Margaret Alice Weber

Margaret Alice Weber was born February 17, 1917, on Giant Street in Toledo, Ohio, to Clyde Urban and Hazel Alpha (Harding) Weber. She had two brothers: Robert Clyde 1918-2005, and Wade Melvin, 1921-1993.

She first attended Auburndale School, then the Sylvania Schools, graduating from Burnham High School in 1934.  She has been honored by inclusion in Sylvania Schools Hall of Fame. Her piano teachers were Constance Gauthier and Elmer Gertz. Mary Willing was her instructor in organ, music theory, and composition.

There followed many summers of study: 1936, Washington University, St. Louis; 1948 with Marcel Dupre at the University of Chicago; and many summers at the Organ Institute, of Andover and Methuen, Massachusetts, where the faculty included renowned organists, among them E. Power Biggs, Arthur Poister, Ernest White, Carl Weinrich, and Fritz Heitmann. The Organ Institute’s summer session in Northern Europe to visit and study organs was awarded her as a winner of a test in musicianship. Margaret held Associateship in the American Guild of Organists, by examination. She earned two degrees at University of Michigan: Bachelor’s in Composition, 1962, and Master’s in Organ, 1964. Principal instructors there were Leslie Bassett and Marilyn Mason.  She was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda, music honors.

Margaret taught at Mary Manse College and the University of Toledo, both part time positions, as well as privately. She was an active member of several music organizations. In 1936 she began her lifelong association with the Toledo Choral Society as accompanist, first under director Mary Willing, then Samuel P. Szor. The Toledo Choral Society performed her Three Sonnets of John Donne in 1987. She was elected to membership in the National League of American Pen Women, the Northwest Ohio Chapter of which presented a concert of her compositions to honor her at age eighty. She was President of The Piano Teachers Association, 1954-1956, and was Dean of the Toledo Chapter, American Guild of Organists, 1957-1959. She was an active, performing member of Monday Musicals, of the European Club, and of the Toledo Alumni Chapter, Mu Phi Epsilon.

She has also been organist in Toledo places of worship: St. Paul’s Methodist, Ashland Avenue Baptist, Congregation Shomer Enumin and Epworth United Methodist Church. She continued to play in retirement years in several churches.

Margaret has written many compositions: for organ, piano, chorus, and solo voice. They, along with her original poems will be kept at the Main Branch of the Toledo Public Library.

Margaret is survived by her nephew, Richard Weber, nieces Alice Jessip and Pamela Luster, all of the Kansas City, Missouri area, and by niece Dawn Switzer, of San Pedro, California.

Margaret’s Life will be celebrated Thursday, July 26, 2018 at 10:00 A.M. at the St .Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Toledo.  Margaret was laid to rest with her family at Toledo Memorial Park.

Those wishing to offer memorials in Margaret’s memory are asked to consider the charity of their choice.

Professional services were provided by the Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania.

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