Benjamin Goddard Mague, 74, former president of Andover Organ Company, died July 4.
He was born May 17, 1948, in Machias, Maine. His parents were Westminster Choir College graduates who, before settling in Maine, served as joint music directors at Plymouth Congregational Church, New Haven, Connecticut. Mague attended Mt. Hermon School and then Colby College, where he built his first organ as an interterm project. He received a Master of Music degree in organ from the University of Wisconsin, where he also did a survey of contemporary North American tracker organbuilders. A 4-1⁄2-year stint in the United States Navy as a Chaplain’s Yeoman found him in Cuba connecting with the chaplain’s daughter, Kathy, with whom he was married for 48 years.
Mague’s lifelong career was at the Andover Organ Company, where he started in 1975 and remained for 47 years, retiring in April 2022. He worked successively as a designer, project team leader, and shop manager, served as company treasurer from 1995 to 2012, and as president from 2012 to 2021. For over 52 years, Mague served as an organist at several churches and naval chapels. After overseeing the mechanical design and installation of Andover Opus 93 in 1985 at the First Congregational Church of Milford, New Hampshire, he became the minister of music there, retiring in 2019.
Benjamin Goddard Mague is survived by his wife, Kathy; three children and their spouses, Jeremy (Danielle), Steve (Claire), and Anna (Garrett); and three grandchildren, Ryan, Kaylee, and Genevieve. A celebration of his life was held July 9 at the First Congregational Church of Milford. Michael Eaton, an Andover colleague, played the organ that Mague had designed and played for 34 years. Memorial gifts in his memory may be made to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund by Global Giving or the American Heart Association.
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