I knew Jack Kortegast for the 5 years he and his wife, Gaye, were
Choir Directors for
St. Mary's of the Assumption Church on Magnolia Street. Jack retired from the job when his health made him more or less house-bound about one year ago.
Mr. Jack Kortegast died on Monday.
I did not know Jack well or for long. I was an occasional, Sunday-only choir member, and more of a support member for my wife and son, but I remember when the Kortegast's came to St Mary's and announced that they were accepting volunteers for the new choir. My thirteen year old son, a fellow music lover, "joined up." My wife followed a few months later.
Jack had serious physical impairments even then. His voice was gravelly and faint after a bout of cancer. He had hearing difficulties and severe back and neck pain. But he knew and loved good music: Mozart, Bach, Faure. He knew music as an orchestral arranger, choir director, composer, and organist. I particularly remember his "Tenebrae" service where he combined poetry, hymns, and scripture.
On any given Thursday night, before I ferried my wife and son home from choir practice, I would walk into the half-darkened church, sit in a pew, and listen to the last couple hymns. I remember thinking that we ought to be paying for the privilege of singing in
this place with
these people.
Not that that little band of 15-on-a-good-day choir was winning national competitions. We weren't. But we loved and sang good music, because that was what Jack and Gaye did, and more often than not we were good and sometimes even very good. Besides that, we liked each other and liked singing together in that choir.
Jack and I both had voice problems and did not talk much, but conversation is not a requirement of friendship and respect. I can say for certain that he was a man who loved his craft and who bore his hardships quietly. I saw that . . . we all saw that. Jack had the humility that comes only from a certain amount of graciously accepted suffering.
Because of people like Jack and Gaye Kortegast my son is not a half-bad singer these days, and is doing what he is doing in no small part to the Kortegasts. Something, he and I will not forget. But most importantly to me, my music loving son saw a fellow music man do something he loved, every Sunday, in pain or not.
Like I say, I should have paid for the privilege.
Thank you, Mr. Kortegast. May God bless you, and may you rest in peace, eternally.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you to choir member, Ken Neill, for assistance and for sending to me the obituary from the Star Telegram. From that obituary: . . . For over 25 years he served the parish of St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington. Most recently he served the parish of St. Mary of the Assumption in Fort Worth. Even though his health prevented him from playing during the last year of his life, he always maintained his passion for liturgy and music. His greatest talent was encouraging and enabling small choirs to sing the great music of the church. . .
