November 2020

Midmer-Losh, Inc., Merrick, Long Island, New York, Opus 5550 (1929–1932); Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Where is the largest pipe organ?

David E. Wallace & Co., Pipe Organ Builders, LLC, Gorham, Maine

Canadian Reformed Church, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Early in 2011, members of the Canadian Reformed Church in Ancaster, Ontario, contacted David E. Wallace & Co. Pipe Organ Builders about providing an instrument ideally suited for their worship space. When the building was constructed the plan had been to acquire a pipe organ at some point in the future.

My foray into organbuilding was the result of a series of accidental discoveries and explorations. Entering the University of Nebraska, fall semester, 1962, I was an electrical engineering student, also taking a one-hour piano class lesson at the School of Music. Subsequently, I became a piano major with a minor in industrial arts.

Editor’s note: the first two parts of this series are found in the August 2020 issue of The Diapason, pages 12–13, and in the October 2020 issue, pages 16–17.

In memory of Alan Laufman: the birth of the Organ Clearing House

John J. Binsfeld, III, died in Ocean City, New Jersey, on September 23. Born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, on June 4, 1944, he began as a young child studying keyboard with Lotta Young and Barbara Hartenbauer. While still a student at Pottstown High School, he became minister of music at Trinity Reformed Church where he served the congregation from April 1961 to June 1964.