Malcolm D. Benson dead at 94

Malcolm D. Benson died on January 1, 2015, in Ontario, California, of complications from pneumonia. He was 94. Born in Winchester, Indiana, on March 27, 1920, he served in the Army in New Guinea during World War II. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s in organ at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where he studied with Frank Van Duzen. He was an assistant professor of music at Wheaton College in Illinois where he met the love of his life, Phyllis J. Holzwarth; they were married in 1950, and their son Daniel was born in 1953. They moved to San Bernardino in the mid-1950s where he worked for the local school district. He earned a second master’s degree in library science from the University of Southern California and served as a public school librarian until the mid-1970s. In San Bernardino, Benson served as organist at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, then as organist and choir director at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a post he held for 30 years. He was a member of the American Guild of Organists, and a subscriber to The Diapason since he was 19.

Malcolm D. Benson is survived by his son Daniel and his sister Eloise Nicholl of Pasadena.  

Robert S. MacDonald, 77, died on October 4, 2014. Born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, on December 1, 1936, he earned a bachelor’s degree in organ performance from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.

In New York City, he played at Grace Church and at Radio City Music Hall, where for many years he was the organist for the annual Christmas show. MacDonald then played at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark, New Jersey. He served as organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas, where he played for 19 years before retiring. Upon his return to Massachusetts, he again was called on to play at the First Congregational Church in Rowley. 

Robert S. MacDonald is survived by brothers Richard C. MacDonald and his wife Mary Ellen, and John E. MacDonald and his wife Judy, along with nephews Colin, Aiden, and Edward MacDonald, a niece, Jennifer Mariani, four grandnephews, and two grandnieces. ν

Southern Methodist University’s emeritus professor of organ and sacred music Robert Theodore Anderson succumbed to Parkinson’s disease on May 29 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Born in Chicago on October 5, 1934, RTA (as he was affectionately known by hundreds of students and friends) received his early training at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Undergraduate work was accomplished at Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington), where he studied organ with Lillian Mecherle McCord. At Union Theological Seminary in New York, he was awarded the degrees Master of Sacred Music (magna cum laude) in 1957 and Doctor of Sacred Music in 1961. He was an organ pupil of Robert Baker and studied composition with Harold Friedell and Seth Bingham.
A Fulbright Grant awarded in 1957 permitted Anderson to study in Frankfurt with Helmut Walcha. During the two years he spent in Germany, he served as guest organist at Walcha’s Dreikoenigskirche, and toured as a recitalist under the auspices of the American Embassy.
Anderson began teaching at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in 1960. He retired from the school (because of ill health) in 1996, but continued to teach for several more years to complete the degree programs of his final organ majors. Dr. Anderson was promoted to full professor in 1971, and was subsequently awarded the first Meadows Distinguished Teaching Professorship and named a University Distinguished Professor (SMU’s highest rank).
Two of RTA’s students, Wolfgang Rübsam and George C. Baker, won first places at the prestigious Chartres Organ Competition, and many others repeatedly placed in American contests. Anderson was known for his widely comprehensive organ repertoire and toured extensively as a solo recitalist, for a time under the auspices of the Lilian Murtagh/Karen Macfarlane Concert Management. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Anderson served that organization as National Councillor for Education. He was Dean of the Dallas AGO chapter (1965–67), and served in many other capacities during his years in Dallas. The chapter named its annual recital series in his honor at the time of his retirement.
Anderson’s funeral was held at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu on June 3, with organist Katherine Crosier at the Beckerath organ and RTA’s Union Seminary classmate Nyle Hallman playing harp. His ashes will rest in Chicago, next to those of his parents. SMU is planning a Dallas memorial service, to be held in September.
—Larry Palmer

Howard Clayton died March 5 in Norman, Oklahoma. He was 79. He had earned degrees in education from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, in music from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and a Ph.D. in general administration from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Clayton held music teaching positions in Illinois before switching his emphasis to library science, which he taught at the University of Oklahoma. He had also held positions at other universities, including Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. He was editor of the educational journal Learning Today from 1968–85. At the time of his death, he was serving as organist at St. John Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon, Oklahoma. Howard Clayton is survived by his wife of 59 years, Wilma, daughter Caren Halinkowski, son Curtiss, brother Paul, a granddaughter, and nieces and nephews.

Everett S. Kinsman, age 86, died January 14 in Bethesda, Maryland. He had studied at the Catholic University of America and was an organ student of Conrad Bernier and Paul Callaway. He had served at St. Matthew’s Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., and was organist at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart for 22 years, beginning in 1949. His last position was at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Potomac, Maryland.

Mark L. Russakoff died April 12, Easter Sunday, at the age of 58. He had served most recently as director of music ministries at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Park Forest, Illinois.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, September 16, 1950, he studied piano with Samuel and Delores Howard at Birmingham-Southern Conservatory, and organ with Joseph Schreiber at Birmingham-Southern Conservatory and with H. Edward Tibbs at Samford University. He earned a bachelor of music degree at Washington University, St. Louis, studying organ with Robert Danes and Howard Kelsey, and harpsichord with Anne Gallet. He also studied organ with Pierre-Daniel Vidal and harpsichord with Agnès Candau at the Strasbourg Conservatory, and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in organ at Northwestern University as a student of Wolfgang Rübsam and Richard Enright.
Russakoff taught at Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and at Thornton Community College. He served as organist/director of handbell ensembles at Flossmoor Community Church, director of music at St. Emeric Catholic Church, Country Club Hills, and was music editor and engraver for ACP Publications in South Holland. He is survived by his wife Cynthia, daughter Rachael, and sister Dale.

Charles Shaffer, 78, died May 2 in Los Angeles. Born in Akron, Ohio on November 17, 1930, his first piano lessons were in the Akron public schools, and he was a boy chorister at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church there. During World War II, Shaffer and his family moved to South Gate, California, where he continued his piano studies and deepened his interest in playing the organ and in organ building. By age thirteen he was playing services at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in South Gate. During his high school years, the family moved back to Akron, and Shaffer took his first organ lessons and attended his first meetings of the AGO chapter there.
Shaffer’s first year as an undergraduate was spent at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Fenner Douglass. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. Upon discharge from the service he continued his studies at the University of Redlands (California), where he studied with Dr. Leslie P. Spelman and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance.
Charles Shaffer served for eighteen years as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, and later at First Baptist Church in Pasadena. An active teacher and performer, he served the AGO in various capacities at the local and regional level and several of his articles have appeared in The American Organist.
In the early 1990s he was invited to consult on an organ renovation project at Westwood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. His role soon evolved from consultant to principal donor and co-designer of what has come to be called the Shaffer Memorial Organ (in memory of his wife of 29 years, Phyllis). The core of the organ was a large pipe instrument installed by Schantz in 1995. The expansion and revision of this instrument occupied Shaffer for the rest of his life. With co-designer Burton K. Tidwell and others, the organ has grown to include 153 ranks of pipes and 83 digital voices located in the chancel and gallery of the church and controlled by a four-manual and a two-manual console. It is one of the largest organ installations in southern California and was heard at the 2004 AGO convention.
Shaffer’s generosity to the church’s music ministry also included the gifts of five pianos (in memory of his parents and his wife’s parents), a digital carillon system, and seed money for an endowment fund to care for the instruments. About the many years of their close collaboration, Burton Tidwell has written of Charles, “His desire to explore possibilities beyond the ordinary, and then see that they could happen, has challenged and expanded my own concepts of organ building. Mr. Shaffer’s vision and generosity have provided all of us with a lasting legacy.” Charles Shaffer is survived by his sister, Lona Abercrombie, three nephews and three nieces.
—Gregory Norton
Minister of Music
Westwood United Methodist Church
Los Angeles, CA

Frank B. Stearns died February 4 at the age of 67 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, he received a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and a master’s of music from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a master of education degree from Slippery Rock University. He served as an elementary teacher for 28 years, and was director of music for 31 years at Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ in Greenville, Pennsylvania. For the last ten years he was director of music at Center Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock. Stearns was active in community musical groups and was also a member of numerous musical and historic organizations, including the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the American Recorder Society, and the Mercer County Historical Society, which named him Volunteer of the Year in 2007. Frank Stearns is survived by his wife of forty years, Patricia, sons Jim and David, and two grandchildren.

Raymond A. Zaporski, age 81, died on February 28 in Roseville, Michigan. He was a music minister-organist for the Archdiocese of Detroit for over 50 years, serving St. Angela Parish Church in Roseville, St. Blase Catholic Community in Sterling Heights, and St. Anne Catholic Community in Warren, Michigan. Raymond Zaporski is survived by his wife, Dorothy, sons Mark, Michael, and Martin, daughter Mary Beth, and their families.

Noel Goemanne, Catholic Church musician and composer, died January 12 in Dallas. He was 83. Born in 1926 in Poperinge, Belgium, Goemanne was a graduate of the Lemmens Institute of Belgium, and studied organ and improvisation with Flor Peeters, and at the Royal Conservatory of Liege. During World War II, he refused an offer from the Nazis to become a composer for the Third Reich; he was later arrested for playing the music of Mendelssohn during the Nazi occupation of Belgium.
In 1952 he and his wife Janine immigrated to the United States, settling in Victoria, Texas, where he was organist at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. In response to the liturgical changes brought about in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, he composed the first Vatican II-approved Masses in English. During that time he gave sacred music workshops on college campuses; he also established the sacred music program at St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana.
Goemanne held organist and choirmaster positions in the Detroit area, at St. Rita’s Catholic Church and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church, and in Dallas, at St. Monica’s Catholic Church, Holy Trinity Seminary, and Christ the King Church, where he served from 1972 until this past summer.
His compositional output includes over 200 sacred compositions, with over 20 Masses. His organ work Trilogy for Dallas was the first work commissioned for the Lay Family Organ at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Goemanne’s many honors include an award from the Institute of Sacred Music in Manila, Philippines in 1974; the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross from Pope Paul VI in 1977; honorary doctorates from St. Joseph College in Rensselaer in 1980 and Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan in 1999; and numerous ASCAP awards. Goemanne was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Directors Association, and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. He is survived by his wife Janine, daughter Claire Page and husband Mike, son Luc and wife Candy, and three grandchildren.

John B. Haney, longtime Canon Organist and Choirmaster of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, South Carolina, died February 13 at age 77. Born in Illinois, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ from the University of Illinois, and received the Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
In 1970 he moved to Columbia, South Carolina, to become organist and choirmaster at what was then Trinity Episcopal Church, where he served for the next 33 years. Prior to that, he held positions at Reveille United Methodist Church, Richmond, Virginia; Central Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey; and Temple Emanu-El, New York City.
While at Trinity, he began the cathedral choir’s periodic residencies at English cathedrals and developed the Wednesdays at Trinity concert series. Haney was a member of the American Guild of Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians.

John Wright Harvey died December 31, 2009. “Organ—my hobby, my work, my play, my vocation, my recreation. Recital work a specialty.” So wrote Professor Harvey on a faculty information sheet dated October 26, 1961. He went on to list “Carillon—(and bells of all sorts)—a lifelong interest.” These dual interests defined John’s 24 years as professor of music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a career which began in September 1960, and ended with his retirement in June 1984. In 1962 the UW Memorial Carillon received 27 new bells and two claviers, enlarging it to a total of 51 bells. On February 2, 3, and 4, 1970, John gave identical recitals initiating the Austin Organ Company’s Opus 2498 in the University’s Eastman Recital Hall. John taught organ and carillon to students from freshman level to doctoral candidates. Announcements of his carillon recitals appeared regularly and often.
John Harvey was born in Marion, Indiana, on June 15, 1919. He began piano study at age 8, trombone at age 14, and organ at 15. He completed a Bachelor of Music degree in organ from Oberlin Conservatory in 1941. The degree was awarded in absentia since John was by then stationed aboard a destroyer participating in the Battle of Midway. While in the Navy, John served as a musician, a signalman, and a quartermaster. He survived the loss of the USS Atlanta, sunk off Guadalcanal in November 1942. Following the war, John received a bachelor’s degree in music education from Oberlin in 1946 and a master’s degree from the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in 1952. His master’s thesis was on the history and development of the organ in the chapel at West Point. Before coming to Madison, he served the First Presbyterian Church in Englewood, New Jersey; Webb Horton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Middletown, New York; Central Union Church in Honolulu, and National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C.
Beginning in 1947, John was active in the American Guild of Organists. In 1952 he organized the Northern Valley chapter in Englewood, serving as dean for its first three years and scholarship chairman for two years. In 1958 he was secretary of the Washington, D.C. chapter. In Madison he was dean of the AGO chapter from 1964–66. In 1953–56 John contributed to The American Organist, including a three-issue story on the West Point organ.
In Madison and beyond the university, John was active as well. He was organist at First Congregational Church. He also served as organ consultant and advisor to many congregations, including St. John’s Lutheran, Luther Memorial, Bethany Methodist, and Mt. Olive Lutheran. He was particularly involved with the design of the Austin organ at First United Methodist. An instrument of interest was the Hinners organ at St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff. John gave recitals statewide, in venues large and small, including several on the Casavant organ at St. Norbert’s Abbey in DePere.
John Harvey’s interests extended well beyond music. Pictures of Clarissa, his 1932 Chevy roadster, appeared in the newspaper, as did pictures of his model railroad. He also collected disc recordings from the early 1900s.
John married Jean Cochran on May 25, 1945, and was the father of three daughters, Ann, Carol, and Jane. John suffered from Alzheimer’s and died on December 31, 2009. Survivors include his wife, Jean, his daughters, and a brother.
—John R. Krueger
Madison, Wisconsin

August “Ed” Linzel, Jr., died January 19 in Arlington, Texas, at the age of 84. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, he attended the Princeton School of Music, and served as organist and choirmaster at St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in New York City for 16 years. He was active in the American Guild of Organists, performing as organist, harpsichordist, and conductor at national (1948, 1950, 1952) and regional conventions. Linzel also served as dean of the New York City AGO chapter from 1956–59. In 1964 he served as organist-choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1972 he served in that same capacity at St. Boniface Episcopal Church in Sarasota, Florida. He later returned to Little Rock, where he was organist at Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church, Christ Episcopal Church, and First Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Arkansas. August Linzel, Jr. is survived by his sons Ted and John, daughters Patricia and Jennifer, and brothers Milton and Jesse.

William Bernard MacGowan, concert organist, choir director, and college professor, died December 15, 2009 in Gainesville, Florida. He began organ study with Nelson Brett in Jacksonville, and during the 1940s studied organ with Robert Baker and piano with Percy Grainger at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Palmer Christian, Robert Noehren, and Maynard Klein. A naval communications officer during the Korean War, MacGowan established choirs and singing groups on the ships where he served. When in port, he studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw and musicology with Julius Herford.
His many positions included those at St. Philip’s Church in Durham, North Carolina; Old North Church in Boston, Maple Street Congregational Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Tanglewood Music Center, in Massachusetts; All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California; and Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in High Springs, and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Gainesville, in Florida. As a recitalist, he performed at important venues in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and in Assisi, Italy, and in Germany. MacGowan was a member of the American Guild of Organists, Society of St. Hubert, Phi Gamma Delta, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia; his hobbies included scuba diving and snorkeling.
William Bernard MacGowan is survived by brothers Bradford and John and their wives, two nephews, and two nieces.

Richard Thornton White died on December 8, 2009, in Memphis, Tennessee, in his home across the street from St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he served for 36 years. He was 95. His first organ study was with Adolph Steuterman; in 1935, he was awarded the William C. Carl Scholarship to the Guilmant Organ School in New York City. In 1937, he won a gold medal in performance from that school. The Diapason (July 1, 1937), in reporting the event, noted that “Guilmant graduates have built up an enviable reputation for brilliancy, interpretative power, and poise in their playing, and the class of this year sustained that reputation.” White also studied with Frank Wright and Frederick Schlieder. He held organist-choirmaster positions in New York City and New Jersey, served in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific during World War II, and in 1950 returned to Memphis to serve at St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he led the music program until his retirement in 1986. White was also active in the Sewanee Church Music Conference, which he served as a faculty member and secretary/registrar.
He earned Associate (1938) and Fellow (1940) certifications with the American Guild of Organists, of which he was a member for 74 years, serving the Memphis chapter as dean several times, and also as chapter examination coordinator.
Richard Thornton White is survived by his wife Anna, whom he married in 1938, sons Richard White, Albert White and his wife Betsy, two grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.

Betty Jean Taylor Bartholomew died October 11, 2008, at the age of 84 in Eugene, Oregon. Born in Eugene on December 10, 1923, she had a career as a piano and organ recitalist and church musician in five states before returning to Oregon in 1990, where she was music director-organist at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection. She established the Leadership Program for Church Musicians in the Diocese of Oregon, and presented workshops at AGO conventions and for the American Choral Directors Association, the Association of Anglican Musicians, and at diocesan conferences. Ms. Bartholomew was dean of the Seattle and Eugene AGO chapters and served as a regional and national councillor. She also held positions on the AGO special projects advisory board, the national convention committee, and the professional concerns committee.
Bartholomew was the recipient of the Bishop’s Cross of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia in 1991, and in recognition of her achievements and service to the AGO for more than 50 years, she received the Edward A. Hansen Award during the 2004 national convention in Los Angeles. She is survived by five children and five grandchildren.

Margaret E. Brakel died July 17, 2008, at age 85 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Born in Marshall, Minnesota, in 1923, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Minnesota and a master’s in organ performance from the University of Oregon–Eugene. She served as organist at First Congregational Church, Eugene, before moving to Pennsylvania in 1965. Brakel served as organist for West Chester United Methodist Church, West Chester, Pennsylvania, for 37 years until her retirement in 2002. During her years there, she continued organ studies with Harry Wilkinson and Vernon deTar. She is survived by a son, daughter, sister, brother, and three grandchildren.

N. Frederick Cool, long-time organ builder, died December 27 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, at the age of 80. He was born June 1, 1928, in Independence, Missouri, where a memorial service was held at the Stone Church, the same building where, as a small boy, he fell in love with the church and the church’s Pilcher organ. He married Beryl Romaine Lafferty in 1949 while at Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa. They had seven children over the next eleven years, all of whom worked at one time for the organ building firm that he founded in 1953, Temple Organ Company.
Starting in Independence, the company was moved to Lamoni in 1958 and then to Burlington, Iowa in 1966, where six organs were built. The company was moved to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1975, where it has been ever since, now under the direction of oldest son David.
Early in his career, having apprenticed with the late Charles McManis, Cool eschewed the style of organ building prevalent in this country during the 1950s, opting for the more classical approach. Obtaining a contract for a large rebuild in the Episcopal church, then a cathedral, in Quincy, Illinois, he secured the consultation help of Robert Noehren and designed a 51-rank organ in 1955. It had, before being destroyed with the church in a recent lightning strike, 23 ranks of mixtures and seven reeds, including a horizontal trumpet.
Before his retirement in 1999, Cool had built 150 organs, including several digital instruments in conjunction with Classic Organ Works of Ontario, Canada, after he could no longer do intricate voicing work due to the onset of Parkinson’s disease. The company continues to operate in St. Joseph, based on the tonal concepts of a balanced organ, with the legacy of N. Frederick Cool’s determination to build church organs suitable for edification and musical uplift in divine worship.
—David Cool

Carol A. Griffin died September 14, 2008, at age 76 in San Jose, California. Born in French Camp, California, she majored in organ at San Jose State University. She was a church organist for 59 years, serving in various churches in the Bay Area, including First Christian Church, San Jose; Willow Vale Community Church, and Trinity Presbyterian Church. A member of the San Jose AGO chapter, Griffin earned the Colleague certificate in 1981. She was also a member of the Music Teachers Association of California and for 41 years held various offices for MTAC, including president and vice-president. She is survived by her husband Bill, a son, a daughter, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Alfred John Neumann died October 13, 2008, at age 79. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1928, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College in North Carolina, and a master’s from the University of Michigan. From 1958–94 he was organist-choir director at Christ Congregational Church, Silver Spring, Maryland, during which time he took the choir on 20 singing tours in the U.S., Canada, Hawaii, and Europe. Under his leadership, the choir premiered two of his sacred operas on NBC-TV in Washington, DC. During his tenure at Christ Church, Neumann produced and directed many musical works, and the choir recorded two commercial LPs on the Crest label. In 1976, he was coordinator and music director of the national convention of the United Church of Christ. During the summer months, he served as assistant to the director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.

Wesley T. Selby, Jr. died July 3, 2008, at age 80. He was raised in Salisbury, Maryland and enlisted in the Army in 1946. He earned a bachelor’s degree in composition from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree from the University of Colorado, where he studied with Everett Jay Hilty. He served two tenures each at the Cathedral of St. John and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, and was organist-choirmaster at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels. For four years he was minister of music at Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver, and he taught at the University of Colorado in Boulder. As professor of organ at the University of New Mexico, he taught organ, music theory, composition, and conducting. He directed the installation of the Holtkamp organ in Keller Hall and the Wicks organ in the Alumni Memorial Chapel. He served as dean of the Albuquerque AGO chapter, was coordinator for two regional conventions, and served as state chairman for New Mexico. He built a harpsichord, which he donated to UNM, and a small practice pipe organ for his home.

Nunc Dimittis

Henry L. “Hank” Hokans, 84, of Ogunquit, Maine, died June 2. Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, he received early musical training from his parents and studied organ with T. Charles Lee and William Self, whom he succeeded as organist at All Saints Church, Worcester, serving for 20 years. Hokans received bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the New England Conservatory and was inducted into Phi Kappa Lambda Honor Society. He was appointed organist of the Worcester Art Museum, director of music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and chairman of the fine arts department of Worcester Academy. After serving with the 5th Air Force in the Korean War, Hokans received a Fulbright Scholarship to study for a year in Paris with Pierre Cochereau and Jean Langlais. 

Hokans served in residencies, was accompanist for many choral groups, founded and directed the Worcester Concert Choir, and played recitals in abbeys and cathedrals both in England and on the Continent. He accompanied the American choir, Canterbury Singers, USA, in England for the VE Day 50th Anniversary Commemorative Service at York Minster Cathedral in 1995.  

In 1989 he accepted a position at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland. He served as organist/choirmaster at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Frederiksted, St. Croix, as musical director of St. Ann’s, Kennebunkport, and since 2001, as music director of St. Peter’s-by-the-Sea, Cape Neddick, Maine. He also worked in organ design, building, and maintenance with several organ builders, and operated his own organ service company, H. L. Hokans Associates.

Henry L. Hokans is survived by his wife of 25 years, Louise (George) Hokans of Ogunquit; daughter Rebecca Hokans Nanof; son Richard W. Hokans; two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and sister-in-law Ruth W. Hokans.

Robert L. “Bob” Milliman, 89, died March 1 in Des Moines, Iowa. Born in Des Moines on January 29, 1926, he graduated from East High School and was then drafted into the U.S. Army. He served during World War II in the Pacific from 1944–46. In 1947 he married Twylla Kurschinski at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Moines. In 1964 the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Milliman worked for AT&T until his retirement in 1982. They then returned to Des Moines, where he tuned and repaired pipe organs. Milliman was a life member of the Beaverdale V.F.W. Post 9127, Urbandale, American Legion #663, and the Telephone Pioneers. Robert L. Milliman is survived by his wife of 67 years, Twylla, daughters Norma (Robert) Rees and Polly Milliman, six grandchildren, one great grandchild, and brothers, William (Barbara) Milliman and Paul (Kate).

Robert Lawson Van Doren, 99, died May 18 in Columbia, South Carolina. Born in Roselle Park, New Jersey, on March 8, 1916, he became organist at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Roselle Park at age 15. He attended Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music, where he met his future wife, Lib, who was in the same graduate program. They married in 1943, sharing their passion for music for more than 59 years. After receiving a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Columbia University and Juilliard, he taught in the public schools of Roselle Park before joining the Army during World War II. In 1950 he received the degree of Fellow, Trinity College of Music, London, England. Van Doren became an instructor in music and music education at the University of South Carolina, where he rose in rank to full professor and retired as Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1978.

From 1945 until 1970 he served as organist and choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church (now Cathedral) and organized and directed the citywide Junior Choir Festival for 25 years. In the 1950s, he was helped organize the Sewanee Conference on Church Music in Sewanee, Tennessee, and taught there for many summers. Van Doren served as president of the Columbia Music Festival Association, dean of the Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, president of the South Carolina Music Educators Association, and vice president of the Southern Division of the Music Educators National Conference. In 1988 he was elected to the Hall of Fame of the South Carolina Music Educators. He was a member of other clubs, including the “Friends of Music,” University of South Carolina School of Music.  

Robert Lawson Van Doren is survived by a son and a daughter, three grandchildren, and three great-granddaughters. 

Donald Stuart Wright, 74, died June 4. Born on December 26, 1940, he was most recently organist and choirmaster at St. Christopher Episcopal Church in Oak Park, Illinois, and for nearly a decade before that was at St. Richard of Chichester Episcopal Church in Chicago. Throughout his life, he served mainly Episcopal and Lutheran parishes. A graduate of the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, his organ teachers included Thomas Matthews, Austin C. Lovelace, and Flor Peeters. He was active for many years as a recitalist, largely in the Chicago metropolitan area. Don was married for 42 years to his wife, Lisa Curran Wright. He would always be recognized by his Hercule Poirot-like mustache and his dapper attire. Don was also proud of his 1930 V-16 cylinder Cadillac and his “yacht” (the family’s pontoon boat kept at their Wisconsin cottage). His popular piece, A Gigue for the Tuba Stop, published by World Library, was written for his son, Michael Slane Stuart. Donald Stuart Wright is survived by his wife Lisa, children Katherine, Thomas, Nicholas, Alexandra, Veronica Solis, Nathaniel, and Michael, as well as four grandchildren and one sister.