Bill Potter, the LCH webmaster, recently posted a tribute to me and my tenure as organist. If you haven’t found it already, here are the links describing Carl’s and my many years at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu:

Carl Crosier, Cantor, 1972-2011

Katherine Crosier, Organist, 1978-2012

You will read that Carl was originally hired as organist in December 1972 — and he was the organist when the Beckerath organ was installed in May 1975. Earlier that month, though, the choir presented a Bach cantata vespers and because Carl was busy practicing for the organ dedication service, he asked me to play the continuo organ. That turned out to be the first service I played at LCH (for which I was paid $25!)

At that time I taught organ at the University of Hawaii and I was very eager to play a faculty recital on the new organ that fall. So I started coming to practice every day, which coincided with a group of people from the church who were always around because they were busy sewing new green paraments (“Wheat and grapes”) for a Reformation Day mass, a reconstruction of Martin Luther’s Formula Missae. I took an interest in what they were doing since I knew how to use a sewing machine. Some months later, Carl Crosier was thinking of starting up a Compline service and asked me to sew one of the white cottas for the choir vestments, which came in kit form.

“Sure, I’ll do it.” I finished the one so fast, that he asked me if I would be willing to do another, and another, and another, until finally I ended up sewing 12 of them, in time for the debut of Compline on Aug. 1, 1976.

As a ‘thank you,’ he invited me to dinner, a whirlwind romance ensued and the rest is history. We were married on July 15, 1977.

When the organist position became open in May 1978, I was asked if I would take it. Would you be surprised to learn that I never even played an audition or submitted a resumé?!

Carl always said I could play the organ better than he could!