Biography

My Youth, pretty boring

Though born in London, ON, I was raised in Simcoe, Ontario. My childhood home was located on Talbot street, a couple of blocks north of the Fairgrounds. It was a large, rambling house, with a huge attic and basement to explore. There were gardens all around the house, as well as a large vegetable garden (my mother was a farmer's daughter).

I went to South Public School, which was recently knocked down and replaced by townhouses. It was a fun neighbourhood to explore, with the fairgrounds, a railway switching yard, the Coop grain elevators all nearby to explore. A short walk south, along the railway tracks and I was in the countryside, where I collected toads from some irrigation ponds. If I got lucky, I caught a Garter snake, very necessary for terrorizing girls.

We kept rafts at Sutton's pond on the Lynn river. There were turtles in Sutton pond, but they were very difficult to catch, because they were very wary and skitterish. The turtles would sun themselves on a log, teasing us. We'd would slowly stalk them, but at the last minute the turtles would plop onto the water and scuddle away underwater. Occasionally I'd catch one, at the price of soaking my clothes (Sutton Pond was nearly a swamp; just downstream of the Simcoe Sewage plant), a small price to pay for such a wonderful pet...

The photo is me, 17 years old, with the 9 rank Karn-Warren (1919) pipe organ I installed in my unfortunate parents' home. It happened when they where foolish enough to take a vacation and leave me home alone...

As a teenager, I studied organ performance with Dr William Murphy, Brantford; Lancing MacDowell, London, and Douglas Bodle, Toronto. I also studied musical theory, harmony, counterpoint, analysis and history. I learned choral direction and organ performance at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto.

Journeyman, learning the trade

I started in 1973 with the Keates Organ Co., Acton, Ontario, where I learned the basics of chest construction, wiring and installation. I became their main tuning and service man.

In 1975 I was at Jacques Stinkens in Zeist, Holland, to learn the trade of organ pipemaking. By 1976 I was in West Germany studing the art of reed voicing at Carl Giesecke and Sohn's voicing machine. While in Europe I traveled extensively, examining the modern and historic European organbuilding, especially north Germany, Holland and France.

Joining the New England organbuilder, C. B. Fisk, Gloucester, Ma, in 1977, I worked as a pipemaker and draftsman. While in the Boston, MA area, I studied the organs of E.M. Skinner and G. Donald Harrison of (Aeoline-)Skinner.By 1979 I was running the pipeshop of the renowned tracker builder, Fritz Noack in Georgetown, Ma.

In 1981 I returned to Canada to work for Gerhard Brunzema of Fergus, Ontario, as a draftsman, voicer and organbuilder. Brunzema was a master at scaling and voicing, experiance that proved very valuable to me. Concurrently with Brunzema (and later, full time) I was a student at the University of Guelph studing computer science, philosophy, ancient/classical history and psychology.

Organbuilder, in own shop.

I returned in 1985 to my hometown of Simcoe, Ontario, and established my own organbuilding workshop.

In the 1990's, I made several trips to England to study British organbuilding, especially the work of Father Willis and William Hill. I also visited the workshops and organs of modern builders like Mander, Harrison & Harrison and Willis.

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