Today is September 11th, and the airwaves are filled with memories of the horrific events of September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked airplanes and used them as weapons. Everyone has a story of remembering where you were when you found out about the attacks, the fall of the World Trade Center towers, the attack on the Pentagon and the downing of a fourth plane in a Pennsylvania field.

But for our family, September 11th has another remembrance, the birthday of my husband, Carl Crosier, who was born on this day 78 years ago. In his obituary, this is what I wrote:

The year was 1945. Harry Truman became President of the United States when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in his fourth term, and it was his decision to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war with Japan. Happy days were here again. And in the cool climes of Seattle, Washington, it only cost 3¢ for 19-year-old Inga-lill Crosier to mail out some happy news:

Here I am! I’ve just arrived from Heaven. And cute? Say, I’m a star! I’m the “sweetest baby ever . . . ” Oh, you know how Parents are! My name is Carl. I tip the scales at 8 lbs. 11 ozs. I arrived to set the world on fire on Sept. 11 at 8:12 pm. My proud parents are Mr. and Mrs. William G. Crosier.

The baby’s 23-year-old father soon moved his new family to the seaside town of Port Angeles. Very early on, the child displayed his musical talent when, as a toddler, he told his mother she was singing a nursery song wrong! He begged his parents for piano lessons, which he began at age five. Later it was membership in the Junior Choir at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church which made such a profound impression upon him, in addition to hearing Pastor Carl Fischer play Bach prelude and fugues on the organ for festival Sundays. The child was in great demand as a boy soprano, having a voice “as clear as a bell.” He found himself singing solos not only at church, but at ball games and for Elks and Lions Clubs. Cousin Marie Seastrom often accompanied him on the piano.

Along the way, the Crosier family, now numbering five with the birth of sister Carol and the addition of maternal grandmother, Marie Seastrom, moved to the naval port city of Bremerton. It was at this time Carl continued his piano study with Nadean Justin Clarke, and got his first church organist job in a Methodist church. He also studied with Leonard Jacobsen at the University of Puget Sound and won numerous piano competitions. He nearly drove his family wild with his fiendish practicing, especially of works by Bela Bartok.

As a freshman at the University of Washington, he declared himself an architecture major, following in his father’s footsteps, but after one semester of physics, decided to major in music instead. As a student of Berthe Poncy Jacobsen, he played in countless piano recitals and chamber music concerts in addition to several concerto appearances with regional orchestras.

His father died while Carl was a junior in college, so he took a year off to work at the Bangor Naval Ammunition Depot, shipping ammo to Vietnam. He went back to school where he studied with Else Geissmar and graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Music in piano and Bachelor of Arts in accounting.

When there was a foot of snow on the ground, he took off in pursuit of sunshine and in 1972, Hawaii was to be the first of perhaps several stops. As he told many people, he never had a reason to leave. He was hired as the organist by the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and later became Director of Music in 1975, retiring in 2011. From 1985 to 2013, he served as the Controller and Chief Financial Officer of St. Andrew’s Priory School.

In 1977, he married the great love of his life, Kathy, an organist and musician friend, and together they made beautiful music for 37 years, including their best “composition,” Stephen John Crosier in 1982.

It was in Hawaii that he found his countertenor voice which led to voice study with Neva Rego and many solo performances. He founded the Compline Choir in 1976, in the tradition started by St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle. With composer Peter Hallock, the Crosiers founded Ionian Arts, a music publishing company.

Carl’s passion for the works of Johann Sebastian Bach led him to conduct seventy cantatas with orchestra, the Magnificat, all six Motets, the complete Brandenburg Concertos, and landmark performances of the monumental St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and the Mass in B Minor.

Carl’s other passion was fine cooking, and he spent many happy but messy hours in his gourmet kitchen preparing delicious and beautifully-presented meals for family and friends. He took over all the meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking since 1992 when wife Kathy announced she was never cooking again.

Carl is survived by his wife of 37 years, Katherine, son Stephen, and sister Carol Rodi of Georgia, in addition to hundreds of music lovers in the Honolulu community and admirers in the church music profession across the mainland.

On this blog, I’ve previously written about how, after 2001, Carl wanted to change his birthday, because in 2002, “Everyone was singing Requiems on my birthday!” And he almost got his wish — about the time of 9/11, his passport was up for renewal, and the U. S. State Department sent his new passport with the date September 18 instead of September 11! Of course, the passport had to be sent back and the date corrected.

And I can just hear him now, as he said repeatedly to me, “Kathy, I’m never going to make it to my 70th birthday!” He started saying this to me about age 50, and I always pooh-poohed the notion, since he was seemingly healthy. But he was right. passing away at age 68 from pancreatic cancer.

Just today, I found a copy of his speech at my retirement from the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. It’s a little long, but I read it today for the first time in ten years with some bittersweetness.

I know that Kathy wanted this celebration to be fun and light-hearted. I told her that after such a long dedicated music ministry that somebody needs to say something that perhaps wasn’t so light-hearted. So my remarks until the just at the end will be from as the retired cantor and not Kathy’s husband.

Many of you may not know that I was the organist of LCH from late 1972 to 1977. I was also part of a trio championed by Pastor Johnson that ultimately resulted in the installation of the Beckerath Organ. I do want to acknowledge the great contributions of both of the late Dr. John Hanley and my predecessor Joseph Hansen.

What I also want to remind everyone is that this organ was built by one of the GREAT organ builders of the 20th century, Rudolf von Beckerath. This instrument was, in fact, the last of his instruments in the US, which he personally voiced, as he died 1 year after its installation. The organ has been visited by many of the great organists of our time including the late Marie Claire Alain, Harald Vogel and only a few weeks ago, Nathan Laube. They have all been unanimous in their praise of this instrument as being not only a Beckerath, but indeed a very special one, a “gem”, a great work of art. I know I speak for Kathy when I say that we hope the LCH congregation will continue to maintain this world class instrument, much as you would a great Rembrandt painting, restoring it as necessary as it ages, but not changing it.

When the Beckerath Organ was installed in 1975 it quite literally put LCH on the musical map giving us a new profile in the Honolulu community. Although much good music had gone on here for the 75 years before, this instrument really defined the music making that would follow—lyrical, elegant and colorful. And this is exactly how I would describe Kathy’s service playing over these many years. There was no question at all that when she came on the scene, I happily gave up the organ bench (although I did get back on it occasionally to sub when she was unavailable.)

As I tried to express in my “farewell speech” as well as in all of my annual reports, the music program from 1990 on was a triumvirate (Carl & Kathy Crosier + Allen Bauchle). You might remember that not only did we try tenaciously to tie the choral music and hymns to the lectionary, but we also attempted to bind things together further by musical style (Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classic, Romantic and 20th/21st century, and many informal styles for the 8:00 AM liturgy). Kathy’s incredible repertoire, pretty much on instant recall, could provide whatever was needed. Her amazing accuracy and sight-reading ability are also simply mind-boggling. I recall saying in the Fall one year, “that is the second wrong note I have heard you hit this year!” I remember giving her very challenging accompaniments (Rejoice in the Lamb, Chichester Psalms, and her most favorite “Ascending into heaven” by Judith Weir, and she always brought them off (even when written for an organ of 61 notes when the Beckerath only has 56).

Although she did not often play solo recitals, especially after Stephen was born, several times a year she had to prepare huge musical services and concerts. Kathy has played more organ concertos with orchestra over the past 35 years than anyone else I know here–nearly all of the Bach organ sinfonias (several times), at least 4 of the Handel Organ Concertos, both CPE Bach Organ Concertos, the Joseph and Michael Haydn Organ Concertos, and nearly all of the Mozart Organ Sonatas. I remember one of our Mozart Vespers Services where she played the Fantasy, K 594 for the prelude and K. 608 for the postlude! Absolutely, over the top (guess whose idea THAT was?)

But week in and week out Kathy brought the very best to her organist vocation. She is a wonderful service player, she plays a huge breadth of literature, and she always goes for quality, not only in the choice of appropriate literature, but in her execution of it. And I won’t talk about her incredible patience and her love of teaching and passing on the art to her students. You have heard the examples of that.

Now I will say something as her husband. Probably one of the reasons that we have been happily married for nearly 36 years, is that we never really take our jobs home and we understand and accept our individual passions for things, the most obvious one being music. Yes, often deadlines and crunches do impact our domestic life, but we never let those things consume us. Kathy has more than her measure of patience (something I am now learning better in my “golden years”).

In closing I would like to excerpt something I said at the Vivace fundraiser a year ago. “At the very top of my list is my dear wife, Kathy. Not only has she been highly involved in the actual music making and many preparatory rehearsals of our musical endeavors, but she has the joy of humoring and consoling me when situations become frustrating or difficult. She was nearly always the graphic artist for flyers and the publicist for concerts. She was also the layout artist for all of our gorgeous programs of the major works. As my personal accompanist for the past 35 years, she is an amazing sightreader and rarely hits a wrong note in performance, even when playing extremely difficult scores. I will admit, I really do take her for granted in that regard. Most of all, she has been my constant support when launching some of the more insane projects. Even if she has counseled me that perhaps this is not the time to go forward with an endeavor, she supports me anyway. When I was preparing vocal solos, she spent countless hours with me rehearsing the music (and critiquing my performance).

Could I have been any more blessed than to have spent more than half of my life with my beloved Kathy?

Oh, Carl, we miss you! ❤️