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). —

Active in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, by 1989, [active 1996].*

*Bracketed text in the 1997 edition, no additional source given for this date. —Ed.

Source:

• American Institute of Organbuilders (AIO): 1989 membership directory.

 

From Organ Database Builders editor Charles Eberline, December 12, 2019. —

Thomas Cotner was born around 1936 (he was 59 years old in 1995). He was trained in organbuilding by James C. Williams of New Orleans, Louisiana, and returned to Oklahoma to become a sales representative for another company. When that job fell through, he joined longtime Oklahoma City organbuilder Paul Haggard. After Haggard died in 1990, Cotner moved his business to Martha, Oklahoma, as Cotner Pipe Organs. He renovated and restored organs, built new pipe organs, and later began building digital organs. He was still active in 2017, when he was listed as one of the persons providing technical assistance for the restoration of Kilgen Opus 5281 and its installation in the Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Paul Haggard had been part of the installation team when the Kilgen was installed in the studios of WKY Radio in Oklahoma City in 1935 and had led the 1976 renovation of the instrument in its second home, the Oklahoma City Civic Center.)

Sources:

• “BP Ledger, March 19 Edition,” Baptist Press, March 19, 2012, accessed November 21, 2019, http://www.bpnews.net/37423/bp-ledger-march-19-edition.
• “Cover Feature: American Organ Institute, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma; Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,” The Diapason, August 2017, 26, 28.
• “Paul Noel Haggard, Sr,” Find a Grave, accessed November 21, 2019, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114273614/paul-noel-haggard (with Paul Haggard’s obituary, published in The Oklahoman, December 20, 1990).
• Lillie-Beth Sanger, “Organs No Pipe Dream for Craftsman,” The Oklahoman, September 4, 1995, accessed November 21, 2019, https://oklahoman.com/article/2513201/organs-no-pipe-dream-for-craftsman.