Paul R. Dickinson, 40, died August 27, 1994, at his home in Orlando, FL, following a lengthy illness. He received the BMus from Heidelberg College, Tiffin, OH, and the MMus from the University of Michigan, studying with Marilyn Mason and James Kibbie. While at Michigan he assisted the late Samuel Koontz, curator of organs at the school, and was employed to install pipe organ components for the Rodgers Organ Co. After serving as organist/music director for several churches in Michigan and Ohio, Dickinson moved to Orlando in 1986, when he was named Director of Music at St. John Lutheran Church, Winter Park. He was later appointed Organist and Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church, Kissimmee, where he established the Kirk Chamber Orchestra. He continued his interest in pipe organ construction in partnership with David McCain. In addition to maintenance and tuning in the Orlando area, the partnership installed several organs. Dickinson presented recitals in this country and in Europe. His last recital took place April 10, 1994, at the dedication of a new organ at Trinity Lutheran Church, Kissimmee. He was an active member of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, a founding member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and had served as sub-dean of the North Central Ohio AGO chapter and board member of the Central Florida AGO chapter.
Roy Andrew Johnson, Jr. (AAGO), professor of organ at the University of Arizona, was abducted, robbed and murdered on February 28, 1995, as he returned to his home in Tucson following a Faculty Showcase Recital at a retirement community in Green Valley, AZ. His brutally beaten, tuxedo-clad body was found in a desert wash four days later when helicopter searchers spotted his tuxedo from the air. His music was scattered around him. He was 58 years old. Professor Johnson studied at the Collegio di Musica di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy (1954-55), held the diploma in Sacred Music from the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago (organ performance with Preston Rockholt and Robert Rayfield), earned the BMus with Robert Noehren, MMus with Robert Glasgow and the DMA with Marilyn Mason, all in organ performance at the University of Michigan. He was professor of organ at the University of Arizona for 29 years where he taught organ, music theory and counterpoint and where he was also director of graduate studies in music for eight years, a position in which he advised all graduate students in music. Johnson recently oversaw the installation of a 29-rank Schoenstein organ in a new University of Arizona organ recital hall and performed the dedication recital. He served as organist and organist-choir master in several churches over the course of 40 years as a church musician.
