Vernon Gotwals, Jr., 77, of Stonington, Maine, died on January 12, 2002, at the Blue Hill Hospital. Born in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, on November 12, 1924, he graduated from Friends' Central School, Philadelphia, in 1941, and then attended Drew University. His undergraduate education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific during World War II. Following the war, he finished his bachelor's degree at Amherst College, graduating in 1947, and continued his education at Princeton University, obtaining an MFA in Music in 1951. Gotwals started his professional career as an instructor at Princeton University, and in 1952 joined the faculty of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he served as professor of music and college organist for 32 years. He was the author of Joseph Haydn: Eighteenth-century Gentleman and Genius, an annotated translation of two early Haydn biographies. Retiring to Deer Isle, Maine in 1984, he served as organist at the Deer Isle and Sunset Congregational churches, overseeing the acquisition and installation of new organs in both churches. He also served on the Blue Hill Concert Association, the Bagaduce Music Library, and the Stonington Conservation Commission. Mr. Gotwals is survived by his wife of 48 years, Carol Joyce Gotwals, three sons, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held on January 17 at Deer Isle Congregational Church.
Ruth Plummer died on March 6 in Los Angeles, California. Born on December 22, 1922, in Santa Ana, California, she graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1940. She married Bruce Buell in the early 1940s and they had three children. She served as organist at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Anaheim, 1942-44; organist at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Hollywood, 1944-46; organist, First Methodist Church, Burbank, 1948-50; associate organist, Hollywood Presbyterian Church, 1950-60; organist, Wilshire United Methodist Church, 1960-87; and organist, Bethany Presbyterian Church, Burbank, 1987-2002. Her organ teachers included Clarence Mader, Lowell Enoch, and Lloyd Holzgraf. She married her second husband, Stuart Plummer, in 1965. Active in the American Guild of Organists, she was publicity chairman for the 1962 AGO national convention in Los Angeles and served as Dean of the Pasadena Chapter 1980-82. In 1971, she became executive director of Artist Recitals, Inc., a concert management for organists and harpsichordists.
