Apropos of nothing in particular, this is to announce that Gordon
P.  Tussing, son of the late Ralph Tussing, will celebrate his one
hundredth birthday on January 16, 2018.  This news comes from Douglas
Hershberger, of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North
Tonawanda, New York.

Gordon is still living with his wife Vivian in North Tonawanda,
where his father Ralph established the T.R.T. Manufacturing Company,
successor in 1946 to the Wurlitzer band organ department after
Wurlitzer moved on to electronics and, at the end, to furniture making.
Gordon worked occasionally for his father and knew how to operate the
original Wurlitzer roll-making equipment that his father acquired with
his acquisition of the Wurlitzer band organ department.

When the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum acquired Wurlitzer's
perforators #11 and #12 at the end of the last century, it was natural
that the museum involved Gordon in setting up perforator #11 and
learning to run it, which Douglas Hershberger does today.

This is perhaps the place to dispel two misconceptions.  The first
misconception is that T.R.T. was taken from Ralph Tussing's name.
But his name was not T. Ralph Tussing.  T.R.T. stood for the surnames
of Ralph and his co-investors in the firm: his son-in-law Lloyd Robins
and Ralph's son, Gordon.  The second misconception is that Ralph's
family name is pronounced "TUSS-ing" but it is actually pronounced
"TWO-sing."

So happy birthday, Gordon!

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York