Pipe Organ Database

Note from Organ Database Builders editor Stephen Hall, December 16, 2017. -

David Junchen was born in 1946. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1968. Junchen had worked part time as an organ technician, after college, he entered the organ business full-time. Junchen installed many organs at both residences and institutions. While he worked in the design, consultation, voicing, and tonal finishing of both theatre and classical pipe organs, he was particularly known for his work with theatre organs. He came to be recognized as the authority on theatre organ design, construction, voicing, and history. With his technical knowledge of electronics, Junchen pioneered the use of solid state relays for pipe organs.

Junchen wrote the instruction manual for the first commercially available system of solid state relays for pipe organs. Junchen also wrote extensively on the American theatre organ in two volumes of the Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ: An Illustrated History, and the posthumous, third volume of the Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ. Junchen also contributed to the Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments and authored numerous publications for magazines such as The Console and Theatre Organ. He was a member of the American Institute of Organ Builders and was listed in several editions of Who's Who. David Junchen passed away in 1992 in Barrington, Illinois.

Sources:

• Summary, David Junchen Papers. American Theatre Organ Collection at the American Organ Institute Archives and Library, University of Oklahoma.
• David H. Fox, A Guide to North American Organbuilders (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991; rev. ed., 1997), 172.

Note from the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991; rev. ed., 1997, with updated information). -

Born February 23, 1946 in Sherrard, Illinois; graduate of University of Illinois in electrical engineering, 1968; partner with Kirk Collins in Junchen-Collins Organ Corp. of Woodstock, Illinois, 1975-1980; in Pasadena, California, 1980-1991; in Barrington, Illinois, 1991; died January 30, 1992 in Barrington, Illinois.

Sources:

• David Junchen, Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, vol. 1 (Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1985), 10.
• Music, October 1972 (American Guild of Organists), 69. [name changed to The American Organist starting with January 1979 issue.]
• Elizabeth Towne Schmitt.
• Obituary "David L. Junchen", The Tracker 36:1 (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1992), 5.
• The American Organist, May 1992, 55.