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Senior Saints BYO Lunch

Please join the Senior Saints in the Ministry Center when our guest will be Dr. James Strand, our Rector’s father, a gifted music scholar who will treat us to an organ recital.

No age limits and no reservations required!

Bring your own lunch. Beverages and desserts will be provided. If you would like to bring a dessert to share, please let Barbara Fitzsimmons know so we can be sure to have enough.

Jim Strand was born and raised in Kingsburg, a small town near Fresno, California. He received a B.A. and M.A. in Music and Organ Performance from Redlands College in California, and his Doctor of Music Arts from the University of Oklahoma. While at Redlands, he met and married his wife, Carlyn, a young schoolteacher, and upon graduation they moved to Winfield, Kansas where Jim was the Chair of the Fine Arts Department and taught music theory, music composition and organ performance at Southwestern College for many years. He was the recipient of the Student Council Award for excellence in teaching. He was an active performer through the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Kansas Arts Commission. His fondness and mastery of period music led him to construct, with the help of his students, several harpsicords, clavichords, and dulcimers which are still in use.

Upon retirement from Southwestern College in 2000, Jim and his wife moved to Cape Elizabeth, Maine where he became the Organist and Choirmaster of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, a position he held for 20 years. Unfortunately, Jim’s wife, Carlyn died in 2006.

Jim has three sons and seven grandchildren scattered around the country. His oldest son Paul, lives in Portland, Oregon, working in Computer IT; Jon is Rector of our very own Church of Holy Comforter; and Eric is Director of Music at First United Methodist in Grand Rapids, Michigan as well as conductor and artistic director of Early Music Michigan. All three of his sons are musicians—one plays the trombone, another plays the trumpet, and the last is, like his father, an accomplished organist.

Upon his 2nd retirement in late 2020, he moved to Goodwin House in Alexandria, Virginia from Maine, to be near to his son and grandchildren in Vienna and Washington DC. Jim can be heard every Sunday playing the organ for the 9:00 a.m. service at Goodwin House in the Chapel.