John Frykman wouldn't suffer an off-key note

John Frykman, a pipe organ tuner, designer and installer, was persistent, and he had perfect pitch.

Those abilities served him well when he kept the massive instruments humming all around the Upper Midwest.

Frykman, of Bloomington, who didn't play the organ, died Dec. 28 in Minneapolis. He was 83.

His daughter, Susan of Waterville, Minn., helped her father on his organ-tuning rounds in the 1970s.

"He'd occasionally use a tuning fork and then tune the other pipes to each other by ear," she said.

When he attended classical-music concerts with his daughter, he'd be quick to criticize anything out of tune.

"His ear was very attuned," she said. "He would sit there and wince."

In the early 1940s, Frykman decided he'd had enough of school and left Minneapolis South High School a few months shy of graduation. Around 1945, he began an organ-tuning apprenticeship.

And that's what he did for 40 years, making sure hundreds of individual pipes sang true -- 2,000 pipes would be a typical number. Large jobs would take a day's work.

Frykman, who was self-employed, helped design organs, and he made sure they fit well in a sanctuary.

Steve Barnhart of St. Louis Park took over as a sales representative of the Reuter Organ Co., of Lawrence, Kan., when Frykman retired in 1984.

"He loved what the organ would do in a church," Barnhart said. "He knew how much it meant to the congregation."

"He always remembered individual people that he met along the way, and always became friends," Barnhart said.

Robert Vaughan of Reuter's Lawrence office said he was "laid back" and a "darn good salesman."

In the 1960s, he began woodcarving, serving as president of the Minnesota Woodcarvers Association from 1975 to 1977.

His wife of more than 50 years, Bernice, died in 2000.

In addition to his daughter, Susan, he is survived by his son, Steven of Grand Marais, and four grandchildren.