The Russell Memorial Pipe Organ

Compiled by Carol Abrahamson

First United Methodist Church of Lawrence, Kansas, had a free-standing pipe organ that sat in the northwest corner of its chancel for many years at the beginning of the twentieth century. As is the case with many cultural items, as time went by, the church felt the need for a change. Even today, musical instruments go “out-of-fashion” and begin to deteriorate beyond the ability to repair them to current standards. This happened to the pipe organ in the 1930’s at First Church.

The vice-president of the Reuter Organ Company, Mr. C.B. Russell, and his brother Mr. Lloyd E. Russell gave a new “state-of-the-art” pipe organ to the church as a memorial to their parents in 1938. It was later dedicated on March 20, 1939, by Dr. William H. Barnes, Mus. Doc., self-described organ architect, and recitalist. At the time of its installation, it was featured in an editorial by the same Dr. William H. Barnes in The American Organist and described as a “Reuter four-manual of unusual merit.” ( The American Organist, 1938, p.233). Of course, the fact that Dr. Barnes helped design the organ may have colored his evaluation. Nonetheless, this organ was conceived at a time when organ designers were changing from a thick Romantic sound to one of more clarity. Dr. Barnes played a part in adjusting scales in its organ specification in order to reach that goal. According to Dr. Barnes, “the organ under discussion is certainly in my mind an excellent example of the blending of the older and newer ideals of tonal design. Such an organ has my most cordial approval.” (The American Organist, 1939, p. 233). The new organ was well-received by the church and the general public.

This auspicious beginning provided a 44 rank instrument that served First United Methodist Church well for many years and through several organists: Dorothy Enloe Miller; Franklin Mitchell; and Robert Schaf. In 1963, Robert Schaf left Kansas suddenly, and the church needed a substitute organist. Alan Fisher was Chairman of the Official Board at the time and also personnel manager for the Reuter Organ Company. In 1961, Alan had hired a young man named Dan Abrahamson to work as an organ technician. Alan knew that Dan had experience playing the organ for church services and asked Dan to substitute a few Sundays while the church figured out what to do about hiring a permanent organist. It seems that Dan filled the bill and within weeks he was hired as the church’s official organist, beginning September 1, 1963.

As it turns out, Dan had been tinkering with organs for a number of years and knew quite a bit about organ mechanics. It didn’t take long for him to see that the Russell Organ had fallen into serious disrepair and was now quite difficult to play because of dead notes, water damage, and other mechanical problems. Ken Pine was chairman of the Music Committee at that time and listened intently to Dan’s description of problems with the organ. Together they decided to invite the Administrative Board to listen to an organ demonstration that would highlight its problems and then ask them to authorize repairs. It didn’t take long for the Administrative Board to agree that mechanical problems were indeed interfering with the use of the organ. By November, 1965, fixing mechanical defects had been accomplished using Dan's expertise and church funds, the organ had been re-tuned, and a rededication scheduled. This began a period of rebuilding and tonal modernization. Dan had since become a Reuter voicer and knew what was required. He and his organ friends were able to fix mechanical problems as they occurred, and Dan began improving the organ’s sound.

The church thought the organ was fixed for good, until August 1966 when water poured into parts of the organ through a leaky roof during a heavy rainstorm. Parts of the previous years’ restoration were ruined. Unfortunately, water damage recurred for the next several years. In 1971, Reuter had to be contracted to build new wind chests to replace those damaged by water over the years. While the wind chests were being replaced, Dan took advantage of the chest removal to enlarge and renovate other parts of the organ. Many church people as well as some Reuter employees, who were Dan’s friends, contributed hours of labor to accomplish this renovation. The organ increased from 44 to 54 ranks by the time this work was complete.

Unfortunately, this was not the end of the “water saga”. On December 16 1972, Dan wrote in his organ log, “Found that the roof is leaking on the bass end of the Oboe-Tierce-Geigen chest in the Sw. Pulled # 1-12 of 4’ Oboe as they were ciphering. Chest was full of water, which blew out when organ was turned on. Immediately called Steve Sublett (Chairman of Trustees) to let him know and to have him investigate our insurance relative to the organ and water damage. Here we go again! D.F.A.” This meant more work. Reuter was again contracted to make repairs to chests in the Swell and Choir organs to the tune of $5,888, not too much considering that the organ by then had an estimated replacement value of $100,000. When this work was complete, Dan looked back over his records and discovered that for the previous eight years, the work of 75 individuals, and 2,300 hours of labor had been donated toward the organ project. Then in November 1973, the organ was featured in recital again with Burton K. Tidwell playing an organ that had 4000 more pipes than it had in 1938.

Rainy years come in cycles, and if you don’t take care of the underlying causes of water in the organ, you are likely to have problems again. In January 1974, water began to leak again. Dan discovered that the plastic he had installed on the ceiling of the Choir chamber was full of water, ready to fall on the organ. The organ did not get wet, thanks to the plastic. However, Dan did call Ken Pine, Steve Sublett, Bev Burrows, and John Kohl to explain the situation to them. His hopeful note shouts, “We should get some action now!” If memory serves, the roof finally got repaired.

During 1981-1983, the sanctuary was closed for renovation. The church had decided to remove the balcony to effect ceiling truss repair, revise the chancel arrangement, renew the sanctuary painting, renovate the youth area, weatherize windows, repair more water problems, and rebuild the organ console, the latter at a cost of $27,000. The organ console exterior was retained because it matched the original 1938 chancel woodwork built by the Reuter Organ Co., which also included the pulpit, lectern, and communion table. The combination action, the pedal keyboard, the stop jambs and the draw-know units were replaced. The new combination action was state-of-the-art “ Solid-State Duo-Set with Quad-Memory”, every organists dream. Now Dan could use more presets to allow for quick registration changes, as is often required during any complicated service.

February 1985, brought heavy roof ice to FUMC forming an ice dam, which caused water to cascade into the choir organ chamber once again. This time Dan completely lined the choir chamber ceiling with sloped fiberglass connected with tubing to a drain in order to discharge any water that might fall over the organ at some future date. (As of 2003, the chamber is still dry!)

In April 1986, the Memorials Committee asked the congregation to dream about potential projects for future memorials. Dan started dreaming. He decided that it was finally time to complete the organ’s specifications; this would mean adding two new exposed stops to the organ: a 16’ Pedal Principal and an 16’ Trompette en Chamade to achieve a more massive sound for festival occasions. Dan’s letter to the Memorials Committee would set the wheels in motion; but his letter remained in the files of the memorials committee for many years, awaiting the time when an appropriate substantial memorial gifts might become available.

FUMC continued to improve its facilities for the future. Unfortunately, the next renovation proved to be costly to the organ. Before construction, Dan had alerted the pastor and the contractor about the need to protect the organ from construction dust. In spite of warnings, early in 1986, while in the process of improving office and education space and building a new fellowship hall, contractors allowed rock and plaster dust to filter into the sanctuary. During May of 1987, all of the pipes had to be removed, cleaned, and some re-voiced because of dust damage. This hard lesson cost both the insurance company and the church. The church discovered that the organ was insured only up to $400,000. The current estimated replacement price of our organ at the time of the damage was $631,085. Litigation determined that the church would have to pay one-third of the repair costs. This event caused the church to update its insurance plan to avoid future problems. There was a silver lining. Dan took this opportunity to paint all of the organ chambers and to consider re-scaling and re-voicing selected stops. There was a goal in his mind. John Walker, organist at Riverside Church in New York City, was going to play an American Guild of Organist’s recital in October of 1987. By this time the organ had grown to 67 Stops and 103 Ranks and was a truly fine instrument for any recitalist to play.

Dan continued to work behind the scenes. By September of 1988, the organ specification showed 78 Stops, 118 Ranks, 6947 Pipes and had undergone a complete tonal refinishing. As a special gift to Dan, there was a second rededication in April of 1989. This also happened to be Dan’s 25^th anniversary as the church organist. The festivities included special music, a festive potluck, and a card shower for Dan. During 1990 Dan built a new tuba stop for the organ, something he had always wanted. By June 1990, the specification showed 80 Stops, 120 Ranks, and 7028 pipes. Recitals by Marie Rubis and Michael Bauer in April and June gave Dan additional incentive and positive feedback that his work was done well. Dan continued to build chests and pipes; he continued to do all of the accompanying work to install them as well. Bob Vaughan, church member and Reuter employee, continued to assist him with engineering. The church decided to set up an organ repair fund from which Dan could draw periodically. The Music Committee had become aware that an ongoing fund would be necessary for the future when Dan is no longer able to maintain the organ as it should be.

Meanwhile, the church had identified a substantial memorial from the estate of Arlene Schaake. Dan’s proposal of 1986 was to finally be implemented: a 16’ Pedal Principal and 16’ Trompette en Chamade were to be installed on the rear wall of the chancel. Arlene had always loved the organ and the music of the church; she would have enjoyed the new additions tremendously. The pipes were built and the chancel revised by Reuter to accommodate them. A new rededication during church services was held on Sunday, July 17, 1994. With these additions, the organ now had a sound that had long been missing, the Pedal Principal, and a festival trumpet to make worship even more exciting than it already was. This was also a time to honor Dan for 30 years of service to the church. At least 163 volunteers had provided over 7,700 hours of work to maintain and develop the organ since 1964. Our organ now had 83 Stops, 122 Ranks, and 7114 Pipes and a completely new look. Another recital, this one by Thomas Murray of Yale University was scheduled by the American Guild of Organists for April 23, 1995 to showcase the improvements.

The improvements continued! A MSP 1000 combination action was added; re-voicing, rebuilding, replacing magnets, re-wiring--on and on the project progressed. In 1999, the façade pipes and the Trompette en Chamade were temporarily removed to accommodate chancel ceiling repair and painting. Removing pipes was done by Reuter to prevent damage to them. In 2000, a solid state switching system was delivered but not immediately installed. In 2003 Dan discovered that the Solo primary and tremolo needed to be re-leathered. The leather was over 60 years old and ready to be changed. Then in February Dan began wiring the new choir Peterson relay (the switching system), which had been waiting for his attention for three years.

Dan’s goal of completing the specification is coming closer to fruition.