Gordon Ahlquist plans to sleep in Sunday morning and then eat breakfast with his wife at the Original Pancake House. It might not sound all that extraordinary, but he's been waiting 52 years to spend a Sunday morning like that.
Ahlquist, 87, retired last weekend as organist at First Covenant Church, the red brick building that sits across the street from the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The church wanted him to leave with a farewell organ concert, but he insisted on having a hymn-sing-along instead.
"That's my signature, to make the hymns special," he said.
Not to take anything away from the church choirs he has accompanied over five-plus decades, "but I think the singing of hymns is the most important part of church music," he said.
His tenure at the church actually goes back well beyond 52 years. He was 17 when he started taking organ lessons. He fell in love with the instrument, but had trouble finding a place to practice.
"You could rent practice time at McPhail for 35 cents an hour," he said. "That doesn't sound like much now, but it was a lot of money then. The church [where his family belonged] said I could practice for free if I agreed to play for the Sunday school. So I did."
After majoring in business at Augsburg College and serving as a cryptographer in World War II, he returned to the Twin Cities and worked as a financial analyst. He never gave up the organ, however, filling in at churches around town until he got the call from First Covenant.
He retired from his day job 25 years ago, but kept plenty busy. "We had midweek services on Thursday nights and choir practice on Wednesday nights and then I had to practice for Sundays."
