Hope-Jones, Robert

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Hope-Jones, Robert

Hope-Jones, Robert, English organ manufacturer; b. Hooton Grange, Cheshire, Feb. 9, 1859; d. (suicide) Rochester, N.Y., Sept. 13, 1914. As a boy, he entered the employ of Laird Bros., engineers at Birkenhead, then became chief electrician of the National Telephone Co. At the same time, was engaged as a church organist. In 1889 he set up his own business as an organ builder. In 1903 he settled in America, where he was connected with the E.M. Skinner Co. of Boston. In 1907 he founded the Hope-Jones Organ Co. at Tonawanda, N.Y., but sold the plant and his patents in 1910 to the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. of N.Y. He introduced many innovations into the building of electrical organs, and the development of the modern organ in the U.S. owes much to his inventive genius. One of the finest of his organs is in the Auditorium at Ocean Grove, N.J.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire