GREENFIELD — The bounce and skip of the notes are part precision, part joy.
That lilt swells. It fills the space from the seat of the organ, passing wooden pews and reaching up to the wide stained-glass window with its crown-wearing Jesus and symbols of communion and baptism.
Richard Thompson is on the organ bench, minding the keys, the stops and the pedals he pushes with his black organ shoes.
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The former Pendleton Heights teacher has been generating sacred sound for 27 years at Faith Lutheran Church, but he’s been a church organist for much longer. On Sept. 15, the Greenfield church will celebrate Thompson’s 50th anniversary as a church organist.
“Richard is careful to have everything planned well in advance, and he spends an abundance of time preparing for each time he plays the organ,” the Rev. Dan O’Connor, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, wrote in an email. “John Wooden once said that ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail,’ and that is why Richard is so ‘successful’ as a church organist — I’ve never seen anyone more prepared than him.
“Richard is careful to prepare because he’s faithful to his Lord, and that‘s why I feel honored to serve our congregation with him.”
Thompson was in junior high band in Alexandriawhen he first had the urge to take organ lessons, but family members point further back for the origins of his musical journey. His grandfather was a skilled organist who played at a church in Germany.
“They all seemed to think Grandpa’s talent all flowed down to me,” he said.
Thompson’s maternal grandfather left Germany in the early 1920s for the United States. He’s heard stories about how men were not supposed to leave the country, which was attempting to rebuild after World War I, and that as a result his grandfather had to swim a canal with a reed in his mouth to avoid notice.
Thompson’s grandmother and the couple’s infant daughter followed later. There was not the same prohibition on women leaving, although one had to do so quickly after receiving approval. Thompson has heard another family story about his grandmother receiving word from a knock at the door while cooking dinner; she turned off the stove to grab her packed bag and leave.
She had an uncle in the Muncie area who served as a sponsor for the family’s arrival. Thompson would later grow up in the Alexandria area.
Thompson was a teenager when he first slid onto an organ seat to play during a service.
“It did not go well,” he said. “I was so nervous.”
He pushed forward with his organ lessons, though. When Thompson began his studies at what is now Anderson University, Christ Lutheran Church in Anderson needed an organist and approached him; it was the start of more than 20 years playing at the church. At first he played there while studying organ at the college, playing during some chapel services his senior year and performing a senior recital — even though he wasn’t a music major.
Thompson was studying German, mathematics and education on his way to becoming a teacher. His career as a teacher and coach has included stops at Eastern Hancock, Pendleton Heights, and the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home. Today he works in the counseling department at Warren Central High School. Like his grandfather, a coal miner, he did not pursue a career in organ music.
“I wanted to be able to come home to something and enjoy it,” he said.
Thompson was about 5 or 6 when his grandfather died, so Thompson never played the organ for him, but he has the pump organ his grandfather once owned and two pipes from an organ in Germany his grandfather once played.
During a 1976 trip to Germany, Thompson connected with other family members and has stayed in touch with them through the years. That summer, he played in the church where his grandfather once played.
As he did, “I just was thinking how nice it would have been for him to have been there … to know I kept the tradition alive.”
