Albert Laurence "Laurie" Campbell
Albert Laurence “Laurie” Campbell died April 25. He was born December 25, 1932, in San Diego, California. He began to play piano when he was three or four and played string bass and trumpet in junior high and high school.
After a semester at the University of California San Diego in 1951 Campbell volunteered in the 93rd Army Band stationed at Camp Roberts near Paso Robles, California. There he played trumpet and trombone for hundreds of new draftees on their way to Korea. He also discovered the Episcopal Church and pipe organs during weekends spent in Paso Robles, often sleeping in the recreation room of St. James Episcopal Church on Saturday nights. After being honorably discharged in 1953 Campbell attended the University of Redlands, Redlands, California, where he majored in sacred music and focused on playing piano and organ. There he met his future wife of 62 years, Marilyn Miller.
After their wedding in 1955 in Anaheim, California, the Campbells moved to Seattle, Washington, where Albert worked as an organist and completed his master’s degree in music performance at the University of Washington. In 1968 Campbell accepted a position as a music professor at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). In 1972 he entered into a partnership with one of his students, Michael McNeil, and together they built three mechanical-action pipe organs. Opus 1 was originally installed in the Campbell home; Opus 2 is a practice organ at UCSB; and Opus 3 was installed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ventura, California.
After many years with the university, Campbell returned to church music in the late 1970s and continued to work in churches as organist and choirmaster. In 1998 the Campbells came to the bay area of California to be near their children and first grandchild. They joined All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, California, where Albert spent ten years as director of music. After moving to Rossmoor, California, in 2011, Campbell became music director at the Church of Our Saviour in Mill Valley, where he served until his retirement in 2019. He continued to perform concerts throughout his career.
Albert Laurence Campbell is survived by three children, KC (“Peter”), Mary, and Penny, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held September 16 at the Church of Our Saviour, Mill Valley. Memorial gifts may be made to Friends of Music, in memory of Albert Laurence Campbell, University Advancement, University of Redlands, 1200 East Colton Avenue, Redlands,
California 92373.
William Dudley Oakes
William Dudley Oakes, 66, died April 27 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born January 8, 1957, in Richmond, Virginia. Oakes studied organ at the University of Richmond with Suzanne Kidd Bunting, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1979. He pursued further study at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, first with Marilyn Mason for a Master of Music degree in 1981 and then with Robert Glasgow for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1988. Oakes was a finalist in the Grand Prix de Chartres in the 1980s, and he concertized throughout the eastern United States as well as in Europe.
Throughout his life, Oakes was also a church musician. In chronological order he directed music programs at St. James Episcopal Church, Grosse Ile, Michigan; Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (interim); First Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia; St. John’s Episcopal Church, Georgetown, DC; St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC; and Grace Lutheran Church, Winchester, Virginia. He also taught at Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk, Virginia, and at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia.
Oakes began a long association with Fernand Létourneau and Létourneau Pipe Organs of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada, in 1988, rising to the position of vice president for sales and marketing. He was involved in over 80 of the company’s pipe organ projects, with most of these in the United States. Upon Fernand Létourneau’s retirement in November 2019, Oakes purchased the company, and as president spent the next three years leading the firm toward its current five-year backlog.
William Dudley Oakes is survived by his husband J. Thomas Mitts as well as two older brothers and their families. Memorial services were held at St. Charles Avenue Church, New Orleans, on May 18; at Augustana Lutheran Church, Washington, DC, on May 20; and at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Winchester, Virginia, on May 21.
Stephen Rumpf
Stephen Rumpf of New York, New York, died June 3. He began his musical studies at an early age in Wabash, Indiana. As a Honeywell Scholar he attended the National Music Camp and graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan, in organ and bassoon. Further studies were at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio. He then studied in Europe under Nadia Boulanger, Annette Dieudonné, and André Marchal in Paris, France, and Hugo Ruf in Cologne, Germany. Further harpsichord studies were with Kenneth Gilbert in Montréal, Canada, and Albert Fuller in New York City. While in Cologne, he was one of the music directors of the State Theater and also held a church position. After his years in Europe, he relocated to Montréal where he was director of music and organist for St. James United Church and studied with Raymond Daveluy at McGill University. He had also studied choral conducting and voice.
Rumpf performed organ and harpsichord recitals throughout North America, France, and Germany. Several of his performances have been broadcast on American Public Media’s Pipedreams. He performed in concert venues in New York City and abroad including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Brick Church, Church of the Transfiguration, and St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University.
Rumpf served as organist and choir director for many churches and synagogues in the New York metropolitan area including the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, St. Joseph’s Church, Yorkville, Notre-Dame Catholic Church, the Hebrew Tabernacle, and for Eric Butterworth’s weekly services at Alice Tully Hall.
Rumpf taught organ, piano, and harpsichord and collaborated with a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists in concert. He was active with the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, past chair of the St. Wilfrid Club of New York City, and a member of the Organ Historical Society. He was very active in several Masonic organizations and was recently reappointed Grand Organist of Free and Accepted Masons in the State of New York. ν
