Donald C. Ingram, 92, died December 29, 2024, Albany, New York. He was born November 24, 1932, Hinsdale, New York. He took his first piano lessons at age 4½ and began playing for Sunday school at age nine and church (piano) at age ten. His first paying organ position was at age 12 in the Presbyterian Church, Cuba, New York.
In 1949 he helped bring about the installation of a pipe organ at his home church, Hinsdale Methodist Church, on the 100th anniversary of the church building. He gave a recital at that time and fifty years later performed on the newly refurbished instrument at the building’s 150th anniversary. While in high school, Ingram commuted to Buffalo, New York, for organ lessons and to Alfred University for carillon instruction. After graduating valedictorian from Hinsdale Central School, he went to Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, as a scholarship student and from there received bachelor’s degree (1954) and Master of Music degree (1960) in organ, studying with Arthur Poister. During student days, Ingram also worked as organist/choirmaster at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cazenovia, New York, and while there designed the specification for a new Schlicker pipe organ that was installed in 1954.
Upon graduation Ingram served as organist/choirmaster at the Church of the Transfiguration, Cranston, Rhode Island, and in 1956 he was hired as sales manager and staff organist of the Schlicker Organ Co., Buffalo, New York, where he was employed through 1963. During these years he designed specifications for many pipe organs. Over the years he continued to serve as consultant for new and rebuilt instruments. As organist/choirmaster at Kenmore Methodist Church, Kenmore, New York, from 1957 until 1962, he prepared specifications for a new pipe organ installation in 1961 (and returned for the fiftieth anniversary recital in 2011).
Ingram moved on to St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, Buffalo, in 1962. During his tenure there he founded the noonday organ recital series and the Buffalo Choral Society. His choir of men and boys sang at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Trinity Wall Street, New York City, the National Cathedral in Washington, with Robert Shaw, and with the Buffalo Philharmonic under Josef Krips and Lukas Foss. Among other accomplishments there, he commissioned the Harold Darke Communion Service in A Minor.
Ingram was invited in the summer of 1968 to St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands, but by the end of the year, he was called to Albany, New York. During his brief time in St. Croix, he became a child welfare caseworker. This experience was to later help qualify him as a social worker in Massachusetts.
While organist/choirmaster at St. Peter’s Church, Albany, from 1969 until 1978, Ingram supervised the installation of two new organs by Schlicker in the choir and gallery. From 1978 to 1982 he was organist/choirmaster at St. Paul’s, Episcopal Church, Troy, New York. Rather than replace or rebuild the 1921 Austin organ at St. Paul’s, repairs undertaken were restorative of this instrument. The 1980s saw appointments at Christ Church, Baltimore, Maryland; Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Warwick, Rhode Island; and St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, Sudbury, Massachusetts. In 1989 he was appointed organist/choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church, Newport, Rhode Island, and then in 1994 he assumed that post at Trinity Episcopal Church, Vero Beach, Florida, remaining until 1999. It was in Vero Beach that he designed the new Harrison & Harrison organ that was installed in 1997, later moved to the present church in 2005.
Ingram retired at the end of 1999 to his home on the Mohawk River in New York. Retirement positions have included service as interim at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Trinity United Methodist Church, and First Presbyterian Church, all of Albany, and Trinity Episcopal Church, Newport, First United Presbyterian Church, and once again at St. Paul’s, Troy.
Active in the American Guild of Organists, Ingram was founding dean of the Treasure Coast Chapter and served as dean of the Buffalo and Eastern New York Chapters. He was Region II chairman for three terms and member of the executive committee of the national AGO. He was largely responsible for bringing the national AGO convention to Buffalo in 1970, and he was chair and co-chair of two Regional AGO conventions (1979 and 2003) in Albany. Ingram presented recitals in thirty states, Canada, the United States Virgin Islands, England, Scotland, and Sweden, and was honored by Trinity Church, Vero Beach, and St. Paul’s Church, Troy, with the title Organist Emeritus.
Donald C. Ingram is survived by his domestic partner of 54 years, Eugene Tobey, as well as a niece and nephew. A funeral service is being planned for the spring, with internment in the columbarium at St. Paul Cathedral, Buffalo. Memorial gifts may be made to the Donald Ingram Endowed Scholarship Fund, Syracuse University, 640 Skytop Road, 2nd Floor, Syracuse, New York 13244.
