Robert Frederick Wolfersteig, was born on Easter Day, March 31, 1919 and on June 7, 2010 he came to the end of his toilsome journey, dropped the working tools of life and entered Celestial Grand Lodge above.
“Bob” as we all called him served the 41st Masonic District with great pride and had the honorable distinction of being both the District Deputy Grand Master and later the District Deputy Grand Lecturer of the 41st Masonic District of North Carolina. He was a member of our fraternity for just over 46 years. He was initiated, passed, and raised in 1964. In 1991 he demitted from Benevolent N0. 3 in Millidgeville, GA and was admitted to Clay 301 in Hayeville, NC.
He was Professor Emeritus of music and Department of Music Chair at Georgia College in Milledgeville, Ga. He studied at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. and finished his music doctorate at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.
For the past 18 years he was an adjunct professor of music in the Tri-County Community College in Murphy.
He won the National Organ-Playing Contest and was the recipient of a Fulbright Study Grant at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin, Germany, where he studied with Michael Schneider; organ building and design with Karl Schuke and harpsichord with Sylvia Kind.
With all the above accomplishments in in vast musical career, some of which many of us will not be able to remeber; a few of us however, us will fondly remember watching him scramble to locate locate the hidden key, unlock the grand organ in the majestic York Rite Chapel at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford, and giving us a private recital in 2008. This was most likely the first and only time “Phantom of the Opera” was played inside those hallowed walls.
He held memberships in the American Guild of Organists, American Theatre Organ Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, Pi Kappa Lambda, MENC and was past master of his AM & FM Lodges in Macon, Ga. and in Hayesville 301. He was secretary of the Blue Ridge Mountains Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
He was elected to the Order of Kentucky Colonels. During the Korean War he served as a chaplain’s assistant in the United States Navy and is a member of VFW.
He is survived by his wife, Eloise; a daughter, Patricia Albritton; and granddaughter, Kendall Albritton; as well as cousins in New York and Arizona. He often told how his daughter would sometimes introduce him as Doctor and explained how her father worked on "organs."
Interment was June 14 at St. Clare’s Episcopal Church Memorial Garden, Blairsville, Ga.
Brother Bob was one of those rare Masons who left a mark on our fraternity which will be remembered by many for years to come. He will be greatly missed. I just wonder if he has found the key to Heaven's organ yet? Probably!
1 comment:
Brother Bob was a benchmark by which many Masons could gage themselves. He will truly be missed.
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