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Chances are if you have heard a concert featuring a pipe organ in the Miami Valley over the past several decades, then you have Pat and Aileen McClelland to thank for the fine-sounding notes. When the Kettering couple married in 1973, Pat was working for Julian Bulley’s Toledo Pipe Organ Company.
He was involved in the construction, designing and maintenance of pipe organs as an apprentice. Aileen would travel with Pat to the various churches in the state and surrounding areas, and eventually got involved in the maintenance and tuning aspect of the job.
“The work was interesting; it provided me the opportunity to travel,” said Aileen. “We would meet fascinating people, and it gave us time together when we would have otherwise been apart.”
When Bulley’s failing health caused him to dissolve the company about 30 years later, the McClellands decided to contact churches where they had been working to start their own pipe organ maintenance and tuning business.
“We don’t do new installations, and we can’t take on major projects, but we make small repairs,” said Aileen, who has worked in the healthcare field for the past 40 years. “We tune at most of our churches two or three times a year, and work at approximately 35 churches throughout the region.”
Some of the prestigious venues where the McClellands have worked include the Dayton Art Institute and Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Dayton. The past site of a major music college, the impressive church has the largest pipe organ in southwestern Ohio. It boasts 122 ranks, with each containing a set of 61 pipes.
Some people may wonder why organ pipes get out of tune. One of the major reasons is changes in the weather. The couple has been called for last-minute fine-tunings for weddings or Sunday services. The pipes are so sensitive to temperature changes that fine tuning must be done with an aluminum rod instead of one’s hands.
The couple has also raised two sons, who would occasionally get involved in some of the pipe organ projects. Pat’s educational background fits in perfectly with this vocation. He graduated from Patterson Co-op with a degree in mechanical drawing. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art from Wright State University and a master’s of fine art from University of Cincinnati.
Most people know Pat as the gallery coordinator at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. He is also a visual artist and teaches art appreciation, drawing and printmaking at Sinclair and other college campuses. When not out tuning organs, he is busy creating fine-art furniture or abstract artworks in his studio.
“They tune, not just in Ohio, but other states. I am amazed at how [they] do this,” said Debbie Tompkins, a friend. “Those concerts you hear at Easter and Christmas are so beautiful because [they] make sure the organs are tuned and ready to go.”
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