Sometime in the 1990s I went out to Robert Heilbuth's Richmond District
home with Ron Downer.  Heilbuth either liked you or hated you and had
no problem letting you know it.  Fortunately he liked me and allowed me
to videotape our visit.  I need to find it and get it converted to
digital format.  Everything in the obituary Dave Schutt supplied is
true [150831 MMDigest] -- Heilbuth could weave profanity like art.

I recall something Ron Downer told me of Heilbuth.  Robert went out to
tune a piano for some San Francisco socialite.  Arriving at the front
door, wearing open-toe sandals and smelling like he just came from the
hog farm, "Hey lady, I am here to tune your f-----g piano!"

I will take exception with Bob Kates' comment that the [big] organ was
a pile of junk.  Perhaps by his terms, but consider that the instrument
was built over a 40-year time span using junk pipework from Swain &
Kates and Schoenstein & Co.  Some of the pipework was from theatre
organs and he had no problem making them play on 75% less pressure than
designed for.

The organ was more amazing than a pile of junk.  The craftsmanship
was as atrocious as it was on the band organ.  The soldering on the
metal pipes was atrocious, but who cares -- it was the amazing sound
he got!  He accomplished more with junk than most professional organ
builders could ever dream of.  I would suspect he did not have even
$1000 invested in that organ.

His band organ rolls and arrangements were nothing short of
spectacular.  Given the entry we saw on MMD of 9/2/15, it is good to
hear that the amazing band organ is still intact and in-place.  How
would you ever take that thing apart and expect to be able to put it
together again?

Robert Heilbuth was often called a "mad genius."  Very fitting.

Tom DeLay
Salinas, California