Eugene “Gene” E. Englert, 93, pianist, choral director, composer, organist, and liturgist, died June 2. He began playing organ for Catholic Masses at a young age. Upon graduation from Purcell High School, Cincinnati, Ohio, he attended the Athenaeum of Ohio, Cincinnati. After serving in the Army in Korea where he was prompted to give a concert in the American embassy and form and conduct a Korean children’s choir, Englert completed his Master of Music degree at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
Englert married Ruth Caplinger, and they began their family and his long career as Catholic church musician and choir director in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He was music and choir director at St. Clement, St. Charles, St. Clare Catholic Churches in Cincinnati, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in Fairfield, Ohio, and Assumption Church in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, where he served for 52 years. He also was music director at McAuley High School and Good Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing, both in Cincinnati, preparing choirs and music groups for concerts and shows for many years. One of his accomplishments was taking two of his choirs to Rome to sing for Pope John Paul II in 1988.
Englert began composing choral, piano, and organ music in the 1960s with more than 250 pieces of published choral music, mostly written for church choirs and hymnals and still being sung in churches all over the world. He was a founding member of the National Catholic Music Educators Association, an organization of musicians dedicated to Catholic music education that eventually developed into what is now known as the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM). Englert was part of the Milwaukee Composers’ Forum that produced a major document on church music and liturgy.
Eugene E. Englert was preceded in death in 2010 by his wife of 53 years, Ruth, and also by their son Mark who died as a young child. He is survived by three children: Stephanie (John Williams), John, and Jeannette (Clifton Funches), and two grandchildren. He is further survived by his sister Mary Biedenharn and brothers Joseph and Rob. A funeral Mass was celebrated June 8 at the Church of the Assumption, Mt. Healthy, with burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery, St. Bernard, Ohio, with military honors.
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