The Good Life – November-December 2015

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The Wurlitzer Man on falling in love with the organ BY: JESSICA BALLOU | PHOTOS: URBAN TOAD MEDIA 28
“ The organ has such a wonderful sound that when it plays, you can’t help but be inspired. — Lance Johnson Lance E. Johnson has had a somewhat unique career. As the founder of a family business who also boasts the title of “The WurliTzer Man,” he’s a well-known institution in the Fargo- Moorhead area. Even though he first set out to be an electrical engineer back in his college days, he found his true calling as an organ builder and organist. Johnson, owner of Johnson Organ Company, and his son, who is the owner of Johnson Organ Services, have now installed and serviced pipe organs in six states and band organs in 20 states. ‘I fell in love with it’ When Johnson was about four years old, he asked his parents if he could sit behind the organist at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls, Minn., so he could better hear her play, and after that they always sat in the front pew. His parents gave him a reed organ for Christmas when he was 15 years old, and later he also gained an interest in pipe organs. In 1954 when he was 16, he founded Johnson Organ Company. In 1958 he bought an old pipe organ from WDAY studios, which had been in storage. In 1963 he sold it to a roller rink in Moorhead, which is now the location of a Hardee’s, and he played there for 10 years. He graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead as an organ major in 1964. But before he decided on the organ, he studied electric engineering for a few years at North Dakota State University (NDSU). At first he didn’t see a future in being a pipe organ builder or organist, but when the main organ builder and servicer near Fargo died in 1958, Johnson stepped up and worked to make it into a career. 29
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Page 35 and 36: BY: DANIELLE TEIGEN | PHOTOS: URBAN
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The Good Life – November-December 2015

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