As I sit here on a Sunday afternoon at the beginning of the new
year, I muse over the fact that every issue now of the mechanical
music publications I subscribe to carries "In Memoriams" for people
and friends I have known for decades.  And I realize that my sun
too must be close to setting.

I have received word that my old band organ and carousel friend,
Mark Chester, whom I had lost contact with now for several years,
is in a Pennsylvania rehab facility, diagnosed with a potentially
life-threatening illness.  Mark was trained to be a lawyer as a
youth, but finding that he didn't like lawyering, he switched to
education and pursued his amusement park interests.

As a teenager Mark worked at the Whalom Park 1909 Looff Carousel
in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.  When that park closed in 2000 and its
carousel horses were auctioned off, Mark bought the remaining platform
and frame while he was an active member of a preservation group that
unsuccessfully tried to rescue the carousel; see that story here:
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20000612/news/306129957 
Mark now lives in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, but he still has that
platform and frame in storage.

Decades ago Mark assisted me in putting my Wurlitzer 165 roll catalog
https://wurlitzer-rolls.com/  online, although he never received credit
for all that work, I am ashamed to say, the only mention of him on my
website being a tiny credit on the homepage for the picture of the
Glen Echo Wurlitzer band organ gracing that page.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York