[Magdalen] church organs.... and a famous benefactor

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Dumferline is a very nice town, with some very interesting ruins and older
church buildings. Dumferline Abbey is the burial place of Robert the Bruce,
and there is no doubt about this, as the name is in the stonework at the
top of the main tower.  A short distance from the Abbey is a very nice
park. It was off limits to Andrew Carnegie when he was growing up, so later
on in life, he bought the place, and made it open to the public. Our group
had lunch on the grounds in this minor historical park.  The city is
definitely worth a visit.  When I was a kid, we were still using the organ
that Andrew Carnegie had donated to my church.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 8:21 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> (from today's "Writer's Almanac" by Garrison Keillor:
>
> It's the birthday of American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew
> Carnegie, born in Dunfermline, Scotland (1835), the son of a weaver and
> political radical. His father instilled in young Andrew the values of
> political and economic equality, but his family's poverty taught Carnegie a
> different lesson. At the age of 12, the boy worked as a milkhand for $1.20
> per week. When the Carnegies immigrated to America in 1848, Carnegie was
> determined to find prosperity. One of the pioneers of industry of
> 19th-century America, Andrew Carnegie helped build the American steel
> industry, which turned him into one of the richest entrepreneurs of his age.
>
> In 1868, at age 33, Carnegie wrote himself a memo in which he questioned
> his chosen career, a life of business. He kept the letter for his entire
> life, carefully preserving it in his files. In the memo, he vowed to retire
> from business within two years, believing that the further pursuit of
> wealth would degrade him. Carnegie eventually sold his steel business and
> gave his fortune away to cultural, educational, and scientific institutions
> for the improvement of mankind.
>
> Over the course of his life, Andrew Carnegie endowed 2,811 libraries and
> many charitable foundations as well as the internationally famous Carnegie
> Endowment for International Peace. He also bought 7,689 organs for
> churches. The purpose of the latter gift was, in Carnegie's words, "To
> lessen the pain of the sermons."
>
>
> website: www.ichthysdesigns.com
>
> When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not
> a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me."
> attributed to Erma Bombeck
> "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a talk
> by Richard Rohr
>