Organist Andy Crow remembered for his music, kindness

Organist Andy Crow, who gave The Washington Center for the Performing Arts its Wurlitzer, died Tuesday. He was 83.

Crow, who had long been living with Parkinson’s disease, was a major figure on the Olympia arts scene, along with the organs he loved.

He was known and beloved for his talent at playing and building organs — and for his kindness and sense of humor.

“Everybody liked Andrew,” said Crow’s younger brother, Todd Crow, of Poughkeepsie, New York. “He had no enemies. He was the type who tried to please everybody.”

“We just love him,” said Jill Barnes, executive director of The Washington Center. In the spring, the center’s board chose Andy Crow to receive its inaugural Excellence in the Arts Award, to be presented this month.

Crow was a natural choice for the award, which honors commitment to the arts, Barnes said. “Through Rotary, through the First United Methodist Church, and through The Washington Center, he’s reached a lot of people personally, and then there are the thousands and thousands and thousands of people who’ve enjoyed the organ that he restored. It’s quite a feat.”

He saved the Wurlitzer from the Olympic Theatre (formerly the Liberty Theatre), which stood where the center is now, and installed it in the center in 1995. But he didn’t just save the organ: He and Les Lehne rebuilt it.

“We added things to it,” Crow told the Olympian in January. “We made a totally new instrument out of it.”

The Andy Crow Wurlitzer, as the organ is known, is a huge legacy, with three keyboards and 1,600 pipes. Barnes has been told it’s one of the 10 best theatrical organs in the world.

“Theatrical organs sound a lot different than the electronic organs today,” Crow said in January. “They sound lovely. You don’t hear them that often.

“When you hear the organ in The Washington Center, you really know you’re hearing something.”

Barnes said, “Andy will be honored and remembered every time we play the organ.”

But the organ is just one part of his legacy.

Crow, who was born in Santa Barbara, California, began studying piano at 8 and organ at 12. But he played even before that, Todd Crow said.

“He could play most anything,” said Todd Crow, himself an internationally acclaimed pianist and a professor of music at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie. “He was able to improvise, and he played by ear. There’s no doubt he was a big talent, and it carried on throughout his life.

“He was very much a natural.”

Andy encouraged Todd and wrote down his youngest brother’s earliest musical compositions.

“He was a great brother,” Todd said.

Andy Crow earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California, and did graduate work at the University of Southern California.

He moved to the Northwest when he was drafted. He spent two years in the Army Medical Corps at Fort Lewis. He stayed in the area, initially teaching in Tacoma before becoming a full-time musician.

As a pianist and organist, he performed for more than 60 years. In the 1960s and ’70s, he toured the country promoting the Rodgers Theatre Organ, playing more than 300 concerts.

He played for more than 20 years at the Pizza & Pipes restaurants in Tacoma and Bellevue, and spent 33 years as organist at Olympia’s First United Methodist Church, retiring in 2012 when his health no longer allowed him to play.

“He was a delightful individual,” said church administrator Davis Hylkema. “He would come into the office almost on a daily basis to check in with the staff, have a cup of coffee and play the organ.”

Crow’s involvement in the arts wasn’t limited to performing. He owned the Olympic Theatre before selling it to the city so it could be torn down to make way for the center, which opened in 1985. He owned the Capitol Theater from 1991 to 2008, living in an apartment in the building for much of that time.

He also loved classic cars and owned a 1937 LaSalle. At one time, he also owned a private rail car that people could rent for events.

And, of course, he loved to build and rebuild organs.

“He was always creative,” Todd Crow said. “I remember even when I was young him having organ pipes and storing them in various places. He was always into this.”

Andy Crow died at the Panorama Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center in Lacey. He is survived by his brother; a niece, Evelyn Crow Abrams of Larchmont, N.Y.; and a nephew, Daniel Crow of New York City.

Plans are in the works for memorial events at the church and The Washington Center. Dates are not yet set, and the center’s event likely won’t take place until 2017, Todd Crow said.

Memories and condolences can be sent to info@funeralalternatives.org.

“I’ve been amazed at some of the comments that people have written to me in the last few days,” Todd said. “They’ve called him a very gentle man, and it’s true.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Organist Andy Crow remembered for his music, kindness."