A memorial service for Marilyn Mason, professor emerita of the University of Michigan, will be held Friday, December 6, 7:00 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Music will be provided by former students of Mason. The public is invited to attend.
(For more information on the life of Marilyn Mason, see the June 2019 issue of The Diapason, page 9.)
Matthew Koraus: Improvisation on Tu Es Petrus.
Sebastian Glück, Opus 16 and 17, St. Patrick Catholic Church, Huntington, New York.
Chancel Organ: Opus 16 (16 ranks, 1,058 pipes)
Gallery Organ: Opus 17 (46 ranks, 2,564 pipes)
Includes pipework from Frank Roosevelt’s three-manual, thirty-six rank Organ No. 408 at Brooklyn’s Schermerhorn Street Evangelical Lutheran Church. This installation was featured on the cover of the April 2018 issue of The Diapason. https://editiondigital.net/publication/?i=483232
Sebastian M. Glück, Opus 24 was built for Setauket Presbyterian Church, Setauket, New York. 25 ranks, 39 stops, 1,392 pipes. Electropneumatic action, wind pressure 4 inches throughout. Featured on the cover of the August 2021 issue of The Diapason.
https://www.thediapason.com/content/cover-feature-sebastian-gluck-opus-…
For information: www.gluckpipeorgans.com/
Brooks Grantier, FAGO, is music director emeritus of the Battle Creek (Michigan) Boychoir, and was for thirty-eight years director of music at Trinity Episcopal Church in Marshall, Michigan.
The 59th annual University of Michigan conference on organ music took place on the Ann Arbor campus September 29 through October 1, 2019, with important pre-conference events on the Friday and Saturday preceding. The theme for 2019 was “Building Bach: His Foundations and Futures.” In view of (and din of) construction equipment all over the campus, the theme seemed exceptionally apt.
Pre-conference event: Isabelle Demers
In an impressive memorized program, Isabelle Demers set a high bar in her recital at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Detroit on Friday, September 27. Alongside a few familiar works, Ms. Demers offered colorful, varied fare from Swedish composer Oskar Lindberg and Australian-American composer Jason Roberts. Transcriptions included movements from Handel’s Fireworks Music, and a bracing reading of the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, bringing out all of the composer’s intent—tempo, rhythm, texture, and formal shape. The recital was brought to a bravura conclusion with Thalben-Ball’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini.
The Eighth Annual Improvisation Competition
On Saturday, September 28, three finalists played the very fine three-manual, fifty-seven-rank Wilhelm organ at Ann Arbor’s First Congregational Church, site of a number of conference events. With no combination action nor the assistance of registrants, the three competitors were on their own in impressive displays of contrapuntal prowess and formal tautness. Competing were Christopher Ganza (first prize), David McCarthy (second prize) and Héctor Salcedo (third prize). All three players showed themselves at the top of today’s outstanding class of improvisers.
Sunday, September 29
Julia Brown (Mayflower Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan) opened the conference proper with a recital on the two-manual, thirty-five-rank Silbermann-styled Fisk organ in the Blanche Anderson Moore (BAM for short) Recital Hall at the School of Music on the University’s North Campus. Serving up a meat-and-potatoes menu of Buxtehude, Scheidemann, Müthel, W. F. and J. S. Bach, Ms. Brown’s playing was marked by a gracious flexibility in rhythm, sensitive to the organ’s flexible winding and the intimate acoustics of the BAM recital hall.
Returning to the Wilhelm organ at First Congregational Church, Kola Owolabi’s faculty recital considered “Bach’s Circle: Musical Influences and Missed Connections.” Playing with astute finesse and a seasoned musical intelligence, Dr. Owolabi gave us music of Weckmann, Frescobaldi, Kerll, Corea de Arauxo, Buxtehude (the superb Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein), and Bach (the “Dorian” Toccata and Fugue).
Monday, September 30
The morning opened at the BAM Fisk organ with a lecture-recital by Kevin Bylsma (Mariner’s Church, Detroit) and Randall Engle (North Hills Christian Reformed Church, Troy, Michigan) on “Bach, the Teacher.” Mr. Bylsma gave the context of several pieces in Bach’s Orgelbüchlein. After each brief essay, the audience rose to sing a stanza of the chorale, followed by Dr. Engle’s performance of the Orgelbüchlein setting.
A recital by U of M organ students followed. Joseph Mutone, Arthur Greenlee, Samuel Ronning, Michael Mishler, and Sarah Simko (a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2017) played works by Bach and by Grand Rapids composer Larry Visser. The students were candidates for various degrees in organ and church music, and in some cases also for degrees in computer science and engineering—a sign of the times for organists in our age. All were players of fine attainment, carefully prepared, and confident in performance.
Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra displayed her many-sided musical interests in a lecture-recital called “Bach’s Nest.” Just as a bird gathers material from many places to build the nest, so Dr. Ruiter-Feenstra has borrowed from many sources to put together improvisations modeled on the works of Bach. After playing various works of Bach to demonstrate her own Bach-inspired improvisations, she concluded with an improvised French suite on the American tune, “We shall overcome.”
Accompanied by a box lunch (a “Bach’s lunch”) outdoors, we were treated to the first of two carillon recitals, this one by U of M carillonneur Tiffany Ng, playing the sixty-bell instrument located near the School of Music. Always an adventuresome programmer, Dr. Ng chose newly composed works written with some reference to Bach. The euphoniously tuned Dutch carillon was in contrast to its English companion on the U-M central campus, which we heard later that day.
Returning to the School of Music, Michael Barone (of Pipedreams renown) gave us generous samplings of recorded works commissioned and/or played by the late Marilyn Mason. Founder of the U of M organ conference and the longest serving faculty member in the history of the university (sixty-seven years), Dr. Mason enriched the organ repertoire with some ninety commissioned works.
Then, using the BAM Fisk, George Stauffer and Renée Anne Louprette (Rutgers University) gave a tandem lecture recital entitled “Bach Under the Influence.” Dr. Stauffer identified several compositional strands that came together in Bach’s organ music and in later works that flowed from his inspiration. Ms. Louprette then played works by Bach and later composers that strongly correlated Dr. Stauffer’s insightful points. Both artists deserve much credit for this thoughtfully devised, elegantly presented program.
Moving to the U of M central campus, we heard a second carillon recital, by Roy Kroezen (carillonneur of the Centralia, Illinois, carillon), on the fifty-three-bell Baird Carillon, given to the university in 1936 by athletic director (!) Charles Baird. This carillon is much in the English style, with the unusual harmonics of the bells given clangorous free play. Mr. Kroezen’s program included music by Bach, Buxtehude, and Kirnberger. Thus we were treated to two very distinct styles of carillon, two highly varied approaches to repertoire, and a pair of most artistic players. Who could ask for anything more?
Our day finished in the legendary Hill Auditorium, whose organ is an amalgam of Farrand & Votey, Hutchings, Skinner, and Aeolian-Skinner. A mongrel? Of course, but in this case a friendly beast, very much at home in the spacious acoustics and parabolic interior of Hill Auditorium. Steven Egler (Central Michigan University) played a one-composer program entitled “Organ Music of Gerald Near: Futurist Building on the Foundations of Bach.” Dr. Egler’s selection proved a strong case for bringing the essence of Bach’s style into our time in music of contrapuntal ingenuity and polished sonority. In the music of Bach, a composer can find no finer mentor, and in the playing of Dr. Egler, a composer can commend no finer advocate.
Tuesday, October 1
We began the day with three discussion programs back-to-back. First, a group of researchers in such arcana as “mathematics and computational medicine and bioinformatics” gave a presentation on mapping brain activity during performance of Bach’s trio sonatas. While the research is in its infancy—stay tuned. When linked with findings in neuroscience, the work will provide fascinating insights into how the brain processes information on several planes simultaneously, as in the trio sonatas. Isabelle Demers returned us to the organ as an expression of musical communication, with observations of the continuing persistence of Marcel Dupré’s articulation of Bach’s G Minor Fugue, through recorded performances spanning several decades.
The final discussion, led by Dr. Tiffany Ng, was on “Women and Organ Improvisation.” Three women from the conference roster plus jazz studies professor Ellen H. Rowe related how they came to the practice of musical improvisation. The panel noted that nearly all improvisation prizes are awarded to male performers, speculated on reasons for this, and highlighted improvisation among women players.
Matthew Bengston of the U of M keyboard faculty and Mark Kroll (professor emeritus, Boston University)presented lectures on the suites of Bach and Dieupart, and on Bach and Couperin, both using the harpsichord in superb illustration of Bach’s French style. Another recital by U of M students followed, using the Wilhelm organ. Performers Jenna Moon, Allison Barone, Kaelan Hansson, and Emily Solomon (a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2019) played music of Scheidt, Böhm, Müthel, and Tunder respectively. As in the first recital, all were carefully prepared, and all played with style and confidence.
The conference closed with Bach and Handel, played by U of M’s Baroque Chamber Orchestra in the spacious acoustics of Saint Francis Catholic Church, with its excellent Létourneau organ. The centerpiece was Bach’s Cantata 146, Wir müssen durch viel Trubsal in das Reich Gottes, featuring a quartet of singers and Dr. Owolabi playing the important organ part. Directors Joseph Gascho and Aaron Berofsky gave all that we could ask for in an edge-of-the-seat compelling performance.
As a welcome interlude, before the final performance, organ department chair James Kibbie invited everyone to gather at Ann Arbor’s Cottage Inn restaurant, a favorite haunt of the
U of M community, in a toast in memory of Marilyn Mason. As we raised our glasses, Dr. Kibbie offered his own brief salute, and then invited all in attendance to share their own “Marilyn” stories with those around us. It was meet and right so to do. And a fitting close to a memorable conference.
Photo credit: Colin Knapp
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, 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 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
Susan Louise Palo Cherwien died December 28, 2021. Born May 4, 1953, in Ashtabula, Ohio, she was active in music in school and at Zion Lutheran Church (Finnish-American), Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Her undergraduate degree in church music and voice was earned from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, in 1975. Her junior year was spent at the Berlin Church Music School, Spandau, Germany. After graduating from Wittenberg, she returned to Berlin to complete a graduate degree at the Berlin Conservatory of Music. She was active in the American Lutheran Church in Berlin, a mission church of the Lutheran Church in America (now part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
It was through this church in Berlin that Susan Palo met David Cherwien, who came in 1979 to study at the Berlin Church Music School. They returned to the United States in 1981 and were married on August 8 at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two weeks later they moved to Seattle where David served at First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach. Two sons were born, Jeremiah in 1983 and Benjamin in 1986. In 1987 the family moved to the Chicago area for David to serve at St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Park Ridge, Illinois. During these years, Susan earned a master’s degree from Mundelein University and began her career as a writer. Since 1990 the family has lived in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and has been a part of the community at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, where Susan served in many capacities as volunteer, sacristan, and soloist.
As a poet, Susan Cherwien wrote extensively, especially in two areas: hymn texts and reflections for hymn festivals, published by Augsburg Fortress and MorningStar Music Publishers. Her hymns are included in hymnals of many denominations, including Evangelical Lutheran Book of Worship and its newest supplement hymnal, All Creation Sings.
Susan Louise Palo Cherwien is survived by her husband, David; sons and daughters-in-law, Jeremiah and Karen and their children Hannah and James Cherwien in Batesville, Arkansas; Benjamin and Angel and their daughter Gabriella Hull Cherwien in Blaine, Minnesota; brother John Palo (Freddie) of Lenexa, Kansas; and sister Nancy Bukowski of Sacramento, California. A funeral service was held on December 31, 2021, at Mount Olive Lutheran Church. Memorials may be directed to Mount Olive Lutheran Church debt reduction fund (mountolivechurch.org) or National Lutheran Choir (nlca.com).
Merrill Nathaniel (“Jeff”) Davis III, 80, died October 16, 2021, in Rochester, Minnesota. Born February 13, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois, he lived most of his childhood and teen years in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was an active organist while still in grade school, and at age 15 was dean of the La Crosse area chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Davis earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, and studied organ privately with Arthur B. Jennings, Jr. He completed his Master of Music degree at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, as a student of Robert T. Anderson. Additional studies and coaching were with Willard Irving Nevins, Gerald A. Bales, Arthur Poister, and Heinrich Fleischer.
Davis served as musician for various congregations, including First Congregational Church, La Crosse, Wisconsin; St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, St. Paul Church, Zumbro Lutheran Church, First Unitarian Universalist Church, and the Congregational (United Church of Christ) Church, all in Rochester, Minnesota. He was a frequent guest organist at Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago, Illinois. Davis concertized widely and was known for his skills as an improviser. In 1974, he was one of four finalists at the International Organ Improvisation Competition at St. Bavo Church, Haarlem, the Netherlands, and the first American to be invited to compete there. He was an active member of the Southeast Minnesota AGO Chapter.
Davis was also involved in the pipe organ industry as a sales representative and freelance consultant. The firms for which Davis worked included the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Rodgers Instruments, and Rieger-Kloss of Krnov, Czech Republic. He also consulted on behalf of other companies, in particular Hendrickson Organ Company, St. Peter, Minnesota. He also was involved as a personal financial advisor, working for IDS.
Merrill Nathaniel Davis III is survived by two sons and two sisters-in-law. He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, a sister, and by his first wife, Jane Schleiter Davis, and his second wife, June Fiksdal Davis. A memorial concert is planned for February 12 at the Congregational Church, Rochester, Minnesota.
Richard Stanley Houghten, 78, died December 29, 2021, from complications following heart surgery. Born October 7, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan, he was introduced to the organ partly from exposure to the Barton organ at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theatre, and partly at an organbuilding class taught by Robert Noehren at the University of Michigan, where he was studying psychology. He eventually apprenticed to Noehren as an organbuilder, as did classmate Jerroll Adams; Adams and Houghten would soon be sharing a barn-workshop in Milan, Michigan, and regularly collaborating.
A conscientious and well-rounded organbuilder, Richard became best known as a specialist in consoles and electrical systems. Early in his career he worked for Solid State Logic, eventually becoming president and board chairman. In this role he was central to the industry’s adoption of solid-state technology, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s when such equipment was still novel. He was further central in evolving multilevel combination actions and other advanced console aids. By 1995, he was fully independent of SSL, undertaking projects and occasional organbuilding. From 1989 he also acted as North American representative for the German supplyhouse/organbuilder Aug. Laukhuff.
For Houghten, demystifying solid-state technology was religion. He not only sold early systems but installed them, where, on site, he was intent on showing local technicians how to diagnose and service the new equipment. The reliable results of these early projects earned him a high reputation. Projects readily came his way, often without competition, and his client list over 57 years reads as impressively as any could. In the last 15 years alone, St. Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire; Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Calvary Church, Memphis, Tennessee; the Community of Jesus, Orleans, Massachusetts; and Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, sought his work. In turn, Richard regularly collaborated with
J. Zamberlan & Co. for woodworking and his trusted affiliate Vladimir Vaculik, whose wiring had all the Houghten trademark elegance.
Houghten was equally active as a subcontractor, working largely in the background to builders wanting clear systems design coupled to immaculate installation and wiring. The relationships he forged with those shops, together with his technical mastery and reassuring demeanor, meant that it was often he, not the electronics manufacturer, who would be called in a crisis. “Is there smoke? Good. Next question . . . .”
Throughout his career, Houghten retained connections to the University of Michigan. During Jerroll Adams’s long tenure as organ curator there, the Houghten team renovated consoles for many campus organs, including the large four-manual at Hill Auditorium. The University link was further strengthened through a steady stream of organ students who also served as housemates in the Houghten condominium, tending to the cats and technology Richard gathered there.
The funeral for Richard Stanley Houghten was held January 12 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, Detroit. A broader celebration of his life is being scheduled immediately preceding the 2022 Atlantic City Convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders, with which Houghten was centrally active and at whose regular October gatherings he celebrated a half-century of his own birthdays. That same community remembers him as an uncommonly generous colleague, ready to share knowledge, solve a problem, or make something as good as it could be for the benefit of all organbuilding.
—Jonathan Ambrosino, Arlington, Massachusetts
Marilyn Kay Stulken Rench, 80, organist, teacher, recitalist, author, and genealogist, died December 28, 2021, in Franklin, Wisconsin. She was born August 13, 1941, in Hastings, Nebraska, and studied organ and church music at Hastings College in Hastings, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. During this time, she had several piano and organ students and from 1962–1965 served as organist and program director at All Faiths Chapel, Ingleside, Nebraska. At Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, she studied organ performance and church music, earning a Master of Music degree in 1967 and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1975. One of her positions while in Rochester was as a sewing therapist at Strong Memorial Hospital.
Stulken Rench held a number of church positions, including organist and choir director at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Pittsford, New York, 1966–1973; organist at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1975–1979; director of music at Trinity Lutheran Church, Kenosha, Wisconsin, 1979–1985; and organist at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Racine, Wisconsin, from 1986 to the time of her death. In addition, she taught at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the University of Iowa, Iowa City; Carthage College, Kenosha; University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha; and Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon.
On December 27, 1984, in Omaha, Nebraska, Marilyn Stulken married Thomas R. Rench, a pipe organ builder. Marilyn often played programs on instruments that Tom had built or restored. As a lecturer and organ recitalist, she appeared throughout the United States and Canada, including ten recitals for national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. After Tom installed a pipe organ in the family room of their home, the instrument was used for practicing and teaching. When her multiple sclerosis precluded her from playing the pedals, Tom engineered the keyboard at St. Luke’s so that a note played by her left hand could sound that same note on the pedalboard.
Stulken Rench is the author of the Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (1981) and An Introduction to Repertoire and Registration for the Small Organ (1995), and coauthor with Catherine Salika of Hymnal Companion to Worship, Third Edition (1998). She was one of three contributors who assisted in the preparation of historical notes on the hymns in The New Century Hymnal (1995). With Martin A. Seltz and others, she compiled Indexes for Worship Planning (1996), and with James R. Sydnor and Bert Polman, she edited Amazing Grace: Hymn Texts for Devotional Use (1994). She contributed an article, “Hymnody from German, Scandinavian and Finnish Sources,” to The New Century Hymnal Companion (1998), and “Hospital Hymnody as Transition Hymnody” to We’ll Shout and Sing Hosanna: Essays on Church Music in Honor of William J. Reynolds (1998). She is the author of With One Voice Reference Companion (2000) and authored numerous articles and reviews for musical journals. Stulken Rench was active in the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Hymn Society of America, and, for a time, was the worship representative on the Southport District Cabinet of the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan Synod of the LCA (Lutheran Church in America).
Marilyn Kay Stulken Rench was predeceased by her husband, Thomas R. Rench, and a stepson, Evan Rench. (For an obituary for Thomas R. Rench, see the January 2016 issue, p. 8). She is survived by her stepchildren Alan (Mary) Rench, Eric (Bobbie) Rench, and Kari (Jeff) Eschmann; seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; as well as two sisters and a brother. A memorial service will be held in the spring. Memorial gifts may be made to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 614 Main Street, Racine, Wisconsin 53403.
