Harold Gilchrest Andrews Jr.

Harold Gilchrest Andrews, Jr., of High Point, died on December 3, 2023. He was born on March 31, 1932 to Harold Gilchrest Andrews and Frances Elizabeth Higgins Andrews in Framingham, MA. He had one brother, Robert Francis Andrews.

Dr. Andrews grew up on in Centerville on Cape Cod. An avid sailor as a young person, he often took the helm of the family’s sloop, thus earning him the lifelong nickname of Skipper. At the age of eight, under the tutelage of Virginia Fuller, his first piano teacher, Harold played services at the local Unitarian Church. After his 1949 high school graduation, he attended Oberlin College where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance. After college, he served in the U.S. Army for two years as organist at West Point. He then moved to Greensboro, playing first at First Friends Meeting and then at Guilford Park Presbyterian Church. During this same period he began his long tenure as a professor of organ at Greensboro College, where he remained until 1988. The C.B. Fisk organ at the Finch Memorial Chapel of Greensboro College was donated and installed through his efforts. He also co-founded the Greensboro Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

After Guilford Park Presbyterian, Dr. Andrews took the position as organist and master of choristers at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in High Point where he would spend the next 55 years, nurturing and growing a program to offer the highest quality of music. The choir regularly offered major anthems, mass settings, requiems, and cantatas, ensuring that the great music of history was not relegated solely to the concert hall, but used in its intended setting for its intended purpose of God’s praise. While working at St. Mary’s, Dr. Andrews completed a Master of Music degree in Organ and Church Music at Oberlin College and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University.

Dr. Andrews founded and owned Organ Craft, a local organ building company. He built and installed pipe organs all over the east coast, including part of the organ at Christ United Methodist Church in Charlotte and the organ at Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro. The organ at St. Mary’s in High Point was also significantly altered over the years by Dr. Andrews. He moved in illustrious organ building circles, having been the long-time friend of C.B. Fisk and Walter Holtkamp.

As an organist, he offered recitals extensively in Europe, including at Canterbury Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and Chartres Cathedral. In his retirement, he finished his manuscript for a major study of music in the works of William Shakespeare.

The Burial of the Dead, featuring Faure’s Requiem, will be at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in High Point, NC on January 27 at 11:00 a.m. Interment in the Columbarium at St. Mary’s will follow. Memorials may be directed to the Music Endowment at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 108 W. Farriss Ave., High Point, NC, 27262. Online condolences may be offered at www.haneslineberryfhnorthelm.com.