2004-10-30/2019-02-11 - From Organ Database Builders editor Stephen Hall, April 28, 2018. - Paul Jernigan began his career in pipe organs with the Reuter Organ Co. of Lawrence, Kansas in 1966 where he worked in the flue pipe shop and began travelling with the service crew. In 1967, Jernigan entered the United States Navy, where he served aboard the USS Forrestal on three Atlantic voyages and worked on military aircraft guidance and radar systems. Upon completion of his military service in 1971, Jernigan entered the University of Houston, where he completed a Bachelor degree in Music. While at the university, he unknowingly began an organ service career when he was able to return the campus organs to good working order and students began using his services at their own churches. For a short time Jernigan worked with the local Wicks Organ Company representative, Jack Wyatt, who also became a partner in the Visser-Rowland Associates until his death. Upon the passing of Jack Wyatt, Jernigan joined the Visser-Rowland firm working in their shop, making service calls and installing new instruments for them. In 1978, Jernigan was contacted by David Marshall of Casavant Freres Inc., a Texas based service subsidiary of the Canadian builder Casavant Freres Limitee, to be the Houston area representative. Together they installed Casavant organs in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York and California. In 1990, Jernigan started Pipe Organ Technicians with Shawn Sanders as his assistant. Jernigan and Sanders were members of St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Houston, where Jernigan was organist from 1973-1993. Both were instrumental in the church acquiring a pipe organ, a 1952 Wicks organ formerly at First Community Church of Dallas, Texas. The two installed the organ at St. Matthew's in 1980. Together, they built the gallery organ at St. Matthew's in the summer of 1987. Mr. Jernigan was active in the business until his sudden death of apparent heart attack in March of 2015. Source: Pipe Organ Technicians website, accessed April 28, 2018, http://pipeorgantechnicians.com/index.html.
2018-05-07/2019-02-11 - From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991). - Representative of Casavant firm of St. Hyacinthe, PQ, Canada, in Houston, Texas, 1989; with Pipe Organ Technicians of Houston, Texas, by 1996. Sources: American Institute of Organbuilders: 1996 membership directory. Organ Handbook: 1989 (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1989), 13.
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