Pipe Organ Database

From Organ Database Builders editor Stephen Hall, October 25, 2015. —

Born in Johnson City, New York, he was the son of Millard and Eloise (McLaughlin) Turner. Following his graduation from Walton High School in 1953, he served in the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman from January 1955 to 1958

He was a pipe organ builder and began his organ building career working with Robert S. Roland in Ossining, NY in 1958. In 1960, he joined Gress-Miles Company, in Princeton, New Jersey and was employed by them for almost 10 years. In 1970 he began his own business in Hopewell, New Jersey and continued there until the summer of 1977, when he joined the firm of Harris Organs, Whittier, California. In 1982 he started his own company, Robert M. Turner, Organ Builder, Inc. in Hacienda Heights, California until his retirement in 2004.

Died November 6, 2007 in Alabang, Philippines.

Among his outstanding organs are those in the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey, The Church of the Holy Family (The United Nations Parish), New York City and the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, California.

He also designed and constructed consoles for prominent organs from coast to coast, including St. Patrick-s Cathedral, New York City, St. Paul-s Chapel-Columbia University, New York City, The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, California, Royce Hall-UCLA in Los Angeles, California, Crystal Cathedral, in Garden Grove, California, and St. Paul-s Church-Harvard University Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Source:

• Robert M. Turner Obituary, accessed October 25, 2015, http://www.courtneyfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=855570&fh_id=13147.

From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991; rev. ed., 1997, with updated information). —

Sources:

• Music* October 1969 (New York: American Guild of Organists).
• Elizabeth Towne Schmitt.
• The American Organist June 1988 (New York: American Guild of Organists),36.
• The American Organist April 1989, 94.
• The American Organist March 1994, 95

*Renamed The American Organist beginning with January 1979 issue. —Ed.