Kristin Gronning Farmer
Kristin Gronning Farmer, 78, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, died December 8, 2025, after a brief illness with cancer. She grew up in Elkton, Virginia. Married there in 1966, she studied from then until 1968 at Madison College (now James Madison University) before moving to Columbia, South Carolina, where she continued her studies at the University of South Carolina, earning her bachelor’s degree in 1972 and master’s degree in music in 1973, studying under conductor Arpad Darazs and Columbia organist John B. Haney. She went on to have a career as a church organist and recitalist, including performances at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and on the Skinner organ at The Biltmore House, Asheville, North Carolina.
Farmer’s musical vocation spanned more than five decades. She served as organist at Centennial Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina (1979–1982); as organist/choirmaster at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (1989–2009); and later as organist/choirmaster at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Reidsville, North Carolina (2012–2022).
An active member of the Organ Historical Society, Farmer served two terms as vice president and then two terms as president, as well as serving in other leadership roles, including multiple councilor positions and two years as convention coordinator. She was also an active member of the American Guild of Organists.
Her second marriage in 1986 in Winston-Salem to organbuilder John Farmer began a forty-year partnership devoted to the repair, restoration, and construction of pipe organs throughout the Southeastern United States, forming J. Allen Farmer, Inc. Kristin’s artistic talents, particularly her mastery of historic pipe stenciling, woodgraining, and the application of 24-karat gold leaf, became central to the couple’s work. As her reputation grew, other organbuilders frequently sought her expertise on polychrome pipe decoration.
Kristin Gronning Farmer is survived by her spouse, John Farmer; her daughters from her first marriage, Eliza Johnson (Beth DePass) and Miranda Johnson; daughter from her second marriage, Kathleen Hammond (Warren Hammond); and her two grandchildren. A memorial service will be held in early February at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem. The calendar at the church website (sttimothysws.org) will include this date and time. Memorial donations may be sent to the music ministry of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 2575 Parkway Drive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103, and/or the American Cancer Society (cancer.org).
J. David Hart
J. David Hart, 67, of Winter Haven, Florida, formerly of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died December 9, 2025. At age 12, he presented his first public concert and in 1989 made his Carnegie Hall debut. He was featured as an organ soloist with American symphony orchestras and concertized throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. He was a national treasurer and regional councilor of the American Guild of Organists and a Fellow of that organization. Hart led workshops and taught masterclasses for conventions and chapters of the AGO, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and other denominational organizations. For 19 years he served Shadyside Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. His final position was as organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winter Haven.
J. David Hart is survived by his mother Eleanore Hays Hart; his daughter, Elizabeth Parker Davis of New Port Richey Florida; and sister Lynne June Perich of Trinity, Florida. A memorial service was scheduled for January at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winter Haven.
Reverend Culver "Cullie" Lunn Mowers
Reverend Culver “Cullie” Lunn Mowers, 83, died October 20, 2025, in Fresno, California. A graduate of Syracuse University and the Episcopal Theological Seminary, he provided forty years of ordained ministry to St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Slaterville Springs, New York, and other small churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. He is survived by his wife of nearly 22 years, Pauline “Polly” Cass Foster Mowers, and her children, David Bergstone and Ellen Bergstone Wasil.
Reverend Mowers was a pipe organ maintenance technician and restorer, and he was a long-term supporter of the Organ Historical Society, including serving as its president from 1979 until 1983. He also was active as a part of local arts organizations such as the Ithaca Community Chorus and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. In retirement he relocated to Mariposa, California. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Post Office Box 51, Brooktondale, New York 14817 (stthomasslaterville.org), or the Organ Historical Society, 330 North Spring Mill Road, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085 (organhistoricalsociety.org).
Robert Clarke (“Bob”) Newton
Robert Clarke (“Bob”) Newton, 85, who restored many historic American organs during his 53½ years at Andover Organ Company, died May 6, 2025. He was born July 9, 1939, and grew up in Stowe, Vermont, a short distance from Stowe Community Church, where he first encountered and became fascinated with the church’s 1864 Wm. B. D. Simmons organ. At this church Newton sang in the children’s choir and later joined the adult choir. His love of music continued at the University of Vermont, where he took piano lessons while majoring in mathematics. Having learned trombone in high school, Bob played second chair trombone for two years in the Vermont Symphony. Between 1975 and 1980 he sang bass in the choir of men and boys at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul in Boston, directed by Thomas Murray.
On January 3, 1963, Newton started working at Andover Organ Company. His earliest tuning trips were as a key holder with Edgar A. (“Ed”) Boadway. He purchased shares in the company in 1975 and later served as treasurer and vice-president of the old organ department. He tuned and worked on hundreds of old organs and oversaw Andover’s restorations of many instruments. He was widely regarded as an authority on nineteenth-century Boston organs, especially those built by Elias and George Greenleaf Hook.
Newton bought and stored several Hook organs to save them from destruction until new homes could be found. The surviving pipes and windchests of Hook Opus 472 (1869), which he acquired in the 1990s, are now in their fifth home at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they form the core of Andover Opus R-345. He also owned Hook Opus 69 (1842), one of the earliest surviving two-manual Hook organs. Instead of calling out to his key holders for middle E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp for example, Newton asked for “middle Elias please, Francis-sharp, George-sharp, Appleton-sharp.”
Newton attended his first Organ Historical Society convention in 1963 in Maine, where he renovated the 1863 E. & G. G. Hook Opus 328 in the Elm Street Congregational Church in
Bucksport for a convention recital. He subsequently repaired and tuned numerous organs for OHS conventions in the Northeast, often volunteering his time. He served on the OHS national council and on three OHS convention committees: 1972 (Central Vermont, which he chaired), 1974 (Lowell, Massachusetts), and 2013 (Northern Vermont). Upon his retirement in July 2016 Newton was named an OHS Honorary Member.
Starting in 1973 he assumed annual summer tuning and repairs of the historic 1847 Davis & Ferris organ at the auditorium in Round Lake, New York. Over the years, he provided period replacements for missing original ranks and pipes and made major restorative repairs to the key actions. In 2017 the organ was officially designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Secretary of the Interior, the only organ so recognized.
The most significant project Bob Newton oversaw was Andover’s tonal restoration of the former “Centennial Organ,” E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Opus 828, at St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. The organ had been mechanically and tonally altered by Tellers-Kent and Schlicker. Andover’s 1999–2001 rebuilding sought to retain and restore as much of the original materials as possible. Newton located and acquired the surviving mixtures from Hook Opus 869, built in 1877 for the Cincinnati Music Hall, and used those ranks to replace missing principal chorus pipes.
Robert Newton is survived by his nephews Jason and Newton Wells, and Jason’s children, Rachael and Nathaniel Wells. On May 13, 2025, he was buried in Riverbank Cemetery, Stowe, Vermont. A memorial concert will be held Saturday, May 9, 2:00 p.m., at First (Old South) Presbyterian Church, 29 Federal Street, Newburyport, Massachusetts, an event featuring the 1866 E. & G. G. Hook Opus 396, which Newton painstakingly restored in 1974.
John Lawrence “Larry” Robinson
John Lawrence “Larry” Robinson, 91, died September 7, 2025. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, he studied organ at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a music professor, teaching organ and keyboard at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, where he remained on staff for fifty years. Robinson was the city carillonneur for the Virginia War Memorial Carillon in Richmond, and he served as organist and choir director for over twenty years at Leigh Street Baptist Church, also in Richmond. Robinson was also an active member of the Richmond chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
John Lawrence “Larry” Robinson is survived by his wife Susan, his daughters Grace and Nancy, and two grandsons.
