Tenth Anniversary Papers

Tenth Anniversary Papers — Introduction

Dave Schutt

Reflecting on the past ten years of PIPORG-L brings back thoughts of the interesting and/or amusing moments my computer has brought me about organs. However when Ben Chi and David Kelzenberg asked me to invite others to contribute articles on any organ-related subject, I was wondering what to expect. The results are amazing and cover a wide gamut.

PIPORG-L actually started in November, 1992. I was manually forwarding messages to a list of 41 people who responded to my ads in The Diapason, The American Organist, and Theatre Organ magazines. On January 15, 1993, Ben Chi and the State University of New York at Albany generously offered to host PIPORG-L on their server.

I thought it would be interesting to see the names of those 77 "charter" subscribers on the SUNY server:

Name	Name
Jerry W. Akers ²	Thomas Keays
Michael Ambrose	Hans van der Laan
Mary Alice Thiemann Bahn ¹	Michael D. Laird ^{1 2}
Sibel Bayrakci ²	Lou Leciejewski ²
James Bordner ²	Bernard Martin
Paul S. Brown ²	Margaret Mason
David Bucknum	Richard H. Miller
Al Burfeind ²	Michael D. Mirmak
Larry Chace ¹	Paul Motsuk
Ben Chi ¹	Michael Murray
K. Douglas Chun	Allan Ontko ^{1 2}
Kevyn Collins-Thompson ²	Lee Ridgway ¹
Michael Davidson ^{1 2}	Jean Paul Rigaut
Thom Day ²	Wayne Rindone ^{1 2}
Elaine Dent ¹	Paul Rutz ^{1 2}
David F. Diehl	Burley Salmon ²
Tom Dimock	Dave Schutt ^{1 2}
Cory Edelman ^{1 2}	Kevin Scott ²
Craig Elders ¹	Jerry Seward
Dave Engelsma ²	Bruce Shewitz ²
Kim Erickson	Laura J. Silva ²
Anton Frank ²	Bart J. Slagt ²
Lee Garrett	Paul Soderdahl
Glenn Gentry ²	Ed Stauff ^{1 2}
Pete Gifford	Pete Stewart ²
Wayne Gloege ^{1 2}	Louw F. Talstra ¹
Geoff Greene ²	Galen Tate ²
Tony Harminc	Dave Tavaglione
Martin Hasch ^{1 2}	Robert Thomin
Jim Haynes ^{1 2}	Scott VanOrnum ^{1 2}
Curt Heisey ²	Sam Vause ^{1 2}
George Horwath ²	Bill Vogel ²
Herb Huestis ^{1 2}	Adlai Waksman ¹
Rick Huff	Thomas B. White ¹
Mike Hughes ²	Keith Womer ²
Barbara L. Ives	Robert 'Texx' Woodworth ^{1 2}
Doumen Jan ²	Richard Wright
Arthur W. Johnson, Jr.	Richard J. Wyble ¹
Lewis R. Jones

Notes:
1. Still on the PIPORG-L mailing list.
2. on the manual mailing list as of about Dec. 15, 1992.

I was working on a computer program to replace the electro-pneumatic relay system on my Robert Morton theater organ. I am using the programming language called MAX (named after Max V. Mathews the Bell Labs scientist whose sound and music synthesis with digital computers earned him the title, "Father of Computer Music").

I think the real credit (or blame) for starting PIPORG-L belongs to David Zicarelli, the programmer of the Macintosh version of MAX. David steered me onto an early bulletin board system (BBS) called "The Well." They had a group concerned with MAX. I thought a similar system would be a way for organ nuts to keep in touch and share information.

As subscribers know, it doesn't take very long to figure out which messages are worthwhile reading. During the first year of PIPORG-L, I had been very interested in postings from Dave Kelzenberg. They covered a wide range of organ interests. I was ready to resign my rôle as the list's co-owner. Dave graciously agreed to help. I guess if I had known how many other non-paying jobs Dave volunteers for, I might not have tried to burden him with another one. However, I'm glad I did! I still enjoy reading his postings. It will be interesting to see who is still around when we celebrate our twentieth anniversary.

About the author: Dave Schutt was a co-founder of PIPORG-L. He has been an amateur organist since about 1949. He installed a Robert Morton theater pipe organ in his home in San Jose in 1968. He retired from the telephone company in 1985.