Barbara Owen
Barbara J. Owen passed away peacefully on the evening of October 14, 2024, at Masconomet Healthcare in Topsfield, Mass., after a brief period of declining health. She was 91.
Born in Utica, N.Y., on January 25, 1933, she earned a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College and a master of music degree in musicology from Boston University in 1962. The next year she began a 40-year tenure as director of music at the First Religious Society of Newburyport. Mass. In addition, she was a voicer for C.B. Fisk, Inc. from 1961 to 1979.
Barbara Owen was one of several American organ enthusiasts who founded the Organ Historical Society in 1956, became the founding president, and served in several capacities. She was honored with the OHS Distinguished Service Award in 1988, and was designated an Honorary Member in 1998 in recognition of her contributions both to the society and to scholarship. The American Musical Instrument Society honored her with its prestigious Curt Sachs Award in 1994. She served the American Guild of Organists as regional councilor and chapter dean and was a trustee of the Methuen Memorial Music Hall. She was the founder and curator of the Organ Library of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, located at Boston University.
Few have served and influenced a profession in as many aspects as Barbara Owen. Throughout seven decades she was an organbuilder, organ restorer, researcher, author, advocate, consultant, musician, music editor, lecturer, hymn writer, and librarian. In addition to a constant flow of articles in scholarly journals, her books included The Organ in New England, E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist, The Mormon Tabernacle Organ: An American Classic, The Registration of Baroque Organ Music, The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms, The Great Organ at Methuen, and Pioneers in American Organ Music 1860 – 1920: The New England Classicists.