Stephen H. Leslie  (OrganMan@aol.com)
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I became interested in the organ as a child.  I was allowed to turn
off the little electronic that we had every Sunday after church.  I
began studying piano at age 8 and organ when I was a junior in high
school.  The first pipe organ I got to play on was the 4 manual
Pilcher at First Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia.  My first
teacher was William Schweitzer in Atlanta.  I studied one year with
David Beaty at Shorter College.  I graduated from University of
Tennessee in 1972.  Teachers were Calvin Bower and John Brock.
 
I tried church music for 2 years in Huntsville, Alabama and then
went to work at the Schantz Organ Company in 1975 as a voicer and
tonal finisher.  Moved to California in late 1983.  I went to work
for Robert C. Newton (now deceased) as tonal director and organ
technician.  In 1986 my co-worker, Roger Inkpen, and I bought the
company and have built Newton Pipe Organ Services, Incorporated,
into one of the leading service firms in the state of California.
We service 90 organs from Spokane, Washington to Los Angeles,
California.  We also service two theatre pipe organs - the Oakland
Paramount WurliTzer and the Robert-Morton Organ in the Arlington
Theatre in Santa Barbara.
 
In 1989, I became District Representative for Schantz Organ Company
in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
 
This business of ours is great!  I have had the pleasure of meeting
and working for some of the finest musicians in the country.  I
also know that all over this great land there a many organs that I
have had the privilege of voicing and are leading congregations in
the singing of their hymns.  I am doing what I love to do - and I
get paid to do it!  To quote Mr. Gershwin - 'who could ask for
anything more?'