Mary Lou Nowicki dead at 91

Elinore Farnum

Elinore Farnum, born in 1934, organist and music teacher, died October 30, 2024, in Schenectady, New York. She studied organ with Elmer Tidmarsh, Helen Henshaw, and Hugh Allen Wilson and piano with Jeanette Odasz. She attended workshops at St. Dunstan’s Theological Seminary and at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York.

Farnum was organist/choir director for First Presbyterian Church, Schenectady, for almost 60 years. She was also organist for Congregation Gates of Heaven and accompanist for Thursday Musical Club, Octavo Singers, and the Union College choir, all of Schenectady. Her annual concerts raised money to send hundreds of disadvantaged children to Christian Bible summer camps for nearly 60 years. Farnum toured England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as accompanist for members of the Octavo Singers and presented organ performances in Ireland at Church of the Resurrection in Killarney, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin; in Scotland at St. James Church in Edinburgh; and in England at Durham Cathedral in Durham. She was a member of the New York State Music Teachers Association and was a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists.

Elinore Farnum was predeceased by her husband, Floyd Farnum, and brothers, Dana Smith and Gerald Smith. She is survived by her sons, Jon (wife Debra), David (wife Nancy), Tom (wife Anne), and Charles; 11 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

A funeral service was held November 4 at First Presbyterian Church with burial at Vale Cemetery, Schenectady. Memorial gifts may be made to First Presbyterian Church Bible Camp Fund, 209 Union Street, Schenectady, New York 12304 (fpcschdy.org).

Gabriel Kney

Gabriel Kney, 94, died November 8, 2024, two weeks before his 95th birthday. Born November 21, 1929, he apprenticed as a pipe organ builder with Paul Sattel in his hometown of Speyer-am-Rhein, Germany, after which with little money and no command of the English language, he immigrated to Canada in 1951. After briefly working as a voicer for Keates Organ Company in Lucan, Ontario, Kney struck out on his own, first in partnership with John Bright in 1955, and then in his own business, Gabriel Kney & Co., in 1967, principally building mechanical-action instruments. Spanning a 40-year career, the company built 130 organs for churches, universities, concert halls, and private homes across Canada and the United States, including the organs at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario, and at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kney was also a black-and-white photographer, particularly in portraiture and nature. His great love of music, particularly the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, sustained him throughout his life.

Gabriel Kney is survived by his daughters, Katharine Timmins (Peter), Mary Chevreau (Neil Block), and Martha Collyer-Bowman (Kevin Bowman), six grandsons, and one great-grandson. He was predeceased by his first wife of 52 years, Jane Kney, and his second wife of 15 years, Mary Lou Nowicki, who died October 30, 2024 (see below). A funeral service will take place January 18, 2:00 p.m., at the Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist, 280 St. James Street, London, Ontario. Memorial gifts may be made to St. John’s Saturday night and Tuesday lunch programs (stjohnslondon.ca).

For more information on Gabriel Kney, read the interview, “A Conversation with Gabriel Kney: The organbuilder turns 86,” by Andrew Keegan Mackriell, in the November 2015 issue, pages 20–23.

Mary Lou Nowicki

Mary Lou Nowicki, 91, died September 11, 2024, in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. She was born Mary Lou Robinson on August 12, 1933, in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1951. She attended the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where she received a Bachelor of Music degree in organ, then earning a Master of Music degree in organ from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, as a student of the Warren Hutton and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1976, having studied with Robert Glasgow.

Nowicki presented recitals and masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe, and Iceland, as well as a recital for Pope St. John Paul II. Along with her former teacher and mentor, Warren Hutton, she co-edited and transcribed for organ the complete Handel Messiah, published by G. Schirmer in 1962. Nowicki founded the organ department at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, in 1964, where she taught until 1976. She then joined the faculty at University of Kansas from 1976 until 1979, and upon her return to Mount Pleasant, she continued to teach organ students privately.

For over 40 years, Nowicki served as organist and director of music at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mount Pleasant, and previously was organist at First Presbyterian Church, Mount Pleasant, and Plymouth Congregational Church, Lawrence, Kansas. She was a professional chef and taught cooking classes for many years at her home in Mount Pleasant. She also worked in the medical practice office of her late husband, Dr. Hans Nowicki. On October 7, 2009, she married Gabriel Kney, Canadian organbuilder, who, along with Nowicki’s vision and support, built two instruments in Mount Pleasant: Central Michigan University organ studio (1972/2010), and St. John’s Episcopal Church (1973).

Mary Lou Nowicki was survived by her husband, Gabriel Kney, who died November 8, 2024 (see above). Others who survive are her children, Allegra Blake, Mount Pleasant, and Erik Robinson, DeWitt, Michigan, as well as grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. A funeral service was held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mount Pleasant, on October 5.

—Steven Egler

Emma Lou Diemer

Emma Lou Diemer, born in Kansas City, Missouri, November 24, 1927, died June 2, 2024, in Santa Barbara, California. She played piano and composed at a very early age, and she became organist in her church at age 13. Her interest in composing music continued through College High School, Warrensburg, Missouri, and she majored in composition at the Yale School of Music, New Haven, Connecticut, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1949 and a Master of Music degree in 1950. She finished her Ph.D. degree at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, in 1960. She studied in Brussels, Belgium, on a Fulbright scholarship and spent two summers of composition study at the Berkshire Music Center.

Diemer taught at several colleges and was organist at several churches in the Kansas City area during the 1950s. From 1959 until 1961 she was composer-in-residence in the Arlington, Virginia, schools under the Ford Foundation Young Composers Project. She composed many choral and instrumental works for schools, a number of which are still in publication. She was consultant for the MENC Contemporary Music Project before joining the faculty of the University of Maryland where she taught composition and theory from 1965 until 1970. In 1971 she moved from the East Coast to teach composition and theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. There she was instrumental in founding the electronic/computer music program. In 1991 she was named Professor Emeritus.

Through the years she has fulfilled many commissions of orchestral, chamber ensemble, keyboard, choral, and vocal works for schools, churches, and professional organizations. Most of her works are published. She received awards from Yale University (Certificate of Merit), Eastman School of Music (Edward Benjamin Award), National Endowment for the Arts (electronic music project), Mu Phi Epsilon (Certificate of Merit), Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards (for a piano concerto), American Guild of Organists (Composer of the Year), American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers/ASCAP (annually since 1962 for performances and publications), the Santa Barbara Symphony (composer-in-residence, 1990–1992), the University of Central Missouri (honorary doctorate), and others.

She was an active keyboard performer on piano, organ, harpsichord, and synthesizer, and in later years gave concerts of her own music at Washington National Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and elsewhere. For information: emmaloudiemermusic.com.

Eugene “Gene” E. Englert

Eugene “Gene” E. Englert, 93, pianist, choral director, composer, organist, and liturgist, died June 2. Born March 15, 1931, 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 in 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 a 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 Catholic 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. 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.

Dana June Hull

Dana June Hull, 97, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, died June 4. Born February 14, 1927, in Waterville, Ohio, she graduated from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance. Hull was one of the first women to start a business for the restoration of historic pipe organs in the United States, located in Ann Arbor.

Throughout her life she held organist positions and worked as a choral conductor and accompanist in churches, working until the age of 92. She was an active member of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, and the Reed Organ Society.

Dana June Hull is survived by her daughter-in-law, Christiane Hull, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her son, Dallas Hull, and stepdaughter, Diane Willis. A memorial service was conducted June 25 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor. Memorial contributions can be given to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Music Fund (www.standrewsaa.org/give.html), or by mailing gifts noted in her memory to the church: 306 North Division Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104.

Richard “Rick” Ivan Morel

Richard “Rick” Ivan Morel, 76, died June 3 in Denver, Colorado. He was born July 14, 1947, in Watertown, Massachusetts; his family moved to Colorado when he was eight. Rick’s father, Ivan, came to Denver to work for Fred H. Meunier in the pipe organ business. Ivan eventually bought the business, and it became Ivan P. Morel and Associates, Inc. When Rick graduated from high school, he joined his father’s firm. When Ivan retired, Rick took over the business. The firm installed, built, refurbished, and provided service to organs in five states.

Rick Morel not only loved the pipe organ but also its history. The Morel company refurbished the organ at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. Rick was present at the cathedral making sure the organ worked perfectly when Pope St. John Paul II visited in 1993. Morel spent the last decade or more trying to bring new people into the business of pipe organs. He was dedicated to preserving historical files on many instruments. He celebrated his 58th anniversary of employment at Morel and Associates on May 8.

When Morel was 25 he met and married Sharlie Ann Kern, who survives. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary September 1, 2023.

A memorial service will take place at Montview Presbyterian Church, Denver, August 21. Phil Bordeleau, music director at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, will dedicate a recital to Morel’s memory in spring 2025.

Kenneth Robert Reed

Kenneth Robert Reed, 73, of Otsego, Michigan, died at home on May 1, 2024. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer a year earlier, which had metastasized to his brain. Born on April 3, 1951, in Sturgis, Michigan, he was a graduate of Mattawan High School. After managing a plastics company for ten years, he became fascinated with pipe making upon being introduced to it. In 1978 Ken met his life partner, James Lauck. Together they owned and operated the Lauck Pipe Organ Company, Otsego, Michigan. Since 1983 he had been a pipemaker and operated his pipe shop adjacent to Lauck Pipe Organ Co.

Reed was skilled in all phases of pipe making including metal casting, flue and reed pipe making, and the machining of shallots and blocks. Most of his production found its way into Lauck organs, but he was always willing to help out other organ builders with on-site installation problems. He was also office manager and general manager of Lauck Pipe Organ Co. until the company closed in 2018. His passions were his home, gentleman farming, raising various animals, and tending to the acreage. Kenneth Reed is survived by his husband, James Lauck, whom he had been with for 45 years.