Welcome

Who We Are

2013 Festival
Season

Tickets

Critical
Acclaim

Photo
Gallery

Maps

Recordings

Previous
Festivals

Contact Us

In Memoriam

William F. “Jack” Fry
1921 - 2011
in memoriam

     

Little did I know that a casual meeting with Jack Fry at Norman Paulu’s home in 1975 would evolve into a life-changing experience. Jack had stopped over to show Norman some bows that he had made and the discussion later turned to a violin in Chicago with a big reputation. It was the Sanctus Serafino that I acquired later that year. It was also the beginning of a long association with Jack, and my awakening to the unknown about violins as I played his instruments for him and discussed his theories and hopes for rediscovering the structural mysteries of the great Italian instruments. As the years progressed, the Token Creek Festival presented Jack in forums and demonstrations, culminating in a concert in 2004 in which the ensemble played exclusively on Fry instruments (available on CD, TCR 111). Most prized among Jack’s many awards was his election to the Galileo Academy of the University of Padova, Italy, for his discoveries in violin acoustics. Jack leaves an amazing legacy as scientist, seeker of musical mystery, colleague and friend. It is hard to imagine a world without him. He did, indeed, find the truths he sought and there is great solace in that fact. – Rose Mary Harbison


Jack Fry was born at the family farm on Scotch Ridge, south of Carlisle, Iowa. After completing his Ph.D. in 1951 he was commissioned a naval officer, supervising research on jamming devices for guided missiles. At the White Sands, New Mexico, rocket site he was in charge of researching German V-2 rockets. Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, in high energy physics, from 1952 to 1998, he later pioneered the astrophysics program. An avid historian who collected Italian manuscripts from the 12th century through the Fascist period during his extensive travels in Italy, he donated more than 40,000 books and documents to the University of Wisconsin Library, the largest collection of Italian Fascist-era documents available to scholars worldwide. He spent more than four decades in violin acoustical research, in search of understanding the secrets of the fine Italian instruments. His accomplishments in violin research are recognized in books and film, and are detailed in a scientific video book he completed last year.

Obituary

Solving the Stradivarius Secret

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Back


Copyright 2013 Token Creek Festival, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.tokencreekfestival.org/