I received a message from Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, California.
El Segundo is nearby Los Angelus and LAX.  Mr. Bill Coffman, a life
long professional musician, passed away in his sleep Dec. 7, 2001.
Bill Field, also a fine musician and his longtime partner, will do his
best to keep everyone informed and things running.  Many of the folks
in the Southern California area should be familiar with Bill Coffman
and Bill Field and the Old Town Music Hall.  There were several AMICA
Chapter meetings there over the years.

For those unfamiliar with The Old Town Music Hall, it has been housed
in a little neighborhood movie theater for at least 30 years that I
know of.  They have a 4-manual Wurlitzer pipe organ (don't know how
many ranks) that they use to put on concerts in conjunction with showing
vintage movies of the 1920's and '30's and beyond.  The Wurlitzer is
used for its originally intended purpose when they show silent movies.
Over the years, they've had some grand pianos on hand, and an Ampico or
two along the way.

Currently, there's a 92-key concert grand Boesendorfer, and a large
Steinway concert grand on the stage.  A number of presentations,
including ragtime festivals, have been presented on their stage using
their pianos.

The last time I saw Bill Coffman was in February of this year when my
wife and I stayed overnight in Los Angeles on our way to the AMICA
convention in Australia.  We had a very enjoyable evening at the Old
Town Music Hall before flying out late that night.  At the time, Bill
was under treatment for congestive heart failure and he had had other
health problems.  I am sorry for only having approximate information
on all of this, but it's entirely from memory; I think Bill was in his
mid-seventies.  I knew Bill since the 1950's, maybe the late 1940's,
when he played at a local dinning and dancing place here in Carlsbad,
New Mexico.  He'd gone through high school here.

Bill Coffman will be sorely missed.  Certainly, those associated with
ATOS will be much saddened.

Dick Merchant
Carlsbad, NM

 [ Editor's musings:
 [
 [ The Wurlitzer organ was fitted in the mid-1980s with the prototype
 [ of the Wilcox pipe organ computer system made by Alpha Micro Systems
 [ (support was later by Devtronix.)  Wilcox told Coffman to nail a
 [ circuit card near a pipe chest and connect the chest magnets in any
 [ order.  Then came the fun!
 [
 [ Wilcox, at the computer, would command a pipe to play and he'd ask
 [ Coffman what rank and what note was playing.  Thus Wilcox created a
 [ look-up table in the computer to match up all the pipes with the
 [ console and emulated relay.
 [
 [ I performed in ragtime concerts at Old Town Music Hall every year
 [ since 1976.  The format never varied: Coffman would greet the
 [ audience in his red "ice cream vendor's" jacket and tell well-worn
 [ jokes.  The audience laughed with delight every time, for he was
 [ as predictable as the gags in the Laurel & Hardy movies!
 [
 [ -- Robbie