Ruth Hazel McCall (1927-2005)

Ruth McCall passed away February 3, 2005 after an 11 year battle with breast cancer. She was preceded in death by her husband, Raye McCall, RPT in 1989. Ruth was an active member of the Columbus Chapter after moving here to be near her daughter after Raye's death. She served at various times as secretary and treasurer of the chapter, was a regular presence at meetings where her contributions to the chapter were many. Ruth retired a few years ago from McCall Enterprises, the business that Raye and she had started, when her health began to make it prohibitive for her to travel to conventions and although she also dropped her PTG membership at that time, she still came to social functions from time to time. Ruth and Raye were active in the Pomona Valley Chapter when they lived in California.

Ruth grew up in the Los Angeles area as the third of four children. She wanted to be a teacher, but instead went to nursing school because there was a great need for nurses at the time and scholarships were readily available. She met Raye at a church social and they were married soon after . In addition to her nursing, Ruth helped Raye with his piano business. McCall Enterprises was a regular stop in the Exhibit Hall for many years of PTG Conventions. Ruth also loved sewing and it was a well known fact amongst family members that her cookie jar was always full with homemade cookies; a job she was given at the age of 8 and which she continued all her life. The McCalls had two children, Ronald and Arlene, six grandchildren and one great granddaughter as well as two step great grandchildren. Ruth was very active at Sharon Woods Baptist church in Columbus where she taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, lead Bible studies, served as a Church Clerk and worked on the kitchen committee. Her family fondly remembers her by the phrase “Busy Hands”, which comes as no surprise to those who knew her.  
 

Chapter News & Notes

Meeting Minutes (excerpts)

 Mark announced that Ruth McCall passed away on February 3rd. Ruth had been a member of the Columbus Chapter for a number of years. She continued to attend Chapter meetings and events until her failing health would no longer permit her to do so. Mark indicated that the Chapter made a donation in her name to Hospice. She will be missed. 

The PTG Associate Seminar is scheduled to take place soon at the Home Office. Its cost is $129.00. 

A delegate to represent our chapter at this year's Piano Technicians Guild National Convention in June (June 16 - 19) was sought. Chris Altenburg volunteered to accept this responsibility. The convention this year will be held in Kansas City, KS at the PTG's Home Office. 

There will be no Chapter meeting in June because of the national convention taking place the prior week. Chapter officer elections will be scheduled to take place in April or May. 

Thanks to Bryan Hartzler for his technical presentation at the February meeting. He covered a full range of ideas to make the interaction between pianist and instrument as “smooth” as possible. He addressed the items that could be performed in a days work to enhance the piano and get the most “bang for the buck”.  
 
 

Bryan Hartzler shows his method for lubricating the key bushings and key pins.

Next Meeting - March 15 2005    

The March meeting will be held at Wesley Chapel 3299 Dublin Rd  at 7:30 PM   Ben Wiant will present the technical topic on: “Bearing, Boards and Bridges”.  Ben’s topic will cover setting bearing on original soundboards when restringing. What to listen for before tear down.  Relationships between bridges, ribs,  and the soundboard.  Dealing with older soundboards exhibiting minimal crown.  

Tech Tips 

from Kim  Hoessly

Last summer at the National convention in Nashville, I picked up a nice tip for protecting voicing needles when they are in the handle. I’ve tried using scraps of hammer felt and thick wool front punchings. Not even the “caps” that come with the voicing tools seem to stay on. Dave Barr had a scrap piece of automotive hose slipped over the needle end and it worked great. I went to Roush Hardware and found some 1/2" clear vinyl tubing which was just as nice, plus was see through.  
 
 

 It fit snuggly over all my voicing tools. I even found a piece of thinner tubing to stick on my chopstick voicing tool. Easy on and off, and only when I want it that way. I adopted this idea for my applicator bottle that I keep center pin lubricant in. I bought that in Nashville, also, from Mother Goose. Finally, a bottle with a nice long nozzle to reach into consoles and spinets! However, the metal portion of the applicator is rather delicate and I bent it when carrying it in my pocket and of course when I tried to bend it back it broke. I had a couple of small bottles for hammer juice the same size so I was able to replace the broken cap. To prevent this from happening again, I bought some more vinyl tubing, I think 5/8", and put a 3-4" piece over the fragile part of the applicator. Much better now.   
 

From Thomas Harr

PIANO TUNER OR KGB SPY?  

While reading, for another purpose, the book The Sword and Shield [of the Revolution] by C. Andrew and V. Mitrokhin, taken from notes made clandestinely and smuggled out of Russia by the long-time archivist of the KGB, I came across a page that certainly caught my attention.

 Purportedly an “illegal”, i.e. undercover agent, Anatoli Rudenko took the name and identity of an East German, Heinz August Feder, and as part of his “legend” trained in piano tuning. He then “escaped” to West Germany in 1961 and found employment with the Hamburg Steinway works for several years. Subsequently he worked in London for a time before emigrating to NY and hiring on at the Astoria, Queens Steinway factory where he became tuner to such luminaries as Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and, yes!, Vladimir Horowitz. 

 A pretty tale; remarkable if true.  Frankly,  it sounded a little fishy to me given Horowitz's well-known peculiarities for one thing. A bit of checking shows it to be unlikely. The few other references clearly stem from a single source, viz. Sword & Shield. Only a single biography has come to my view, Glenn Plaskins' 1983 Horowitz. It barely mentions H.'s connection to Steinway & Sons and says remarkably little about his relationships with his technicians given his reputation in such matters. But, in brief from what there is it appears that the dates of H.'s career pretty much rule out Rudenko having had any significant, if any link to him. From at least 1941 until H.'s third “retirement” in 1968 Bill Hupfer, otherwise unknown to me but referred to as “chief Steinway tuner”, prepared H.'s piano in NY and for concerts elsewhere. Upon H.'s return to concert performances in 1974 Franz Mohr stepped in and stayed there as far as I know. Rudenko's NY sojourn spanned 1966 to 1970, during most of which time H. wasn't doing much of anything including playing any pianos at all (apart from cutting a few disks which were largely made from tapes of earlier performances). Andrew strongly implies that Rudenko had some hand in preparing Steinway CD 186 for H.'s return to Carnegie Hall concert in 1965, but by his own account Rudenko did not even visit  NY until 1966,  nor begin to work for Steinway & Sons before July 1967. Plaskin definitely places Hupfer on the spot in 1965. 

 So there you have it based on a cursory glance at the evidence. No doubt someone acquainted with the situation at Steinway & Son or with personal experience of the time could shed some light. You have to remember that the original KGB files were based on what Rudenko said he was doing, and I doubt that anyone went around to see who was really tuning Horowitz's piano. 

 The denouement of the tale: Rudenko's chiefs back on Dzerzhinski in Moscow were evidently mightily impressed by his connections to the high and mighty, to the extent of intending to make him the Resident for NYC in spite of the fact that his activities had generated zero intelligence derived from his customers. Unfortunately for Anatoli they found out that he had been diddling them about his relationship with a low-ranking agent (he'd married her against orders) whose parents were aware of his clandestine side but thought he was working for the East German regime. And about his mistress as well. They abruptly yanked him back home. 
-- Tom Harr 

(after some further research Tom and I agree that this is a most unlikely story as far as the tuner goes)  Ed. 

 In Franz Mohr's book  My Life with the Great Pianists he states in the opening chapter that he inherited his position from William Hupfer, who  had been the “Master Technician” at Steinway for fifty years. That Hupfer had tuned and traveled with Horowitz, Paderwski and Rachmaninoff. Mohr started as his assistant after coming to America in 1962. Horowitz did not play on the concert stage for 12 years from 1953 to 1965. Rudenko / Feder, would truly be an unlikely candidate for having touched Horowitz’s pianos, from Franz's description, or would anyone else. I'm not sure who would have wanted to... given Horowitz’s temperament! -- Mark Ritchie