Growing Up with a Preacher Man
Rev. William "Lester" Howard (1929-2021)
Mary Eulalie McLean Howard (1933-2021)
Chapel of the Resurrection, Valparaiso, Indiana
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by Carolyn Ann Howard
I've had some pretty big life changes in the last month, and so I have been seeking comfort through Lutheran hymns. Looking through You Tube, I stumbled onto a channel called "Lutheran Summer Music" and a beautiful video entitled "LSM 2019 Hymn Festival with the National Lutheran Choir." If you love choral music and the organ, I invite you to check out this 90-minute spectacular. It is quite the experience.
So, I'm watching and then suddenly wondering... where is this gorgeous building located? I was both devastated and jubilated all at the same time. The building, it turned out, was The Chapel of the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Valparaiso, Indiana. I have been in this building several times in my young life, accompanying my piano teacher to her organ lessons at the university, where this church is located.
I didn't find Lutheranism; it found me. In 2011, I began working as choir director and organist of an Evangelical Lutheran Church here in Evansville. After I left that church, I decided to become a member of a Missouri Synod Lutheran church, because that is where my husband went. I love being Lutheran. It is perfect for me. I've been so close to Lutheran things my whole life, but it never occurred to me until that job fell into my lap that I should become Lutheran.
I was reared with so many inconsistencies and struggles. My father always thought that a church building should be beautiful, and they certainly built a nice Baptist one there in Monticello. However, the Chapel of the Resurrection is not just a building, it's a work of art, and I'm not sure my legalistic father would have approved. I don't remember how I felt being there but probably quite out of my comfort zone. I wasn't even twelve years old and had experienced so little, pretty sheltered there in my little childhood town. I'm quite sure I would've been intimidated by the elevated pulpit, not realizing it wasn't for pastors to lord over us but that so we can see them when they preach.
The chapel was dedicated in 1959, so as a visitor in the 1960s and 70s, the church would have been incredibly new. I'm sure Mrs. Kovatch fawned all over it, and boy, do I get it now! The Munderloh windows and the crucifix itself would be enough, but oh that organ and breathtaking loft. Click on photos to enlarge
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| Munderloh Windows and Crucifix Photo credit given below |
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| The choir loft and Redell organ Photo credit given below |
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| The Munderloh Windows from the outside Photo credit given below |
I don't know how many times I went to Valparaiso with my piano teacher with mom in tow, but it feels like it was only when I was very young. How I wish I could remember more!
When I got to high school, my mom decided I needed to take piano lessons at Valparaiso. She was wrong. What I needed was someone to prepare me for college, not this man. He was rude and crude and crass, and I was a 15-year-old teen with absolutely no sense of self-worth. Taking lessons from him didn't last very long.
Later, after I had gone back to taking lessons from Mrs. Kovatch in Monticello, I had learned Cornish Rhapsody by Hubert Bath and insisted on playing it for contest that year. She refused at first, stating the piece wasn't a classic and was beneath me somehow. But finally, she consented. The contest was at Valparaiso University, and the man judging me? You guessed it. Small world. He wrote all over my score using a RED PEN. Maybe it was fun for him, tormenting this teenage girl who couldn't cut it with him as a teacher. Maybe he thought he was "helping." I took that score home, sat down with a bottle of white-out, and carefully whited out all his red marks, which were many. I still have the score to this day. And in case you're wondering, judges were supposed to use a certain form they had been given and were not supposed to write on the contestant's score. And that might be why I washed my hands of that college. I never even considered it when it was time to chose, unfortunately.
And now, at the age of 61, I kind of wish I would have. Although the Lutheran Summer Music program didn't kick off until 1981 - that would have been my junior year of college - it looks like this school has a lot to offer a musician, such as myself, who has loved Lutheran hymns from girlhood and just didn't know that's what they were. They were, after all, in our hymnal there at the Baptist church.
In her dementia, my mother loved recounting the story of how she took me to Valparaiso for piano lessons every week. She remembered the drive fondly. The drive, yes, but she was excluded from being present during my lessons. However, now in even more hindsight, maybe I should've taken organ lessons like Mrs. Kovatch did instead of piano. For one thing, I could've played Bach to my heart's content, and maybe the two of us could have learned a duet, which would have been nice.
