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THE DESIGNER
Arthur Lynda Bigelow, bellmaster and member of the engineering faculty at Princeton University since 1941, is one of the world's best know bellmasters. His interest in bells goes back to his boyhood in Massachusetts, where he first played on the eight chimes of the Northfield Seminary. After completing his studies at the University of Pittsburgh, he went abroad for graduate work and remained eleven years. During this time he studied at the famed Carillon School at Mechlin and at the University of Louvain, both in Belgium. As carillonneur he made his debut in 1935 at Saint Pieter's Church in Louvain, was subsequently named bellmaster to the town - an appointment he still holds - and appeared as guest artist-carillonneur throughout Belgium. His departure from Europe and move to Princeton in 1941 was preceded by a 1,000-mile flight by bicycle from the Low Countries to the Pyrenees before the advancing World War II Wehrmacht.
Mr. Bigelow designed the first commercially produced electronic carillon, and has perfected equations and curves found successful in the hundreds of bells he has designed, molded, turned and tuned. He has supervised carillon installations at schools and churches in the Middle Atlantic, Southern and Far Western states, as well as ones at the Washington Memorial at Valley Forge and at the Taft Memorial in Washington D.C.
THE DONOR
William Dudley Gale, III, has given the Leonidas Polk Carillon in memory of his great-grandfather. He is descended from the bishop's daughter, Katherine, and her husband, William Dudley Gale, who served on Polk's staff in the Army of Tennessee. Their son, William Dudley Gale, Jr., was a student at Sewanee before he entered his father's insurance business in Nashville. He served the University for twenty years as trustee and for ten years as regent until his death in 1921.
William Dudley Gale, III, attended the Sewanee Military Academy and the University of the South, interrupting his education to go to France as a lieutenant in the American Expeditionary Force, and returning to receive his B.A. degree in 1920. He has continued his grandfather's firm, Gale, Smith and Company, and has been a leader in the civic life of Nashville and the Diocese of Tennessee. He has been a trustee of the University since 1944 and is serving his second term on the Board of Regents.
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W. Dudley Gale, III, right, donor of the Leonidas Polk Memorial Carillon, and ViceChancellor Edward McCrady beneath a portrait of Gale's great grandfather, Bishop Polk.
Arthur L. Bigelow, Bellmaster at Princeton University and designer of the Polk Carillon, at the keyboard in Shapard Tower.