By: Mills McArthur
There are many reasons to be proud of Southern Adventist University. One of the best reasons, in my view, is the Anton Heiller Memorial Organ. Purchased by Southern, housed in the Collegedale Church and built by the acclaimed organ-builder John Brombaugh, the organ is by far Southern’s greatest contribution to the arts in our 133-year history. Yet, many are unaware of the facts surrounding this remarkable instrument.
We are in the midst of an anniversary. Forty years ago, in 1985, the Heiller organ was first used in a church service. The following year, the organ’s dedication ceremony attracted widespread attention.
“Off tomorrow to Tennessee to prepare for the Brombaugh concert at Southern College,” wrote Juilliard professor Leonard Raver at the time. “Harald Vogel [a distinguished organist] tells me it is one of the great organs of the world.”
Vogel was right. The Heiller organ is a masterpiece of workmanship, a historically authentic “tracker” organ with fully mechanical action. Musicologist Peter Williams once called Brombaugh “one of the greatest craftsmen in the world.” Southern’s instrument has been featured in several commercial recordings, including an enchanting rendition of the minimalist classic Mad Rush. Rumor has it that this very recording inspired the score to the movie Interstellar.
The organ is also the product of grueling effort—over a decade of planning and labor. “Who is behind all of this?” wrote the Accent in 1986. “One person, Judy Glass.”
Glass was hired in 1975 as a professor in Southern’s music department. Almost immediately, she began advocating for a new pipe organ on campus. When she approached Southern’s then-president Frank Knittel, Glass put her job on the line: “I told him that if he was short on dollars, buy an instrument first, then hire the teacher.”
Instead, Knittel gave Glass his full support. Along with her husband Dwain, Glass toured America considering potential organ builders. Following the advice of her former teacher Anton Heiller (for whom the organ was eventually named), Glass selected John Brombaugh.
Southern’s original contract with Brombaugh, signed in 1976, called for an organ in the music building. Soon thereafter, Southern hired Brombaugh to build an organ in the church as well, diverting considerable resources away from the music building instrument in the process.
The contract for the church organ was prepared in October 1977 and signed in February 1978; Southern is listed as the only purchaser, with Knittel signing on behalf of the school. The same is true of subsequent amendments to the contract. Similarly, Southern alone hired Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes (highly regarded organ builders in Summit, Tennessee) for tonal finishing in the late 1980s.
Such historical data are not meant to deny any role to the church or the wider community. The Collegedale Church contributed $50,000 toward the project, roughly 10% of the total cost. Additionally, church members rallied to raise funds for acoustical enhancements to the sanctuary.
Yet, there is no question that Southern took the lead in the organ project. In the end, Southern and its donors supplied at least $432,300, approximately 90% of the total cost. According to the contract, all parts for the organ were to be labelled “Property of Southern Missionary College.”
Southern is understandably protective of the instrument, which Glass estimates is now worth over $4 million. A draft of an agreement from 1990, prepared by Southern’s legal counsel, states that the church will “limit Church personnel access to the Organ to those individuals who have been approved in advance by the College or the College’s designee as being qualified to play the organ.” The question of access raises another question: Why did Southern buy the organ in the first place?
The historical record is clear: Southern purchased the organ for educational purposes. Board of Trustees minutes of February 1978 state that Southern students would practice “on this specific organ.” In 1980, Dwain Glass (who spearheaded fundraising for the project) wrote to a prominent local donor, “The students who become skilled organists as a result of being able to practice on this magnificent instrument will go forth throughout the world to touch the hearts of men and women through music.” The fundraising campaign also assured donors that Southern students would perform on the instrument for church services.
But the organ is not intended exclusively for student performance; its use properly comes at the discretion of the university’s organ professor. Indeed, Judy Glass has long held the title of Church Organist at the Collegedale Church (an unpaid position) and has spent much of her 50-year career in Collegedale performing regularly in Sabbath services. Since the death of her husband in 2021, Glass has preferred to give the spotlight to her students.
Despite Glass’s outsized legacy, her role at the church is hardly unprecedented. It is a longstanding tradition (hailing back to figures like Mabel Wood and Stanley Walker) that Southern’s organ professor doubles as the Collegedale Church organist. It is essential that Glass’s eventual successor at Southern continue to serve in this capacity and remain—as specified in church committee minutes from 1986—“responsible for all Worship Services.”
The organ’s place in Southern’s history is clear enough. But a deeper question is at stake: Why does the organ matter? In the dedication service, Gordon Bietz posed a similar question.
“There are those who might say of a work of art, music, or an organ: ‘It has no use. It isn’t practical. What do you do with it?’”
One could give many utilitarian answers. We could mention the academic merits of the organ program. We could mention the instrument’s fame beyond the Adventist system, which confers prestige on our university. We could mention the organ’s role in training musicians.
Most important of all, however, is the organ’s status as art—art executed to the highest standards of human achievement. Bietz’s question in 1986 was, of course, rhetorical. His homily at the dedication service answers his own question, and in so doing captures the loftiest ideals of our university, our church and our community:
“It is this very aspect of art—its uselessness from a utilitarian viewpoint—that makes it so useful. For it calls us from utilitarianism where everything must be used for something. It calls us from materialism where the focus is on getting a return on every investment. It calls us in symbols to reach beyond the visible to the invisible God.”
