Dumler

Donald Dumler

Posted

Donald Dumler, who played the organ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for more than four decades, died March 20 in Eden Prairie, Minn. He was 77.

He retired in May 2014 with the honorary title principal organist emeritus, having played at the cathedral for 43 years.

Msgr. Robert Ritchie, the rector of St. Patrick’s since 2006, described Dumler as “a very gentle, very loving individual, always ready to jump in if we needed something special.”

“He loved his music, and he was very good at improvising,” the rector added. “Sometimes, at the end of Sunday Mass when everybody was leaving, he would be playing, and it wasn’t just Mozart or Beethoven, but it would be his own additions to it.

“I was always impressed by that,” Msgr. Ritchie said, and he let Dumler know. “Anytime you gave him a compliment, he was tremendously grateful.”

Dumler joined the cathedral staff as associate organist in 1970 and in 1990 was appointed principal organist. In 2009, he played his 40th Christmas Midnight Mass, a service broadcast throughout the world on television, radio and the Internet.

A Mass and retirement party held in his honor on May 27, 2014, at his residence at the time, Mary Manning Walsh Home in Manhattan, drew more than 100 people. Msgr. Ritchie served as principal celebrant of that liturgy, which was also offered by seven priest-concelebrants.

Born in Oklahoma, Dumler had early training with Curtis Chambers in Oklahoma City. Later he studied with Mildred Andrews at the University of Oklahoma and was a scholarship student at the Juilliard School in New York, studying with noted organist Vernon de Tar.

As with all young musicians, performance must begin somewhere, and for Dumler the occasion was in Okeene, Okla., at age 12, during the closing banquet of the annual rattlesnake hunt.

In addition to recitals throughout the United States, he went on to perform with the Juilliard Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra in both Carnegie Hall and Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

He is survived by a sister, Shirley Geis, and three nephews and a niece.

Burial is in Oklahoma City.

A Memorial Mass and concert at St. Patrick’s are planned for the near future.

Donald Dumler