Christopher Reynolds to St. Paul’s, Richmond

Henry Murlin Kelsay,
82, died August 23 in Springfield, Missouri. He was born on February 17, 1923
in Versailles, Missouri. After graduation from high school in Booneville,
Missouri, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, rising to the rank of 1st
lieutenant and serving as an air corps navigator. He fought in several World
War II battles and air campaigns in southern France and Italy, and was
decorated with numerous medals and citations. Kelsay graduated from Union
Theological Seminary in New York City, and went on to serve as music director
at several churches in the Little Rock, Arkansas area, including Pulaski
Heights Methodist Church and Christ Episcopal Church. He served as dean of the
Central Arkansas AGO chapter 1954-55 and 1959-61. Later in life he
became interested in interior decorating and was successful in that endeavor.

At the time of his death, Kelsay was a member of St. James
Episcopal Church in Springfield, Missouri. A memorial service took place there
on September 17. He is survived by his sister-in-law and three nephews.

--Virginia Strohmeyer-Miles

Noel Mander, MBE,
FSA, prominent British organbuilder, died September 18 at his home in Suffolk,
England, at the age of 93.

Born on May 19, 1912 in Crouch near Wrotham, Mander was
brought up in South London. Having left school (which he hated), he went to
work for A & C Black, publishers. The office work did not suit him,
however, and through his uncle, Frederick Pike, he met Ivor Davis who had
worked for Hill, Norman & Beard. After working with him for a while, Mander
started on his own in 1936, the first organ being that at St. Peter’s
Bethnal Green opposite St. Peter’s School, which years later was to
become the organ works. Unfortunately, Christ Church Jamaica Street, Stepney, where
he rented workspace, together with the organ he was working on and all his
equipment, were lost in the first air raid on East London 1940.

Shortly after that, he joined the Royal Artillery, seeing
service in North Africa and Italy, where he worked on a number of instruments,
including the organ in Algiers Cathedral, which had been silent for years.
Having been invalided out of active service in Italy, he joined the Army
Welfare Service and during his convalescence he repaired a 17th-century organ
in Trani.

After the war he assisted the London Diocese in getting
organs working again in bomb-damaged churches. He set up a workshop in an old
butcher’s shop in Collier Street before moving in 1946 into the old
buildings of St. Peter’s School in Bethnal Green, where the firm remains
to this day. In 1948 he married Enid Watson with whom he had five children,
living over the workshop in Bethnal Green. Most of his early work revolved
around the rebuilding of organs, many of which survive to this day.

He always had an affection for historic instruments and
restored a number of antique chamber organs, setting new standards for the time
with his sympathetic appreciation and restoration of them. Of particular note
was the restoration of the 17th-century organ at Adlington Hall in Cheshire in
1958-59, which was in a completely desolate state. It had not been
playable for perhaps a century, 
but with painstaking care the organ was restored and remains one of the
most important survivors in England.

In the 1960s he became aware that interest was growing in
tracker-action organs in the rest of Europe, and this encouraged him to
investigate this form of action himself, initially in the restoration of
instruments (which otherwise might have been electrified) and then in new
organs. Ultimately a number of such instruments were built including the export
of some to places such as Bermuda and the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial
Foundation in Fulton, Missouri.

Having been involved with the rebuilding of a number of
large organs, he was awarded the contract to rebuild the organ in St.
Paul’s Cathedral in London during the 1970s. This project, lasting almost
five years, was perhaps his greatest pride and was completed just in time for
the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations at St. Paul’s. In 1978 H.M.
Queen Elizabeth made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He
retired in 1983 to his home in Suffolk, but retained an interest in what the
firm was doing right to the end. The 60th anniversary of the Mander firm was
marked in 1996 by publication of a collection of essays in his honor entitled
Fanfare for an Organ Builder.

Noel Mander’s interests were by no means restricted to
organs. He was a keen historian and an avid bookworm. He was a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries and very active in the Council of Christians and Jews
for many years. He became a very popular member of the Earl Soham community in
Suffolk, where he retired to in 1983. He was also the British representative
for the Sir Winston Churchill Foundation in Missouri and secured a number of
significant pieces of antique furniture for the Wren church rebuilt there,
including, during the last year of his life, a fine 18th-century pulpit that
had once stood in a City church.

Philip Marshall, who
served as organist at both Ripon and Lincoln cathedrals, died on July 16. Born
in Brighouse in 1921, his early studies were with Whiteley Singleton, a pupil
of Edward Bairstow. He gained an Associateship of the Royal College of Music,
and in 1946 won three prizes in the Fellowship examination of the Royal College
of Organists. He earned his BMus at Durham in 1950, by which time he was
assistant to Melville Cook at Leeds Parish Church. He also served as organist
at All Souls, Haley Hill, Halifax, where he met Margaret Bradbury, whom he
married in 1951, and who survives him. The Marshalls moved that year to Boston,
working at the Parish Church and Grammar School. By 1957,
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Philip Marshall had completed his
doctorate at Durham, studying with Bairstow’s York successor, Francis
Jackson, and was appointed organist at Ripon Cathedral. Founding the choir
school, rebuilding the cathedral instrument and producing a chant book were
highlights of his tenure at Ripon.

An accomplished model engineer, organbuilder and composer as
well as an outstanding organist, accompanist and teacher, Dr. Marshall served
as organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral for 20 years
until retirement in 1986. The Dean and Chapter named him Organist Emeritus in
the early 1990s.

Dorothy Hildegard Nordblad died of congestive heart failure on September 9 at the Moorings, a
retirement community in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was 93. A lifelong
member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Chicago, she served for 37 years as
organist and director of junior choirs at Edison Park Lutheran Church, where
she directed 60 children in three choirs. Nordblad also taught history, math
and music to hundreds of children, serving the Chicago public schools for 40
years.

The daughter of Swedish immigrants, she was born in Chicago
in 1911 and graduated from Senn High School before attending Northwestern
University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in education in 1932
and a master’s degree in education in 1946.

Her teaching career began at Stewart School, and in the late
1950s Nordblad moved to Beaubien Elementary School on the Northwest Side. In
addition to teaching, she was assistant principal, a position she held until
her retirement in the 1970s. After she moved to the Moorings retirement home,
she organized and directed the choir there, continuing as its director for more
than seven years. Funeral services were held on September 14 at Ebenezer
Lutheran Church, Chicago.

Donald W. Williams,
of Ann Arbor, died September 22 at the Chelsea Retirement Center, Chelsea,
Michigan, following a seven-month battle with cancer. He was 66.

Williams received his bachelor’s degree (1961) and
master’s degree (1962) from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee,
where he studied with Scott Withrow. In 1979 he received the DMA from the
University of Michigan, where he studied with Marilyn Mason. At Michigan, he
was given the Palmer Christian Award by the Organ Department of the School of
Music in recognition of his accomplishments in teaching, performing, and choral
conducting.

Dr. Williams served as organist and choirmaster at Zion
Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor from 1963 until 1995, when he became
organist-choirmaster at Chelsea First United Methodist Church, a position he
held until his death. He was a member of the organ faculty of the National
Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, from 1966 to 1970, and was adjunct
lecturer in organ at the University of Michigan in the early 1970s. He taught
organ performance and church music at Concordia University in Ann Arbor (1976-95,
1999 until his death). He was co-founder of the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale, which
he directed with Richard Ingram and Ruth Datz from 1987 to 2001, and was
founder and conductor of the American Chorale of Sacred Music.

Williams performed at churches and cathedrals in this
country and abroad, including the National Cathedral and the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New
York City, St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, and various European venues.
From 1981 to 1985 he performed as a member of Principal VI, a group of
organists from the greater Ann Arbor area. In 1986, he gave the world premiere
of Vincent Persichetti’s last composition, Give Peace, O God.

In addition to the various positions he held in the Ann
Arbor chapter of the American Guild of Organists, Williams was chair of worship
standards and repertoire of the American Choral Directors’ Association
(1995-2001), and a member of the board of the Boy Choir of Ann Arbor from
2000 until his death. He was a life member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Funeral services were held on September 26 at First
Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. Williams is survived by his 97-year-old
father, Joel Williams, of Marietta, Georgia.

Alan Dann, president of the Estey Organ Museum of Brattleboro, Vermont, died September 7 at the age of 80. Born March 29, 1934, he was educated at Harvard University; Teachers College, Columbia University; and the University of Connecticut. He moved to southern Vermont in 1998. As a church organist, he served at various times the West Dover Congregational Church, St. Mary’s in the Mountains, the Halifax Union Society, and the Marlboro Meeting House. He sang in the Brattleboro Community Chorus and the Pioneer Valley Symphony Chorus, as well as other organizations. Alan Dann is survived by his wife Dr. Deirdre Donaldson, son John, granddaughter Ruby, foster son Pedro Mendia-Landa, and brother Robert.

Stephen Paulus died October 19 at age 65, of complications from a severe stroke he suffered in 2013. Born in New Jersey, Paulus grew up in Minnesota and earned a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Paul Fetler. In 1983, he became composer-in-residence at the Minnesota Orchestra. Five years later, he was appointed to the same post in Atlanta, where conductor Robert Shaw commissioned many works from Paulus.

He composed for dozens of major musical organizations, including the Minnesota Opera, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, and the Bach Society of St. Louis. Paulus wrote five operas for OTSL, beginning with The Postman Always Rings Twice, along with choral works for the Chamber Chorus and Bach Society. The setting of the Stabat Mater Paulus wrote for the SLCC in 2008 has become a modern classic.

His more than 500 works ranged from the operatic, oratorio, and symphonic to choral hymns, including more than 12 works for solo organ. His Holocaust oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn, with libretto by Minneapolis poet Michael Dennis Browne, was commissioned by the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. It was recorded by the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale, and Minnesota Boychoir in 2008. Paulus and his son Greg wrote a jazz-infused piece, Timepiece, to open the 2011 Minnesota Orchestra season. Pilgrim’s Hymn, his best-known choral work, was sung at the funerals of former presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.

Paulus was a co-founder of the American Composers Forum in 1973, the largest composer service organization in the United States, and served as the Symphony and Concert Representative on the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1990 until his death.

Stephen Paulus is survived by his wife, Patty, and sons Greg and Andrew. A memorial service was held November 8 at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul. 

Paul L. Reynolds died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on September 12. Born March 4, 1930, in Newcastle, Nebraska, he graduated from Doane College in 1952, majoring in organ. In 1954 he received a Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, New York City; he did study tours through the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Italy, attended the Organ Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, during many summers, and studied in England at New College, Oxford, and the Royal School of Church Music, Croydon.

He served as organist-choirmaster at the Reformed Church of Metuchen, New Jersey, for two years prior to accepting a call to the First-Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. While there he directed six choirs, established a concert series, and organized two symposia on the church and the arts.

In 1962 Reynolds was named director of music at Christ Presbyterian Church in Canton, Ohio, where he developed a concert series utilizing Oberlin Conservatory students and members of the Cleveland Orchestra. He served at the Church of the Covenant (Presbyterian) in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1970–1974, directing three choirs and presenting eleven annual concerts featuring members of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He taught choral literature courses at Case Western Reserve University and directed the University Circle Chorale. During the mid-1970s, Reynolds also served Grosse Point Memorial Church, Michigan, and Westminster Church in Dayton, Ohio. 

In 1982 Paul Reynolds was called to be organist-choirmaster for the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Lafayette, Louisiana. In 1987 he began his tenure at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chattanooga, where he served until his retirement in 2008. In 2000, in thanksgiving for his ministry, St. Paul’s established the Paul L. Reynolds Music and Theology Internship at the University of the South.

His interest in the fine arts led Reynolds to serve as a docent at the Hunter Museum of American Art and to gift several works of art to local congregations of the Episcopal Church. He was a volunteer reader for the students of Rivermont Elementary School and Little Miss Mag Early Learning Center, and a member of the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, and the Chattanooga Music Club.

Paul L. Reynolds is survived by his children, Andrew Paul Reynolds of New York City and Elizabeth Ann Neilly (Mrs. Robert) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Donald Basil Austin (1933-2004) died September 17 of complications from emphysema. He was 71. Mr. Austin was long affiliated with Austin Organs, Inc., the firm originally founded as Austin Organ Company by his great uncles, John T. Austin and Basil G. Austin. Donald Austin's father, Frederic Basil Austin, became president of the firm in 1937 upon its reorganization as Austin Organs, Inc.

As a boy, Donald Austin grew up surrounded by pipe organs, in a factory created by his family and filled with the mechanical wizardry of his forebears. On his days off, he often accompanied his father to the shop, and in 1950 he began working there in his spare time. After service in the Korean War, Mr. Austin began full-time employment, simultaneously pursuing an undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of Connecticut.

Mr. Austin was one of the few members of the factory staff to apprentice in the traditional sense: apart from the pipe shop, he worked in every department, even alongside the ladies in the third-floor action department (affectionately referred to as the 'hen house'). Family connections spelled no favoritism; Donald was begun at minimum wage of sixty-five cents an hour. In keeping with a long-standing family tradition, Mr. Austin did not study voicing, but chose to assist in the management of the company and maintain the firm guidance and conservative spirit that had characterized the Austin Company from the outset.

In the work environment, Mr. Austin was a reserved man who avoided publicity and preferred one-on-one contact. With friends and staff, however, his conservative exterior became a platform for 80-grit humor. Once started, "Don" or "DBA" (as most of the staff called him) could be immensely lively and affable. With a cigarette between his third and fourth fingers, he would stride straight past the No Smoking sign and into the factory for his rounds. A born prankster, Mr. Austin gloried in the fax machine the way other cultures embraced antibiotics; whimsy, wit and droll assessments of other builders' work would routinely unfurl into incoming trays across the land. Mr. Austin's humor was matched by penmanship of near illegibility, but there was something in his curly scrawl that conjured up the hearty chuckle of the man himself.

Over the years, projects brought him into contact with many luminaries. He was particularly fond of Dr. Robert Baker, who acted as consultant on numerous prominent Austin installations from the mid-1950s to 1990. He also worked with Clarence Watters, Fred Swann, Lawrence Phelps, Nelson Barden, Douglass Hunt and Carlo Curley, among others. He relished some of the firm's more unusual projects: the 1990 restoration of the 1930 Austin in Hartford's Bushnell Memorial Hall, a personal favorite of his great uncle Basil G. Austin; the console rebuild of the famous Girard College Aeolian-Skinner, the core organ provided for a concert hall in Shiroishi, Japan.

When F.B. Austin retired in 1973, Donald Austin assumed the office of President, and in 1990 he became Chairman of the Board. In 1994, after forty-four years with the firm, he announced his semi-retirement, leaving daily management to his daughter, Kimberlee, who had trained in the factory much as her father had. Mr. Austin remained active in policy decisions and general guidance. He retired as President in 1999, continuing as a member of the Board and consultant. He was a past President of the American Pipe Organ Builders Association, and held membership in the International Society of Organ Builders and the American Institute of Organ Builders.

Outside the factory, Mr. Austin was heavily involved in the Bloomfield Center Fire Department and Fire District, joining in 1951 and ascending through the ranks from Private and Captain to Treasurer and ultimately Commissioner. He served on the Board of Directors of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Traffic Club Division, as well as being a 32nd Degree Mason and a member of Hiram Lodge 98, AF & AM. He served as Senior Warden of Old St. Andrew's Church in Bloomfield, and proudly donated a Trumpet stop to the Austin Chorophone there. As an active member of the Central New England Railroad group, he made many friends, several of whom lent friendship and support in his later years.

In addition to his wife of fifty years, Marilyn (Heeber) Austin of Bloomfield, survivors include two daughters, Sheryl Morales, of Fanwood, NJ, and Kimberlee Austin of Windsor Locks, CT; three grandchildren, George Austin, and Stacey and Rachel Morales; and several in-laws, nieces and nephews. Funeral services were held Tuesday, September 21 at Old St. Andrew's Church in Bloomfield, with burial in the Old St. Andrew's Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Our Companions Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 673, Bloomfield, CT 06002, or the Old St. Andrew's Endowment for Organ Maintenance, 59 Tariffville Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002.

--Jonathan Ambrosino

Janet Hall died on April 30 in Pueblo, Colorado. Born on October 25, 1923, she had served as a church musician for almost 50 years. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a master's from Union Theological Seminary, where she studied with Vernon de Tar. After serving as organist and director of Christian education at St. Thaddeus Church, Aiken, South Carolina, from 1946-49, she moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, to take up the post of assistant organist and director of Christian education at Bruton Parish Church. From 1957 to 1988 she served as organist and choirmaster at Ascension Episcopal Church, Pueblo, Colorado, and was the founder of the St. George Men and Boys' Choir and the St. Cecilia Choir. From 1963 to 1972 she was assistant professor of music at the University of Southern Colorado. The niece of English composer Herbert Sumsion, Miss Hall was a prolific composer of choir anthems and recorder and handbell music. Her plainsong setting of the Kyrie eleison is published in The Hymnal 1982.

Kent McDonald died on May 18 in Phoenix, Arizona. Born on July 25, 1925, in Phoenix, he served in the U.S. Army in World War II, studied piano privately in New York City, and then earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music. In 1950 he was appointed organist and choir director at St. James Episcopal Church, Birmingham, Michigan, where he served for over 40 years. During that time he taught piano and organ privately and was an adjunct instructor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He twice served as Dean of the Detroit AGO chapter and also as Michigan State Chairman. He was program chairman for the AGO national convention in Detroit in 1958 and directed choirs at two Episcopal Church triennial conventions. After his retirement in 1991, he and his wife spent half of each year in Arizona and half in Oscoda, Michigan. During summers in Michigan, he served as organist at Christ Church, East Tawas.

Donald Basil Austin
(1933–2004) died September 17 of complications from emphysema. He was 71.
Mr. Austin was long affiliated with Austin Organs, Inc., the firm originally
founded as Austin Organ Company by his great uncles, John T. Austin and Basil
G. Austin. Donald Austin’s father, Frederic Basil Austin, became
president of the firm in 1937 upon its reorganization as Austin Organs, Inc.

As a boy, Donald Austin grew up surrounded by pipe organs,
in a factory created by his family and filled with the mechanical wizardry of
his forebears. On his days off, he often accompanied his father to the shop,
and in 1950 he began working there in his spare time. After service in the
Korean War, Mr. Austin began full-time employment, simultaneously pursuing an
undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of
Connecticut.

Mr. Austin was one of the few members of the factory staff
to apprentice in the traditional sense: apart from the pipe shop, he worked in
every department, even alongside the ladies in the third-floor action
department (affectionately referred to as the ‘hen house’). Family
connections spelled no favoritism; Donald was begun at minimum wage of
sixty-five cents an hour. In keeping with a long-standing family tradition, Mr.
Austin did not study voicing, but chose to assist in the management of the
company and maintain the firm guidance and conservative spirit that had characterized
the Austin Company from the outset.

In the work environment, Mr. Austin was a reserved man who
avoided publicity and preferred one-on-one contact. With friends and staff,
however, his conservative exterior became a platform for 80-grit humor. Once
started, “Don” or “DBA” (as most of the staff called
him) could be immensely lively and affable. With a cigarette between his third
and fourth fingers, he would stride straight past the No Smoking sign and into
the factory for his rounds. A born prankster, Mr. Austin gloried in the fax
machine the way other cultures embraced antibiotics; whimsy, wit and droll
assessments of other builders’ work would routinely unfurl into incoming
trays across the land. Mr. Austin’s humor was matched by penmanship of near
illegibility, but there was something in his curly scrawl that conjured up the
hearty chuckle of the man himself.

Over the years, projects brought him into contact with many
luminaries. He was particularly fond of Dr. Robert Baker, who acted as consultant
on numerous prominent Austin installations from the mid-1950s to 1990. He also
worked with Clarence Watters, Fred Swann, Lawrence Phelps, Nelson Barden,
Douglass Hunt and Carlo Curley, among others. He relished some of the
firm’s more unusual projects: the 1990 restoration of the 1930 Austin in
Hartford’s Bushnell Memorial Hall, a personal favorite of his great uncle
Basil G. Austin; the console rebuild of the famous Girard College
Aeolian-Skinner, the core organ provided for a concert hall in Shiroishi,
Japan.

When F.B. Austin retired in 1973, Donald Austin assumed the
office of President, and in 1990 he became Chairman of the Board. In 1994,
after forty-four years with the firm, he announced his semi-retirement, leaving
daily management to his daughter, Kimberlee, who had trained in the factory
much as her father had. Mr. Austin remained active in policy decisions and
general guidance. He retired as President in 1999, continuing as a member of
the Board and consultant. He was a past President of the American Pipe Organ
Builders Association, and held membership in the International Society of Organ
Builders and the American Institute of Organ Builders.

Outside the factory, Mr. Austin was heavily involved in the
Bloomfield Center Fire Department and Fire District, joining in 1951 and
ascending through the ranks from Private and Captain to Treasurer and
ultimately Commissioner. He served on the Board of Directors of the Hartford
Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Traffic Club Division, as well as being
a 32nd Degree Mason and a member of Hiram Lodge 98, AF & AM. He served as
Senior Warden of Old St. Andrew’s Church in Bloomfield, and proudly
donated a Trumpet stop to the Austin Chorophone there. As an active member of
the Central New England Railroad group, he made many friends, several of whom
lent friendship and support in his later years.

In addition to his wife of fifty years, Marilyn (Heeber)
Austin of Bloomfield, survivors include two daughters, Sheryl Morales, of
Fanwood, NJ, and Kimberlee Austin of Windsor Locks, CT; three grandchildren,
George Austin, and Stacey and Rachel Morales; and several in-laws, nieces and
nephews. Funeral services were held Tuesday, September 21 at Old Saint
Andrew’s Church in Bloomfield, with burial in the Old Saint Andrew’s
Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Our Companions Animal
Shelter, P.O. Box 673, Bloomfield, CT 06002, or the Old Saint Andrew’s
Endowment for Organ Maintenance, 59 Tariffville Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002.

--Jonathan Ambrosino

Janet Hall died on
April 30 in Pueblo, Colorado. Born on October 25, 1923, she had served as a
church musician for almost 50 years. She received a bachelor’s degree
from Smith College and a master’s from Union Theological Seminary, where
she studied with Vernon de Tar. After serving as organist and director of
Christian education at St. Thaddeus Church, Aiken, South Carolina, from
1946–49, she moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, to take up the post of
assistant organist and director of Christian education at Bruton Parish Church.
From 1957 to 1988 she served as organist and choirmaster at Ascension Episcopal
Church, Pueblo, Colorado, and was the founder of the St. George Men and
Boys’ Choir and the St. Cecilia Choir. From 1963 to 1972 she was
assistant professor of music at the University of Southern Colorado. The niece
of English composer Herbert Sumsion, Miss Hall was a prolific composer of choir
anthems and recorder and handbell music. Her plainsong setting of the Kyrie
eleison is published in The Hymnal 1982.

Kent McDonald died
on May 18 in Phoenix, Arizona. Born on July 25, 1925, in Phoenix, he served in
the U.S. Army in World War II, studied piano privately in New York City, and
then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School
of Music. In 1950 he was appointed organist and choir director at St. James
Episcopal Church, Birmingham, Michigan, where he served for over 40 years.
During that time he taught piano and organ privately and was an adjunct
instructor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He twice served as
Dean of the Detroit AGO chapter and also as Michigan State Chairman. He was
program chairman for the AGO national convention in Detroit in 1958 and
directed choirs at two Episcopal Church triennial conventions. After his retirement
in 1991, he and his wife spent half of each year in Arizona and half in Oscoda,
Michigan. During summers in Michigan, he served as organist at Christ Church,
East Tawas.

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.