OHS Seeks New CEO

Mar 12, 2026

ORGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CEO SEARCH

W. Edward McCall, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer since July 2018 of the Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety (OHS – found­ed in 1956), has announced his retire­ment from that posi­tion effec­tive August 28, 2026. Mr. McCall has served the OHS valiant­ly over these past 8 years, most notably bring­ing the orga­ni­za­tion onto a sol­id finan­cial foot­ing with tight fis­cal over­sight and pro­duc­tive invest­ments. Oth­er accom­plish­ments include rein­stat­ing some lapsed pro­grams and over­see­ing the redesign of oth­ers, includ­ing the Big­gs Schol­ars Pro­gram, which grants young artists free atten­dance and per­for­mance slots at con­ven­tions, and the Nation­al Reg­istry for His­toric Organs, now active­ly pro­cess­ing applications.

Two crown jew­els of OHS ben­e­fit­ed from Ed McCall’s over­sight. First, the Library and Archives, locat­ed at the head­quar­ters in the Stoneleigh estate in Vil­lano­va, PA, received greater staffing at a high­er pro­fes­sion­al lev­el, thus increas­ing pro­cess­ing and avail­abil­i­ty of man­u­script mate­ri­als. Sec­ond, the online Pipe Organ Data­base con­tin­ues to evolve through plat­form refine­ments while accru­ing record lev­els of usage world­wide, an asset espe­cial­ly val­ued by organ­builders. As a most wor­thy tes­ta­ment to his pre­de­ces­sor, Mr. McCall ini­ti­at­ed the James M. Weaver Prize in Organ Schol­ar­ship, a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary com­pe­ti­tion that com­bines his­tor­i­cal view­points and archival research with demon­stra­tive performances.

Under the new CEO, con­tin­u­ing man­age­ment of estab­lished pro­grams is fun­da­men­tal, along with a respect for the his­to­ry and core val­ues of the OHS. Addi­tion­al­ly, fresh views on sus­tain­abil­i­ty, mem­ber­ship growth and engage­ment, and increased activ­i­ties at Stoneleigh are expect­ed. 

A Search Committee has been named and charged by the Board of Direc­tors to iden­ti­fy qual­i­fied can­di­dates to serve as the next CEO of the Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety. Committee work has begun; a detailed Lead­er­ship State­ment and Job Descrip­tion will be pub­lished soon. Qual­i­fied per­sons can send a let­ter of inter­est with a con­fi­den­tial resumé at any time to the Search Chair iden­ti­fied below. In the mean­while, the Committee is open to help­ful sug­ges­tions from OHS mem­bers or inter­est­ed par­ties as we con­tin­ue to nav­i­gate the for­mal­i­ties of this process. We view this essen­tial search as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for OHS to move for­ward with new vig­or and insight, as we also thank Ed McCall for great accomplishments.

Click here to go to the OHS CEO Search Website.