Maidee H. and Jackson A. Seward Organ Fund
The Maidee H. and Jackson A. Seward Organ Fund is used to support and maintain the Maidee H. and Jackson A. Seward Organ located in Jacobs' Auer Hall. The organ was dedicated in April of 2010. It was built by C. B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and it consists of 57 voices, 70 stops, 68 ranks, and 3,945 pipes. In 2006, Fisk faced the task of transforming and completing an organ already begun by another builder, Manuel Rosales.
Having worked with Rosales a number of times before, Steven Dieck, president of C.B. Fisk, Inc., noted, "[We] feel satisfied that a transformation can take place to both preserve as much of the first instrument as possible, while at the same time completing an authentically new Fisk instrument. Nothing pleases us more than to build instruments in locations where they will be used extensively and have the opportunity to challenge and inspire organists now and well into the future."
Professor Chris Young in the organ department was central to the decisions made about the Maidee H. and Jackson A. Seward Organ, working together with the Fisk team of organ builders. When the organ was first completed, Young remarked, "Having a wonderful pipe organ is at the core of training students these days. There are so many nice instruments, and the school has had such a tradition of organ, but without a tradition of quality instruments. This is really our crowning achievement. Not the only organ, we hope."