was subsequently awarded the first Meadows Distinguished Teaching Professorship and named a University Distinguished Professor (SMU’s highest rank).
Two of RTA’s students, Wolfgang Rübsam and George C. Baker, won first places at the prestigious Chartres Organ Competition, and many others repeatedly placed in American contests. Anderson was known for his widely comprehensive organ repertoire and toured extensively as a solo recitalist, for a time under the auspices of the Lilian Murtagh/Karen Macfarlane Concert Management. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Anderson served that organization as National Councillor for Education. He was Dean of the Dallas AGO chapter (1965–67), and served in many other capacities during his years in Dallas. The chapter named its annual recital series in his honor at the time of his retirement.
Anderson’s funeral was held at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu on June 3, with organist Katherine Crosier at the Beckerath organ and RTA’s Union Seminary classmate Nyle Hallman playing harp. His ashes will rest in Chicago, next to those of his parents. SMU is planning a Dallas memorial service, to be held in September.
—Larry Palmer

Howard Clayton died March 5 in Norman, Oklahoma. He was 79. He had earned degrees in education from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, in music from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and a Ph.D. in general administration from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Clayton held music teaching positions in Illinois before switching his emphasis to library science, which he taught at the University of Oklahoma. He had also held positions at other universities, including Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. He was editor of the educational journal Learning Today from 1968–85. At the time of his death, he was serving as organist at St. John Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon, Oklahoma. Howard Clayton is survived by his wife of 59 years, Wilma, daughter Caren Halinkowski, son Curtiss, brother Paul, a granddaughter, and nieces and nephews.

Everett S. Kinsman, age 86, died January 14 in Bethesda, Maryland. He had studied at the Catholic University of America and was an organ student of Conrad Bernier and Paul Callaway. He had served at St. Matthew’s Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., and was organist at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart for 22 years, beginning in 1949. His last position was at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Potomac, Maryland.

Mark L. Russakoff died April 12, Easter Sunday, at the age of 58. He had served most recently as director of music ministries at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Park Forest, Illinois.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, September 16, 1950, he studied piano with Samuel and Delores Howard at Birmingham-Southern Conservatory, and organ with Joseph Schreiber at Birmingham-Southern Conservatory and with H. Edward Tibbs at Samford University. He earned a bachelor of music degree at Washington University, St. Louis, studying organ with Robert Danes and Howard Kelsey, and harpsichord with Anne Gallet. He also studied organ with Pierre-Daniel Vidal and harpsichord with Agnès Candau at the Strasbourg Conservatory, and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in organ at Northwestern University as a student of Wolfgang Rübsam and Richard Enright.
Russakoff taught at Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and at Thornton Community College. He served as organist/director of handbell ensembles at Flossmoor Community Church, director of music at St. Emeric Catholic Church, Country Club Hills, and was music editor and engraver for ACP Publications in South Holland. He is survived by his wife Cynthia, daughter Rachael, and sister Dale.

Charles Shaffer, 78, died May 2 in Los Angeles. Born in Akron, Ohio on November 17, 1930, his first piano lessons were in the Akron public schools, and he was a boy chorister at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church there. During World War II, Shaffer and his family moved to South Gate, California, where he continued his piano studies and deepened his interest in playing the organ and in organ building. By age thirteen he was playing services at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in South Gate. During his high school years, the family moved back to Akron, and Shaffer took his first organ lessons and attended his first meetings of the AGO chapter there.
Shaffer’s first year as an undergraduate was spent at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Fenner Douglass. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. Upon discharge from the service he continued his studies at the University of Redlands (California), where he studied with Dr. Leslie P. Spelman and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance.
Charles Shaffer served for eighteen years as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, and later at First Baptist Church in Pasadena. An active teacher and performer, he served the AGO in various capacities at the local and regional level and several of his articles have appeared in The American Organist.
In the early 1990s he was invited to consult on an organ renovation project at Westwood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. His role soon evolved from consultant to principal donor and co-designer of what has come to be called the Shaffer Memorial Organ (in memory of his wife of 29 years, Phyllis). The core of the organ was a large pipe instrument installed by Schantz in 1995. The expansion and revision of this instrument occupied Shaffer for the rest of his life. With co-designer Burton K. Tidwell and others, the organ has grown to include 153 ranks of pipes and 83 digital voices located in the chancel and gallery of the church and controlled by a four-manual and a two-manual console. It is one of the largest organ installations in southern California and was heard at the 2004 AGO convention.
Shaffer’s generosity to the church’s music ministry also included the gifts of five pianos (in memory of his parents and his wife’s parents), a digital carillon system, and seed money for an endowment fund to care for the instruments. About the many years of their close collaboration, Burton Tidwell has written of Charles, “His desire to explore possibilities beyond the ordinary, and then see that they could happen, has challenged and expanded my own concepts of organ building. Mr. Shaffer’s vision and generosity have provided all of us with a lasting legacy.” Charles Shaffer is survived by his sister, Lona Abercrombie, three nephews and three nieces.
—Gregory Norton
Minister of Music
Westwood United Methodist Church
Los Angeles, CA

Frank B. Stearns died February 4 at the age of 67 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, he received a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and a master’s of music from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a master of education degree from Slippery Rock University. He served as an elementary teacher for 28 years, and was director of music for 31 years at Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ in Greenville, Pennsylvania. For the last ten years he was director of music at Center Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock. Stearns was active in community musical groups and was also a member of numerous musical and historic organizations, including the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the American Recorder Society, and the Mercer County Historical Society, which named him Volunteer of the Year in 2007. Frank Stearns is survived by his wife of forty years, Patricia, sons Jim and David, and two grandchildren.

Raymond A. Zaporski, age 81, died on February 28 in Roseville, Michigan. He was a music minister-organist for the Archdiocese of Detroit for over 50 years, serving St. Angela Parish Church in Roseville, St. Blase Catholic Community in Sterling Heights, and St. Anne Catholic Community in Warren, Michigan. Raymond Zaporski is survived by his wife, Dorothy, sons Mark, Michael, and Martin, daughter Mary Beth, and their families.

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

Richard Hillert died February 18. He was Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Illinois, and was best known for his work as a composer and composition teacher. One of his most noted works is Worthy Is Christ, of which “This is the Feast of Victory” has been widely published in various worship books.
Hillert received his bachelor’s degree in education from Concordia, and master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from Northwestern University. He also studied composition with Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi. Hillert taught at Concordia from 1959 to 2003. He edited eleven volumes of the Concordia Hymn Prelude Series and was associate editor of the journal Church Music (1966–80).
Hillert’s compositions and publications include liturgical music for congregation, choral motets, hymns and hymn anthems, psalm settings and organ works, concertatos, and cantatas, including settings of The Christmas Story According to Saint Luke and The Passion According to Saint John. Richard Hillert is survived by his wife Gloria Bonnin Hillert, and children Kathryn Brewer, Virginia Hillert, and Jonathan Hillert.

Rev. Richard D. Howell died January 26 in Dallas, Texas. Born June 24, 1932 in Great Bend, Kansas, he earned a master of sacred music degree from Southern Methodist University, and was ordained a deacon in the United Methodist Church. He started playing for church services at age 13, and went on to serve numerous United Methodist congregations in Texas and taught elementary music for the Richardson and Dallas school districts. He played for children’s, youth, and adult choirs and directed handbell choirs, serving as the chairman of the Dallas Handbell Festival. He was active in many organizations, including the American Guild of Organists, Choristers Guild, and the Fellowship of United Methodist Musicians. Richard D. Howell is survived by his wife of 52 years, Bradley Sue Howell, children Mark and Teri Howell, Celeste and Martin Hlavenka, and Jane Walker, along with grandchildren, sisters-in-law, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Richard Proulx died February 18 at age 72. From 1980 to 1994, he was organist–music director at the Cathedral of the Holy Name in Chicago, where he was also responsible for the planning and installation of two new mechanical-action organs for the cathedral: Casavant II/19 (Quebec, 1981) and Flentrop IV/71 (Holland, 1989). Before coming to Chicago, he served at St. Thomas Church, Medina/Seattle (1970–1980), and was organist at Temple de Hirsch Sinai. Previous positions included St. Charles Parish, Tacoma; St. Stephen’s Church, Seattle; and 15 years (1953–1968) at the Church of the Holy Childhood in St. Paul.
A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, he attended MacPhail College and the University of Minnesota, with further studies undertaken at the American Boychoir School at Princeton, St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, and the Royal School of Church Music in England. He studied organ with Ruth Dindorf, Arthur Jennings, Rupert Sircom, Gerald Bales, and Peter Hallock; choral conducting with Bruce Larsen, Donald Brost, and Peter Hallock; composition with Leopold Bruenner, Theodore Ganshaw, Bruce Larsen, and Gerald Bales.
Proulx was a widely published composer of more than 300 works, including congregational music, sacred and secular choral works, song cycles, two operas, and instrumental and organ music. He served as consultant for The Hymnal 1982, the New Yale Hymnal, the Methodist Hymnal, Worship II and III, and contributed to the Mennonite Hymnal and the Presbyterian Hymnal.

Phyllis J. Stringham, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, died February 12 at the age of 79. Born January 30, 1931 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Calvin College and a Master of Music degree in organ performance at the University of Michigan. Her organ teachers included John Hamersma, Robert Noehren, and Marilyn Mason. She pursued additional study at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, studying with Nadia Boulanger and André Marchal. In 1966 she studied with Marie-Claire Alain and Anton Heiller at the Summer Academy for Organists in Haarlem, Holland. While on sabbatical leave in 1972, she spent five months studying at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. Further study was done at the Eastman School of Music with Russell Saunders, and with Delbert Disselhorst at the University of Iowa.
For 43 years, Stringham was Professor of Music and College Organist at Carroll University, Waukesha, Wisconsin (1959–2002). After retirement from teaching, she retained her position as College Organist and Curator of the Organ. In 2007 she was named Organist Emeritus. Her earlier teaching career began at Chatham Hall, an Episcopal school in Virginia. She is listed in Who’s Who in the World of Music. From the late 1960s to 2007 she operated the Phyllis Stringham Concert Management agency. She served the AGO as dean of the Milwaukee chapter and as Wisconsin State Chair.
Phyllis Stringham is survived by her brother James A. (Gladys), nephews, many grandnephews, nieces, other relatives and friends. A memorial service was held February 18 at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Waukesha.

Gail Walton, director of music at the University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart, died February 24 in Indianapolis after a long illness. She was 55 years old. Dr. Walton had served as director of music in the Basilica since 1988, directing the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir as well as the Basilica Schola, which she founded in 1989. She held degrees from Westminster Choir College and the Eastman School of Music, where she earned the doctor of musical arts degree in organ performance, and was awarded the performer’s certificate. Before joining the basilica staff, she taught organ at Goshen College.
Gail Walton performed throughout the midwestern United States and played concerts in the German cities of Bonn, Heidenheim, Mainz, and Rottenburg/Neckar in the summer of 1991. In the summer of 1995, she took the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir on a tour of Italy, giving performances in Florence, Milan, Assisi, and Rome. She frequently played duo recitals with her husband, organist and Notre Dame music professor Craig Cramer.

Allan Wicks, a leading cathedral organist of his generation, died February 4 at age 86. He played a crucial role during the 1950s and 60s in bringing modern works by Messiaen, Maxwell Davies, Stravinsky, and Britten into the regular cathedral repertory. Born in Harden, Yorkshire, on June 6, 1923, the son of a clergyman, Wicks became organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford in 1942, where he studied under Thomas Armstrong. He became sub-organist at York Minster in 1947, then in 1954 organist and master of the choristers of Manchester Cathedral. During his time there, he oversaw the rebuilding of the war-damaged organ, and championed the music of Peter Maxwell Davies and Malcolm Williamson. He also regularly conducted Stravinsky’s Canticum Sacrum.
In 1961 he was appointed organist and master of the choristers of Canterbury Cathedral, a post he held until 1988.There he regularly performed music by such composers as Messiaen, Ligeti, Tippett, Lennox Berkeley, and Alan Ridout. Wicks made several recordings, released on LP but yet to be issued on CD, of works by Alan Ridout, Messiaen (notably La nativité du Seigneur), Bach, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Franck, Widor, Alain and Reger. Wicks retired from Canterbury in 1988, having served under three archbishops and taught several generations of choristers.

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.