It's the Music:

Unlike America's metropolises where the excellent bathe in the warm fountains of promotion, the North Country is full of half-hidden excellence. One of our secret treasures is the mild-mannered Potsdam composer Art Frackenpohl. While his many compositions and arrangements are treasured by prominent and discerning performers, and thousands of students have treasured the benefit of his teaching and counsel over the years, I have known Art since my childhood, and treasure him for a humbler role, church organist and music maven emeritus of Potsdam First Presbyterian Church. His music has graced the baptisms of a small village worth of infants and celebrated a regiment of newlyweds. And so many funerals--Art's infectious and upbeat piano arrangement of What a Friend We Have in Jesus sent me home from my father's funeral smiling and fifty pounds lighter. The church's Westminster Choir gets to crash-test Art's vocal arrangements, the instruments of the handbell choir are a gift of Art and his wife Mary Ellen, and Art conducts from the piano when the ad hoc congregational "Philhymnonic Orchestra" kicks out the jams a couple Sundays a year. Thanks, Art, for the many unintended lessons.