Dottie Westerman, rip
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Karl Moyer
Jan 8, 2019, 8:30:01 PM1/8/19
to Lancaster AGO
Hi, Good Colleagues all,
One of the many blessings of God’s gift of "longer life” is to be able to recall great saints you knew lots of year ago. One such is the late Dorothy Shore (Mrs. Carl) Westerman, long-time AGO-er who died at home on New Year’s Day at age 93.
Quite some years ago Dottie rather much disappeared from our chapter midsts, but she deserves on-going thanks for a rôle she seemed eminently prepared to fill: she was the treasurer for the special committee of our chapter which planned and operated the 1967 regional AGO convention in Lancaster. My, that was fifty years ago!! The convention featured the world premier of John Weaver’s rhapsody for flute and organ with his bride Marrianne as flutist, and the convention concerts closed with a concert-to-end-all-concerts by Reg Lunt, a professional string ensemble from Philadelphia conducted by Reg’s friend , Lancaster Symphony Orchestra conductor at the time, Louis Vyner, plus Reg and the late Kitty Byers Johnston in the Flor Peeters concerto for piano and organ (no orchestra players). The absolute highlight of that concert was Reg as soloist the organ concerto by Howard Hanson with all its rhythmic intricacies!!
Donald McDonald played arguably the most beautiful performance in that convention that I’ve ever heard of the Roger-Ducasse “Pastorale,” and Heinrich Fletcher played an unbelievable recital with his 8 1/2 fingers on the Möller than in former St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, even Reger!!! . And there was lots more!
Dottie’s hand in this was, among other things, to keep warning Abe Longenderfer, general chair of the convention, that we were spending too much money. She was absolutely right!! Yet Carl Shcroeder and Joe Rader and Luke Grubb and some others and I did proceed with unbridled enthusiasm toward a quality convention program. It was the cost of the final organ-chamber orchestra concert that broke the treasury, and when it was time, Dottie came through: we had a very calm-but-urgent meeting in her living room during which she proposed declaring “shares” at $25.00 each to bail out the deficit and thus to be able to close the convention treasury and roll the “left-over” issues back on to the chapter treasury.
We all sat there and “pitched” shares until Dottie had enough money “on the table” to solve the problem, and for the next year or two our chapter programs most involved NO charges against the regular chapter treasury. Within two years or so, we all had our shares reimbursed, and the problem was over. Dottie was the quiet, unheralded champion of this !!!
The national office of AGO would soon construct rules to prevent any such experience again, but we simply pulled ourselves out by our own bootstraps, courtesy of Dottie’s leadership.
Her father was for quite some years the pastor of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church at North Plum Street and ____________ Street, now a Hispanic church build, if I recall correctly.
For whatever reason, Dottie requested “understated” obsequies after her death, though the family has announced a public funeral at the Charles Snyder Funeral Home on Lititz Pike for Friday at 1 p.m. I’ve had a little contact regarding a question of “congregational” singing, having been the organist for Carl’s funeral at the new Mt. Calvary Church on Petersburg Road lots of years ago, and while at this moment I do not know a decision about this, might I suggest that, singing or no singing, those of us who are available might show up to thank God for the life and witness of our sister Dottie and to support her family in this moment of grief?
May she rest in peace.
Karl
One of the many blessings of God’s gift of "longer life” is to be able to recall great saints you knew lots of year ago. One such is the late Dorothy Shore (Mrs. Carl) Westerman, long-time AGO-er who died at home on New Year’s Day at age 93.
Quite some years ago Dottie rather much disappeared from our chapter midsts, but she deserves on-going thanks for a rôle she seemed eminently prepared to fill: she was the treasurer for the special committee of our chapter which planned and operated the 1967 regional AGO convention in Lancaster. My, that was fifty years ago!! The convention featured the world premier of John Weaver’s rhapsody for flute and organ with his bride Marrianne as flutist, and the convention concerts closed with a concert-to-end-all-concerts by Reg Lunt, a professional string ensemble from Philadelphia conducted by Reg’s friend , Lancaster Symphony Orchestra conductor at the time, Louis Vyner, plus Reg and the late Kitty Byers Johnston in the Flor Peeters concerto for piano and organ (no orchestra players). The absolute highlight of that concert was Reg as soloist the organ concerto by Howard Hanson with all its rhythmic intricacies!!
Donald McDonald played arguably the most beautiful performance in that convention that I’ve ever heard of the Roger-Ducasse “Pastorale,” and Heinrich Fletcher played an unbelievable recital with his 8 1/2 fingers on the Möller than in former St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, even Reger!!! . And there was lots more!
Dottie’s hand in this was, among other things, to keep warning Abe Longenderfer, general chair of the convention, that we were spending too much money. She was absolutely right!! Yet Carl Shcroeder and Joe Rader and Luke Grubb and some others and I did proceed with unbridled enthusiasm toward a quality convention program. It was the cost of the final organ-chamber orchestra concert that broke the treasury, and when it was time, Dottie came through: we had a very calm-but-urgent meeting in her living room during which she proposed declaring “shares” at $25.00 each to bail out the deficit and thus to be able to close the convention treasury and roll the “left-over” issues back on to the chapter treasury.
We all sat there and “pitched” shares until Dottie had enough money “on the table” to solve the problem, and for the next year or two our chapter programs most involved NO charges against the regular chapter treasury. Within two years or so, we all had our shares reimbursed, and the problem was over. Dottie was the quiet, unheralded champion of this !!!
The national office of AGO would soon construct rules to prevent any such experience again, but we simply pulled ourselves out by our own bootstraps, courtesy of Dottie’s leadership.
Her father was for quite some years the pastor of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church at North Plum Street and ____________ Street, now a Hispanic church build, if I recall correctly.
For whatever reason, Dottie requested “understated” obsequies after her death, though the family has announced a public funeral at the Charles Snyder Funeral Home on Lititz Pike for Friday at 1 p.m. I’ve had a little contact regarding a question of “congregational” singing, having been the organist for Carl’s funeral at the new Mt. Calvary Church on Petersburg Road lots of years ago, and while at this moment I do not know a decision about this, might I suggest that, singing or no singing, those of us who are available might show up to thank God for the life and witness of our sister Dottie and to support her family in this moment of grief?
May she rest in peace.
Karl
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