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Nunc dimittis: Edward J. Sampson

Barbara Owen
Edward J. Sampson

Edward J. Sampson, Jr., 77, of North Andover, Massachusetts, died January 2. Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, he attended Northeastern University, where he received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in electrical engineering degrees. He then embarked on a fifty-year career as a systems engineer at Raytheon Company in Bedford and Tewksbury, Massachusetts. In 2008, he was one of the first recipients of the Bishop Cheverus Award of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for his devotion to St. Patrick Parish, Lawrence, and the archdiocese.

Sampson had a lifelong passion for classical organ music and since 1976 served as president of the board of trustees of the Methuen Memorial Music Hall, home of the world-famous “Great Organ,” the longest tenure in the trustees’ history. Over the ensuing years, he promoted the use of the hall’s organ for commercial recordings and played an active part in planning and publicizing summer organ recitals and expanding off-season organ and “organ plus” programs. Seeing some important needs from the outset, he became an indefatigable fundraiser for the hall and its organ. During his tenure major repairs to the building’s fabric were made, along with upgrades as basic as new restrooms and a handicap-accessible entrance, completed in 1996. An organ restoration fund was also established that facilitated a complete upgrade of the failing combination action and renovation of the console. In addition, Sampson had a very active interest in the history of the hall and the organ, and one of his early projects was the revision of the outdated visitor’s pamphlet describing the hall’s history, and later, a well-researched “timeline” plaque, produced for the 2009 centenary of the former Boston Music Hall organ’s relocation in its specially designed hall in Methuen, an event that he took an active part in organizing.

Edward J. Sampson, Jr., is survived by his wife of 50 years, Kathleen; sister-in-law and brother-in-law Honor and Bill Jutila; and sister-in-law Nancy Crowley. A wake was held at Methuen Memorial Music Hall on January 5, and a funeral Mass was celebrated on January 6 at St. Patrick Parish, Lawrence. Memorial contributions may be made to the Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Inc., Post Office Box 463, Methuen, MA 01844-0463, or to St. Patrick Parish, 118 South Broadway, Lawrence, MA 01843-1427.

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Dominick Argento, 91, died February 20. Born October 27, 1927, he grew up in York, Pennsylvania. After high school graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served as a cryptographer. Following World War II, he entered the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, Maryland, to study piano, but switched to composition, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1951 and a master’s degree in 1953. He would eventually earn a doctoral degree from Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. The recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, Argento studied in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola.

In 1958, he and his wife, Carolyn Bailey, moved to Minneapolis, where he began teaching composition and theory at the University of Minnesota. He soon began receiving numerous commissions, particularly for opera. Among his organ works was Prelude for Easter Dawning.

In the 1970s, Argento began composing choral works, particularly for the choir of Plymouth Congregational Church of Minneapolis. He would be the recipient of commissions for choral music by Plymouth Church, the Cathedral of St. Mark, Minneapolis, the Buffalo Schola Cantorum, Harvard and Yale glee clubs, and other organizations. After retirement from the University of Minnesota in 1997, he was named professor emeritus, and continued to live in Minneapolis.

David Gifford, 97, of Northampton, Massachusetts, died January 26. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1921, and spent his childhood in Bedford and Cambridge. He attended the Longy School of Music, Cambridge, where he studied organ with E. Power Biggs. After serving in World War II as a Military Police Escort Guide, United States Army, Gifford attended Harvard University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music.

In 1949 he married Irene Davidson, and they moved to the Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, earning a Master of Music degree. After graduation, the Giffords returned to Massachusetts and settled in Hingham. He became organist and music director at the Old Ship Church, Hingham, and worked as a pipe maker and voicer at Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Boston.

He eventually studied for an education degree at Lesley College and taught at Walter F. Dearborn School, Cambridge, and at the Gifford School, founded by his mother, Margaret Gifford, in Weston, Massachusetts. Upon leaving teaching, he returned to organbuilding and became a pipe maker and reed voicer for C. B. Fisk, Inc., Gloucester, Massachusetts, and served as organist at Newburyport Presbyterian Church. After retirement, the Giffords moved to Charlemont, Massachusetts, and David Gifford became organist for St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ashfield, Massachusetts. After his wife’s death in 1999, he moved to Cummington, Massachusetts, and was organist at the Village Congregational Church. Eventually Gifford retired from active organ playing and moved to Williamsburg and then to Northampton, Massachusetts.

David Gifford is survived by his son Ralph Gifford and wife Amy of Westwood, New Jersey, and daughter Anne Dodge and husband Edward of Barkhamsted, Connecticut. A memorial service was held February 16 at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Ashfield. Memorial contributions may be made to The Gifford School, 177 Boston Post Rd., Weston, MA 02493.

Robert “Robbie” Anthony Giroir, Jr., 59, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, died December 23, 2018, after a brief illness. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Louisiana State University and in 1985 became organist and director of music at St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral, Baton Rouge, as well as director of choral studies at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.

During Giroir’s tenure, the choirs at the school consistently earned superior ratings at district and state choral assessments. In the last 15 years, choirs under his direction performed in England, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France, and Vatican City. He was named “Music Teacher of the Year” by the Baton Rouge Symphony League for 2010–2011. As director of music and organist at St. Joseph Cathedral, he oversaw the acquisition of the Reuter organ in 1993 as part of the parish’s bicentennial.

His funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Joseph Cathedral on December 27 and was televised live throughout the Diocese of Baton Rouge. His best friend and protégé, Ryan Hebert of the University of Tampa, accompanied the funeral. Members of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra provided a chamber ensemble. The choirs of the cathedral and Baton Rouge Magnet High School sang, assisted by alumni of both groups, comprising more than 130 choristers in all.

Robert Anthony Giroir, Jr., is survived by his mother, Myrtis Leblanc Giroir; sister and brother-in-law, Danette and Ronald Legendre; and nephews with their wives and children, Ladd, Abby, and Landon Legendre, and Brant, Brittney, and Harper Jane Legendre.

Noel Rawsthorne, 89, died January 28. Born December 24, 1929, he studied with Harold Dawber at Royal Manchester College of Music (now Royal Northern College of Music), after which he studied with Fernando Germani in Italy and Marcel Dupré in France.

Rawsthorne was organist of Liverpool Cathedral, UK, from 1955 until 1980, when he was named organist emeritus. From 1980 until 1984 he was also organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. As a recitalist, he performed throughout the UK, Europe, and the former Soviet Republic. In 1994, the University of Liverpool awarded him an honorary doctorate of music. A memorial service was held March 3 at the cathedral of Liverpool.

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Elizabeth Ayers Compton Bellocchio, 65, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, died August 30. She was an organist, organbuilder, historian, and museum and arts administrator, known professionally as Lisa Compton. Born October 9, 1953, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, she grew up in Exeter, New Hampshire. She began piano lessons at Ellerslie School, Great Malvern, England, where the family lived for a year while her father was an exchange professor at Malvern College.

Lisa Compton was executive director of the Seneca Falls Historical Society, Seneca Falls, New York, from 2000 until 2002, and was from 1998 to 2000 executive director of the Friends of Vista House, Corbett, Oregon. She was the first professional director of the Old Colony History Museum in Taunton, Massachusetts, 1982–1996, and served on the Taunton Historic District Commission, revising and editing the second edition (1986) of Taunton Architecture: A Reflection of the City’s History.

She researched and wrote many entries as editor of the Organ Historical Society’s 2005 Southeastern Massachusetts convention handbook and served on the convention planning committee, co-chaired by her husband, Matthew Bellocchio. She was consultant for the restorations of historic organs at the Congregational Church (c. 1834 E. & G. G. Hook), Berkeley, Massachusetts, and Pilgrim Congregational Church (1890 Johnson & Son), Taunton, Massachusetts.

In 1975, as a fellow in the Summer Museum Studies program at Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts, she researched the history of dancing and ballrooms in early New England and presented programs and lectures based on her research. She later served for two years as assistant curator at the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, creating the summer Old Deerfield Sunday Afternoon Concert Series that continues to date.

She trained and supervised tour guides at Castle Hill, the mansion on the Crane Estate, Ipswich, Massachusetts, as an employee in the Education Department of The Trustees of Reservations, 2007–2010. She was administrator at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill, 2011–2017, and was a librarian at the Graves Music Library of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, from 2010 until her recent illness prohibited continuing.

As an organbuilder, Lisa Compton was a member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, having been among the first women to take and pass the AIO examination in 1979 to receive the Colleague Certificate. Employed by the Berkshire Organ Company, she became the New York City service representative. She later worked occasionally with other firms and with her husband at the Roche Organ Co., Taunton, Massachusetts; Bond Organ Builders, Inc., Portland, Oregon; Parsons Pipe Organ Builders, Canandaigua, New York; and Andover Organ Company, Inc., Methuen, Massachusetts.

A 1975 graduate of Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, with a degree in art history and music, she studied organ with Vernon Gotwals at Smith and earlier with Richard Bennet, organist at her high school, Concord Academy. In 1970, she helped to relocate the 1872 E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Opus 676 to the academy chapel (and since relocated to the Smithsonian Institution). She served as music director and organist at First Baptist Church, Northampton, Massachusetts; in Taunton, Massachusetts, at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church, and Pilgrim Congregational Church; First Presbyterian Church, Seneca Falls, New York; and as accompanist for the children’s choir at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon, where she was also a substitute organist at other churches.

Elizabeth Ayers Compton Bellocchio is survived by her organbuilder husband Matthew Bellocchio and their daughter Holly Bellocchio Durso of Abington, Massachusetts. She is also survived by her brother Karl Compton of Rockport, Texas, and her sister Carol Compton of Keene, New Hampshire. A funeral was conducted September 28 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Taunton, where she had been a member since 1983. She sang in the choir, served on many committees and two terms on the vestry, and sewed the church banner that hangs by the organ case (1899 George Jardine & Son, Op. 1257/1980 Roche Organ Co.). Donations in her memory may be made to the Memorial Fund of St. Thomas Episcopal Church or to the Old Colony History Museum, 66 Church Green, Taunton, MA 02780.

 

Jared Jacobsen, organist, liturgist, choir director, and community faith leader, died August 27. He was born March 18, 1949, in New Castle, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Girard, Pennsylvania, graduating from Girard High School in 1967. He began music studies at age five as a piano student at the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York, and had returned every summer since. He studied piano at Villa Maria College, Erie, Pennsylvania, and later enrolled in Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree with honors. At the University of Arizona in Tucson, he earned a Master of Music degree and pursued doctoral study as a Haldeman Fellow in keyboard performance and choral studies.

He began his church music career at age thirteen as organist for Grace Episcopal Chapel, Fairview, Pennsylvania. A California resident since 1976, he served as fifth civic organist of the City of San Diego from 1978 through 1984, playing weekly concerts on the Spreckels Organ in Balboa Park. In 1984 he moved to San Francisco to serve a Catholic parish. While there he was organist for the 1987 papal Mass in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park for a congregation of 70,000 and a viewing audience of 70,000,000; the following year he was invited by Pope John Paul II to the Vatican as a delegate to its historic First World Conference on Church Music. A Presbyterian church called him to service in San Diego in the fall of 1991.

Since 1996, Jacobsen served as the organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music for the Chautauqua Institution. He presided over the Massey Memorial Organ of four manuals located in the amphitheater. He also led the Motet Choir for daily worship services and the Chautauqua Choir for Sunday morning and evening worship, played weekly recitals on the Massey organ and the 1893 Tallman mechanical-action organ in the Hall of Christ, and appeared frequently as soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony and Music School Festival Orchestras.

In recent years, when not at Chautauqua during summer months, Jacobsen served as director of music for First Lutheran Church, San Diego, California, and as a member of the performing arts faculty of The Bishop’s School, an independent college-preparatory middle and high school in La Jolla, California.

A memorial service for Jared Jacobsen was held August 30 in the Chautauqua Amphitheater, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson presiding.

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Richard Bond, 73, died in Portland, Oregon, February 17. Bond first became interested in organbuilding at age fifteen. After graduating with a degree in engineering science from the University of Redlands, Redlands, California, he began his organbuilding career in the company of other builders in Los Angeles, including Manuel Rosales and Michael Bigelow. In 1976, Bond and his wife Roberta moved to Portland to found their own firm. Under his leadership, Bond Organ Builders, Inc., has built thirty-six new organs and maintains instruments throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as in California and Montana. The firm has also completed numerous rebuilds, additions projects, restorations, and relocations of significant historical instruments. For many years, Richard Bond was curator of the famous hanging Casavant organ at Portland’s Lewis & Clark College. More recently he took up the care of the Rosales organ at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, also in Portland, where he and Roberta sang in the choir. In addition to his membership in the American Institute of Organbuilders, Bond served on the Historic Organs Committee of the Organ Historical Society. Bond Organ Builders, Inc., holds membership in the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America and the International Society of Organbuilders. Richard Bond is survived by his wife Roberta and a son Tim.

John C. Gumpy, 80, of Macungie, Pennsylvania, died September 29, 2019. Born in 1939 in Danville, Pennsylvania, John owned and ran Lehigh Organ Company for over thirty years, building and rebuilding organs. For sixteen years, he also served as organist for Trinity Episcopal Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, home to his Opus 128, a three-manual instrument of thirty-six ranks. His home congregation was Grace Church, Bethlehem. He was a founding member of the American Institute 
of Organbuilding. For his projects, Gumpy generally favored electric-valve windchests and open-toe nickless voicing for chorus work; he was a skilled recycler of older pipes as well. Some Lehigh projects included Opus 30 at First United Church of Christ in Reading, Pennsylvania (1986), in which a 1958 M. P. Möller organ was expanded to 80 ranks, including a new Great division and other material. John C. Gumpy is survived by his wife of fifty-seven years, Margery; son, Edward J. Gumpy and wife Kathryn of Vernon, New Jersey; daughter, Katherine E. and husband Jeffrey Crawford of Golden, Colorado; and grandson, Logan Gibson Gumpy. A memorial service was held October 4, 2019, at New Goshenhoppen U.C.C. in East Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Homer H. Lewis, Jr., a reed voicer who worked for both M. P. Möller and his own firm Trivo, died May 4 in Hagerstown, Maryland. Known familiarly as “Junie,” Lewis was 93. In 1942, while still a high school senior, Lewis began employment at Möller doing defense work. In 1943, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving aboard the USS Bronstein, a destroyer escort, as a fire control man, Third Class, in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. At the conclusion of World War II, Lewis returned to Möller to become a reed voicer alongside his uncle, Adolf Zajic (1909–1987), who had come to Möller from Welte-Tripp in 1931. In 1963, Lewis, Joseph E. Clipp, and Edward Lushbaugh founded the Trivo Company, initially as a part-time enterprise. In 1969, the partners incorporated the business as Trivo Company, Inc., to provide voicing and reconditioning of reed stops, as well as new pipes. Lewis retired from Möller in 1972. While continuing to work part time at Trivo, he taught principles of electricity at Victor Cullen Reform School for Boys in Sabillasville, Maryland, a correctional institute run by the State of Maryland. In 1974 when the state relocated the school, Lewis switched to full-time work at Trivo, and in 1983, Lewis and Clipp bought out Edward Lushbaugh’s share of Trivo. Lewis retired in 2012 at age 86. His career in the organ business spanned seven decades. Lewis was a member of the Improved Order of Red Men #84, Williamsport, Maryland; Washington County Amvets (Post 10), Hagerstown; and the American Legion. He was a founding member of the American Institute of Organbuilders. His wife, Nancy, who frequently joined her husband at AIO conventions, died last year.

Marvin Garrett Judy, 76, founder of Schudi Organ Company, died February 29. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1943, he moved with his family to Dallas, Texas, in 1952. He studied ’cello through high school and college years. After attending Southern Methodist University for several years, he left in 1963 to work for Robert Sipe and Rodney Yarbrough at the Sipe-Yarbrough Organ Company, Texas’s second 20th-century builder (after Otto Hofmann) to concentrate on mechanical key action. When Sipe went to the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company in that firm’s final years (1969–1972), Judy installed that firm’s organs in the south and southeastern states, a phase of his career that drew to a close with Aeolian-Skinner’s bankruptcy, Sipe’s return to Texas, and Judy’s founding of Schudi in Garland, Texas, in 1972. In all, the Schudi firm built twenty-seven new organs, primarily in Texas but also Oklahoma, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. Beginning with Opus 17 (1980), a two-manual tracker in Texarkana, Texas, the Schudi shop concentrated on mechanical action. Keyboards, slider windchests, key and stop actions, casework, and consoles were made in-house; pipes, blowers, and electronic components came from other firms. Schudi’s first instrument to draw national attention was a three-manual electric-slider instrument, Opus 6 of 1978, for St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Dallas. Opus 6 was expanded in 1987 and became widely noticed that year for Todd Wilson’s recording of the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé (DELOS 3047). As esteemed was the firm’s Opus 38 (1987) in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. In addition to servicing Schudi organs, Judy maintained those by others, notably his twenty-two-year curatorship of C. B. Fisk’s Opus 100 at Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas. In all of the shop’s endeavors, Marvin was surrounded by considerable talent: the conceptual and creative input of George Gilliam early on; long-term staffers Charles Leonard, Jim Lane, James Stillson, Jonathon Maedche, Ivan Witt, Szymon Januszkiewicz, and Piotr Bolesta; also the now-deceased David Zuber, Moises Carrasco, and E. O. Witt; the periodic support of friend and colleague Mark Lively; and through it all, the business and logistical support of Nanette Gordon, initially hired in 1980 to carve pipe shades. She and Marvin Judy married in 1983. The financial downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s dealt harshly with several organbuilding establishments, Schudi among them. Despite the loss of contracts and a reduction of scope, Judy persevered, with a genial nature and persistent work ethic that continued to the end. Even until his final months, he remained active in rebuilding and service work in the Dallas area. Marvin Judy is survived by his wife Nanette; his son, John Judy, of Savannah, Georgia; a daughter, Allison Gordon and Stephen Shein of Houston, Texas; and his brother, Dwight Judy, and sister-in-law, Ruth Judy of Syracuse, Indiana.  —Jonathan Ambrosino

David C. Scribner died April 16. Born September 21, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, he received most of his organ instruction as a student of Arthur C. Becker and René Dosogne at DePaul University. At Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Scribner became Becker’s assistant and then successor as organist. During his time in Chicago, Scribner was a member of the Windy City Gay Men’s Chorus. Scribner would move to San Francisco, California, Pensacola, Florida, and finally Little Rock, Arkansas. His most recent organist position was at Christ Episcopal Church, Little Rock, as a substitute. He also served as a vestryman of that parish, where he freely contributed computer expertise to allow the church to spread its ministry through social media. Having previously worked for other organ firms, Scribner spent the last twenty years at Nichols & Simpson Organbuilders in Little Rock. David Scribner was an active member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, the Organ Historical Society, the American Guild of Organists, the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society, the Organ Media Foundation, and Pipechat.org, the latter being his creation. All these organizations he served in numerous ways, much of which involved his expert computer technical knowledge. In addition to his passion for the pipe organ, Scribner was a lifelong railroad enthusiast, greatly enjoying travel on Amtrak and anything else with a connection to train tracks. In this vein, he supported numerous historical clubs and railway museums. Per his wishes, Scribner’s cremains were interred in Christ Church, Little Rock, on May 1, as near to the organ as possible. A memorial organ concert in his honor will be scheduled in the future at Christ Church, where memorial donations may be made in his name.

William Chandler Teague, 97, died June 27. He was born July 8, 1922, in Gainesville, Texas, where he began musical training at age three with his mother. At age 12 he became the organist for a large Methodist church. As a teenager he studied organ in Dallas, Texas, and entered Southern Methodist University at age 16. His studies were interrupted when Alexander McCurdy invited him to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His studies at Curtis were interrupted by World War II, as he joined the United States Army Air Force as a chaplain’s assistant. He returned to Curtis after the war to study and serve as McCurdy’s assistant, playing for Sunday oratorio performances at First Presbyterian Church. Accompanying Teague to Philadelphia was his young bride, the former Lucille Ridinger, whom he had married during the war. They had met at a Methodist camp when they were 12 years old. Teague’s organ teachers included Dora Poteet Barclay, Alexander McCurdy, Marie-Claire Alain, Harold Gleason, and Catharine Crozier. After graduation from Curtis in 1948, Teague came to Shreveport, Louisiana, to accept the position of organist/choirmaster at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (now the location of The Church of the Holy Cross, St. Mark’s having relocated in 1954 and in 1990 became a cathedral) and a teaching position at Centenary College of Louisiana in the organ and sacred music departments. He taught for 44 years earning the rank of full professor. He was later designated Professor of Music Emeritus at the college, which granted him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. He served as accompanist as he and his wife traveled with the Centenary College Choir to various countries including China. He served St. Mark’s Cathedral for 39 years before being designated Organist Emeritus. Teague maintained an active concert career, performing in such venues as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria, Westminster Abbey, Trinity Church Wall Street and the Riverside Church in New York City, National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the armed forces academies. He was invited to play behind the Iron Curtain with concerts in East Berlin, Poland, and in other countries. He and Lucille were in East Berlin at the Wall when the first blows were struck to tear it down. He would perform in Japan, Australia, all over the United States and Europe, and in North Africa. In addition to solo organ concerts, William joined his son, Chandler, in presenting music for organ and percussion in concerts across the United States. Following his retirement from St. Mark’s Cathedral, Teague was interim organist for churches throughout the region. Teague was active in the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, the Sewanee Music Conference, and the Evergreen Summer Conference. He was a Fellow in Church Music at Washington National Cathedral. For ten summers Teague was summer organist at St. Ann’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Kennebunkport, Maine. He was a founding member of Baroque Artists of Shreveport, founded the Great Masterpiece Series at St. Mark’s Cathedral, recorded a weekly organ concert for radio broadcast for eight years, trained thousands of choristers in the tradition of Anglican music, and played for hundreds of weddings, funerals, and festivals. Raven Recordings released a two-CD set of organ music performed by Teague at St. Mark’s Cathedral, The Aeolian-Skinner Sound (OAR-800), including works by Dupré, Messiaen, and Willan. In 1988, the City of Shreveport honored him with William C. Teague Day, and the Teague Music Scholarship was established at Centenary College. The Teague-Smith Scholarship Fund for young choristers was later established at St. Mark’s Cathedral. Teague is listed in volumes of Who’s Who including the International Who’s Who, and was recently honored by the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival. William Chandler Teague is survived by a son, Chandler Teague, and wife, Janis Adams Teague, of Shreveport, Louisiana; a daughter, Lynda Gayle Teague Deacon of Memphis, Tennessee; three grandchildren, Sandra Deacon, Clay Deacon, and Hunter Deacon; and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 77 years, Lucille Ridinger Teague. A combined service for Dr. and Mrs. Teague will be held at a later date. Memorials may be made to the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, 616 Jordan St., Shreveport, LA 71101; the Teague-Smith Scholarship Fund at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 908 Rutherford St., Shreveport, LA 71104; or the Teague Music Scholarship Fund at Centenary College, 2911 Centenary Blvd., Shreveport, LA 71104.

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Robert Edward Coleberd, 86, died on December 5, 2018. Born July 6, 1932, in Kansas City, Missouri, he graduated from William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, with a degree in economics. He then served in the United States Army during the Korean War. After his discharge he earned an MBA degree at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. A few years later he enrolled at University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, where he received MA and PhD degrees in economics.

Coleberd began his years of college teaching at Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Virginia, and then at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College), Westminster, Maryland. He also worked a few years for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. While there he attended Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, where he met his future wife, Barbara.

He returned to college teaching at Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia. After six years during which he was promoted to department head and earned tenure, he decided to leave academia and moved to Houston, Texas, to work in the petroleum industry.

In 1979 he moved to California to work for Tosco (The Oil Shale Corporation). Four years later, he and a colleague formed a partnership to start their own business, Pacific West Oil Data. This company prepared and published a monthly data book of tables and graphs of statistics and other information on the West Coast petroleum industry. He sold the business and retired in 2000.

Throughout his life Coleberd was interested in pipe organs, sparked by his brother’s becoming a church organist at the age of 12. He visited many factories of organbuilders both in the United States and on trips to Europe. For several years he was an economic consultant to the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America (APOBA). He also served on the board of directors of the Reuter Organ Company, Lawrence, Kansas. He wrote articles about the history of various organbuilders, mainly in the Midwest, and published many of them in The Diapason and The Tracker. He built two organs himself, one of which he kept in his home in Granada Hills for many years. Recently, with the help of Manuel Rosales, he donated his organ to St. Paul’s First Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, California.

Coleberd enjoyed woodworking and had a workshop at home, where he had projects including bottle stoppers, bowls, and trays. He was a member of the Glendale Woodturners Guild. Recently he became interested in making kaleidoscopes. He joined the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society and made kaleidoscopes with wooden barrels. He wrote articles for the quarterly newsletter of the Brewster Society and attended their conventions.

Robert E. Coleberd is survived by his wife of 47 years, Barbara; his sister-in-law Linda Coleberd of Hannibal, Missouri; his brother-in-law Stuart Kennedy of Edgerton, Wisconsin; and many nieces and nephews.

Some of Robert Coleberd’s bibliography in The Diapason:

Trophy Builders and their Instruments: A Chapter in the Economics of Pipe Organ Building, August 1996

Is the Pipe Organ A Stepchild in Academe?, March 1997

The Economics of Pipe Organ Building: It’s Time to Tell the Story, January 1999

August Gern and the Origins of the Pitman Action, June 2000

Three Kimball Pipe Organs in Missouri, September 2000

Stevens of Marietta: A Forgotten Builder in a Bygone Era, June 2002

“A Perfect Day,” February 2004

The Mortuary Pipe Organ, July 2004

Organist and Organbuilder, Jerome Meachen and Charles McManis: A Meeting of the Minds, June 2005

Stanley Wyatt Williams, 1881–1971, June 2006

Steuart Goodwin: Organbuilder, April 2007

The Masonic Lodge Pipe Organ: Another neglected chapter in the history of pipe organ building in America, August 2008

 

Brett Austin Terry, 31, died February 27 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Born June 6, 1987, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, he received his early education in piano, organ, and voice at the First Methodist Church, Bartlesville, then at Grace Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri, and Southminster Presbyterian Church, Prairieville, Kansas.

Terry earned Bachelor of Music degrees in organ and in voice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where he graduated summa cum laude, studying organ with John Ditto. His 2013 Master of Music degree in organ was from Yale School of Music, where he was a student of Thomas Murray. He also earned the Certificate in Church Music at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he became interim director of chapel music at Yale Divinity School. Terry subsequently became director of music and organist at Scarsdale Congregational Church in Scarsdale, New York. In 2015, he was appointed minister of music and worship at Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg. In 2016, he also became artistic director and conductor of the Central Pennsylvania Oratorio Singers and Orchestra.

Terry had worked in the greater New York City area as a vocal coach, choral conductor, arranger, harpsichordist, cellist, and singer. He directed a 24-voice professional choir and several concert series and worked collaboratively in opera, ballet, and musical theater. Terry was active in the American Guild of Organists and was dean of the Harrisburg Chapter at the time of his death. He was also active in the American Choral Directors Association. In addition to his organ studies, his voice teachers included Marilyn Horne and Renée Fleming. He sang the title role of Massenet’s Werther in a Parisian production several years ago.

Brett Austin Terry is survived by his mother and her husband, his father and his wife, a paternal grandmother, a maternal grandmother, two sisters, and nieces and nephews. His funeral service was held at the Adams Boulevard Church of Christ, Bartlesville, on March 8. A memorial service took place on March 23 at the Pine Street Church in Harrisburg. Memorial contributions may be made to the Music at Pine Street concert series at Pine Street Presbyterian Church, 310 North 3rd St., Harrisburg, PA 17101.

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James Sands “Jock” Darling, Jr.

James Sands “Jock” Darling, Jr., organist, choirmaster, and music director, died January 26, 2021, in Williamsburg, Virginia. Born May 29, 1929, in Hampton, Virginia, he attended Christchurch School, Middlesex County, Virginia, and graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, in 1946. He attended Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, where he earned undergraduate degrees in music theory and piano in 1950 and 1951, and in 1954 he completed a master’s degree in organ at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. On January 31, 1953, he married Mary Lee Oliver of Gloucester, Virginia.

From 1954 to 1961 he was organist and choir director at Plymouth Church, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and from 1961 to 2006, he held the position of organist and choirmaster at Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg. At Bruton Parish Church, Darling directed an active program in music for all ages, including offerings for adult, boys, and girls choirs, as well as approximately 125 candlelight concerts annually, which were performed by himself, Bruton Parish associates, local musicians, and visiting artists. He taught organ and harpsichord at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, and as music consultant for Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, he presented many concerts in the Governor’s Palace and other historic buildings, often playing and conducting in colonial costume. Among the dignitaries who attended his recitals were four United States presidents and several heads of state. As a guest artist, he also performed throughout the United States and in Europe. Darling published numerous recordings of colonial period music and edited four publications of keyboard music for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. In 2003, he authored Let the Anthems Swell, a monograph on the history of music at Bruton Parish Church. He especially enjoyed offering the Saturday morning recitals in William and Mary’s historic Wren Chapel on an 18th-century English chamber organ. This concert series, which he initiated in 1971, continues to this day.

The Darling residence was a musical center, where the family hosted gatherings of visiting musicians, instrument makers, choirs, and for a time, the Wednesday morning meetings of the Williamsburg Music Club, which he helped found in 1964.

James S. Darling is survived by his sister Sarah Winfree “Sally” Darling; children Elizabeth Ann Darling, Russell Christian Darling, James Andrew Darling, Jonathan Lee Darling, Sarah Trevilian Darling, and their spouses and partners; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His wife of 67 years, Mary Lee Oliver Darling, preceded him in death on January 13 of this year.

A memorial service will be held at Bruton Parish Church at a future date. Donations in James S. Darling’s memory may be made to Bruton Parish Church or the Organ Historical Society .

Walter Joseph Gundling

Walter Joseph Gundling, 82, of Mountville, Pennsylvania, died February 17. A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he was active at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in his youth and a member of a family of pipe organ builders. His father, Walter Sebastian Gundling, grandfather, Sebastian, and families came to the United States in 1926 after leaving a family pipe organ building business in Laudenbach, Germany. They settled in Erie, Pennsylvania, working for the Tellers Organ Company, where Walter Sebastian completed his apprenticeship. In 1929, the family settled in Lancaster and founded the Sebastian Gundling & Son Co., which was engaged in maintaining and rebuilding pipe organs as well as building new instruments. In 1953, the firm, now including the teenaged Walter Joseph Gundling, installed the organ in Sacred Heart Church.

After graduation from Lancaster Catholic High School in 1956, Walter Joseph began full-time work for the family business, having completed his apprenticeship. He was the third generation to carry on the business, with clients in 225 churches in Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1981, Walter Joseph Gundling’s son, Daniel Walter, joined the firm.

On April 28, 1962, Walter Joseph Gundling married Kathleen Ann Wiegand in Lancaster, and they were married for nearly 59 years. Together they raised five children.

Walter Joseph Gundling retired from the business in 2005, at which time the firm closed. The Moravian Church of Lancaster hosted a retirement concert and reception on June 12, 2005, Walter Joseph’s birthday.

Walter Joseph Gundling is survived by his children Daniel Gundling (Patricia) of Emmaus, Pennsylvania; Joseph Anthony Gundling (Janet) of Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Mary Ellen Gundling Koval (Mark) of Wilmington, Delaware; Anne Marie Gundling Williams (Andy) of Lancaster; and Barbara Kathleen Gundling Raihall (James) of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania; as well as ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A funeral Mass was celebrated at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Lancaster, on February 25. Memorial gifts may be made to the Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary, 1834 Lititz Pike, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601.

J. Samuel Hammond

J. Samuel Hammond, 73, longtime carillonneur at Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, died February 25. Hammond retired from the university in December 2018 after 53 years of service spanning six university presidents. He performed daily carillon recitals at 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and on Sundays after chapel services and at university ceremonies. Upon his retirement the university board of trustees dedicated the 50-bell carillon in his honor.

Born August 22, 1947, Hammond came to Duke as an undergraduate student in 1964 from Americus, Georgia, and began playing the chapel carillon shortly after his arrival. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1968 and later earned a master’s degree in theological studies, both at Duke, as well as a master’s degree in library science from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Hammond was promoted to chapel carillonneur upon graduation in 1968 and was named university carillonneur in 1986, becoming only the second person to hold the title. In 2018, he was named university carillonneur emeritus. For 41 years, he was a librarian in the university’s rare book room, music library, and other library departments. Upon retirement from the library in 2012, he was honored through the collection’s acquisition of a rare first edition of the illustrated 1612 book, De campanis commentarius (“A Commentary on Bells”). Hammond performed recitals in bell towers of churches and universities across the United States. In addition, for more than 50 years he volunteered as accompanist for young musicians in the Duke String School, playing piano in rehearsals and performances. During his lifetime, Hammond served as organist at Methodist, Episcopal, and Catholic churches, substitute organist at Duke Chapel, and accompanist for the Triangle Jewish Chorale, Durham Savoyards, Longleaf Opera Company, and other groups.

J. Samuel Hammond is survived by his wife Marie, son Christopher and his wife Kelli, son John, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Memorial gifts may be made to Urban Ministries of Durham, Triangle Land Conservancy, or a charity of your choice.

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Nunc Dimittis

Roy Henry Carey, Jr., 89, died April 28. He was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on October 18, 1929, and lived there most of his life. He attended Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, before transferring to Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, where he received degrees in music and humanities, with a major in organ performance, studying with Donald Willing. He reported to Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in July 1953 and was in active service with the United States Navy until his honorable discharge as a Lt. JG in 1956. During his active duty he was stationed in Morocco and Nantucket as an information officer.

Carey entered Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1958. His pursuit of a Master of Business Administration degree was cut short by the untimely death of his father, owner of the Carlsbad Oil Company. Carey returned to Carlsbad that year to become manager of the family business. During his time as a student at Stanford, he met his wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1962. Before he was married, he used his Navy money to purchase a small Rieger mechanical-action organ, which he sold in 2010.

A devoted member of Grace Episcopal Church, Carlsbad, he served as its senior warden and as its organist for 54 years. One of his proudest achievements was shepherding the acquisition of a mechanical-action Kney organ for the church. Over the years he arranged many concerts on this instrument. He was a member of the Diocese of the Rio Grande Music Commission during the years when the Episcopal hymnal and prayer book were being revised. In this capacity, he and his wife traveled to national meetings to participate in the hymnal revision process. Later he served as president of the Rio Grande Standing Committee.

Roy Henry Carey, Jr., is survived by his wife, Barbara; his son Hank Carey and wife Michele and their children Hayden and Ashley; daughter Martha Carey and wife Elisabeth Fidler; and daughter Julia and husband William and their daughters Annemarie and Téa. A memorial service was held May 4 Grace Episcopal Church.

 

Kathryn Ulvilden Moen, 99, died May 16. She was born May 14, 1920. A fixture of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, church music and organ scene, she graduated from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, in 1941, earned a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to go to Norway where she studied at the Konservatoriet. She later studied with André Marchal in Paris, France, and with Heinrich Fleischer at the University of Minnesota.

Moen taught for 30 years at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, retiring at age 86. She held various church music positions including that at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, where she was instrumental in the selection of a Casavant organ in the 1960s, and later at St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church. Moen attended summer organ seminars in the Netherlands, France, Norway, and the Czech Republic. She later recorded an LP album of Czech organ repertoire that was reissued in CD format.

 

Patrick Wedd, 71, church musician, organist, composer, choral conductor, and founding director of the choral ensemble Musica Orbium, died May 19. He retired as director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Canada in 2018, after 22 years of service.

Wedd was born in 1948 in Ontario and earned degrees in organ performance from the universities of Toronto and British Columbia. He was director of music for 11 years at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 1986 he moved to Montreal to assume artistic directorship of the Tudor Singers. He performed organ recitals in North America and England, and he recorded the Poulenc and Jongen organ concertos with the Calgary Symphony Orchestra, NAXOS discs of music for organ and trombone with Alain Trudel, as well as organ works of Healy Willan. He composed for the church, including anthems, Masses, canticles, and hymns. He was also artistic director of the Montreal Boys’ Choir Course (now the Massachusetts Course) for over 20 years.

Wedd received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree from McGill’s Diocesan College and an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. At his retirement he also received the President’s Award of the RCCO Montreal Centre. (Additional information can be found in the September 2018 issue, pp. 10–11.)

Patrick Wedd is survived by his husband Robert Wells, his sisters Penny and Pam, and Pam’s partner Jane, along with Wedd and Wells family in-laws. His funeral was held May 31 at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal.

 

William “Bill” Freestate Wharton, 75, of Easton, Maryland, died May 19. Born January 4, 1944, he earned degrees (Bachelor of Arts, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts) in music from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut; Northwestern University School of Music, Evanston, Illinois; and Catholic University of America School of Music, Washington, D.C. His teachers included Margaret Wolcott, organist and choir director of his hometown church, Clarence Watters, Richard Enright, and Conrad Bernier.

Wharton taught music for 35 years in the public schools of Talbot County and Chesapeake College, Maryland, where he was named professor of music and was honored at his retirement as professor emeritus. He served as organist of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Easton, for over 50 years. In 2007 with 40 years of service at St. Mark’s, the church honored him with the rebuilding and updating of the pipe organ’s console. In 2017 with 50 years of service he was honored with a commissioned piece, “Variations on Engelberg” by Mark Miller. He earned the Associate and Choir Master certifications of the American Guild of Organists, and he presented and organized recitals and concerts throughout the Mid-Shore region.

William Freestate Wharton is survived by his brother, Franklin M. Wharton of Centreville, Maryland, and sister-in-law Kay G. Wharton of Butler, Pennsylvania.

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