Ross Lee Finney died
on February 4 in Carmel, CA, at the age of 90. Finney had joined the faculty of
the University of Michigan in 1949 and remained there as professor of music and
composer in residence until 1974. Among his students were William Albright,
Robert Ashley, Leslie Bassett, and George Crumb. After studying with Nadia
Boulanger in Paris in the late 1920s, he taught at Smith College, Mount Holyoke
College, and the Hartt School of Music. In addition to numerous orchestral and
chamber works, song cycles, ballets, and stage works, Finney wrote a Capriccio
and Five Fantasies for organ. (See the article, "Five Fantasies for Organ
of Ross Lee Finney," by Anne Parks, in the December 1976 issue of The
Diapason.)
Paul Schantz died on
April 13 at the age of 86. Upon graduation from Ohio State University, he
joined the Schantz Organ Company in 1934 as a member of the third generation of
the family business. He subsequently served as both President and Chairman of
the Board. During World War II when organ building was curtailed, he supervised
the company's manufacture of munitions boxes for the government. Paul
Schantz was active in the formation of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of
America, and was an early president of APOBA. Although he officially retired in
1972, he continued to be active in both the Schantz Organ Company and the
Zephyr Organ Blower Company, a subsidiary of Schantz.
Romona Gerhard Sutton
died on February 5 in Laguna Niguel, CA, at the age of 91. She had enjoyed a
long career as a concert and radio pianist and organist. A native of Watertown,
SD, she began playing professionally in her early teens, and from the 1930s to
the 1950s was full-time staff musician for CBS radio station WCCO in
Minneapolis. Sutton was a featured soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony
Orchestra and served as organist for St. Luke's Episcopal Church,
Minneapolis. In the 1950s she became staff organist for CBS radio station
KNX-AM and presented concerts throughout Southern California.
Wilhelm Zimmer died
on February 11 at the age of 86. He served his apprenticeship with the Stahlhut
firm in Aachen, Germany, and worked for Flentrop and B. Pels & Zoon. In
1951 he moved to South Africa to manage the organ department of R. Muller Ltd.,
where his sons Franz and Ben eventually joined him. In 1964 the family moved to
the U.S.A., establishing W. Zimmer Sons, Inc., in Charlotte, NC.
