We are presently in Port Angeles, WA, Carl Crosier’s boyhood home during his formative years. In addition to driving past his family’s former house (which his father built and designed), we made a special effort to visit Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which was key to Carl’s becoming a church musician. It so happened that Carl’s father also had a hand in designing and building the church.
This was the very church where Pastor Carl Fischer shepherded during those formative years–he was the pastor who also conducted the choir and played the major preludes and fugues of J.S. Bach on the organ on feast days.
Of course, I had to try out the organ, originally installed by Balcom & Vaughan in 1962 but refurbished and enlarged by Richard Bond in 2009 to a size of 36 ranks. Most remarkable are the flamed copper façade pipes.
We were very glad to see that the church is thriving and has become the community arts center for this town. Apparently there is a concert series which hosts the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra, choral concerts and organ recitals. We met the current organist/choir director who knew us from ALCM and knew who we were and where we were from before we even introduced ourselves.
Carl looks at photos of the church’s pastors in the Fireside room. He found Pastor Fischer’s picture.
Welcome back to Port Angeles! I was sitting at my perch here on Beaver Hill (near Peninsula College) a couple of nights ago when I hit your blog searching to see if Edith Ho had anything on YouTube, noticed you were visiting in the PNW, and checked back to see if you made it to PA. I met Edith when she was a student at Peabody and I had a singing job at Mt Calvary working for her teacher Arthur Howes. Maybe you know Pat Handy and/or Ken Whittington, who were also singers at Mt Calvary at the time, as well as being fine organists. Edith probably wouldn’t remember me from that far back, but say hello for me anyway!
Small world, isn’t it!
Mark
[…] Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Angeles where his mother’s family lived and worshipped (You might go back and re-read my post “Roots”). He had good friends who attended both the church and the parochial school at Queen of Angels, […]