Louis Dolive

Louis (Lou) Dolive, a member of the greater Staunton arts and cultural community for decades, died Sunday, November 9. In the days and hours before his death, he was attended by his family and friends at Shenandoah House at Augusta Health. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Ruth Arnold; his children, Carrie Dolive (Leigh Harrison) and Will Dolive (Meagan Alley); his grandchildren, Sylvan Dolive, Damien Harrison, Raiya Harrison, and Adelaide Dolive; and his siblings, Marian Webster and Henry Dolive (Mary Kay Morris).

The youngest child of Clarke and Julia Dolive, Lou was born on October 21, 1949, in Orlando and raised in DeLand, Florida. He graduated in 1971 with a degree in music from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, where he met Ruth. Their relationship blossomed through an archery class (he was the instructor) and choir practice. Being naturally handy as well as musically inclined, he entered the pipe organ building trade. He worked for eight years for C.B. Fisk in Gloucester, Mass., before moving to the Staunton area to work for Taylor & Boody Organ Builders in 1979. In 1992, Lou started his own business maintaining and restoring antique keyboard instruments, with clients that included the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Washington & Lee University, and the Virginia Musical Museum. He was frequently found transporting and tuning harpsichords for the Staunton Music Festival and Virginia Baroque Performance Academy. Shortly after moving to the area, Lou designed and constructed the timber-framed passive solar home in Augusta County where he and Ruth raised their two children.

Music was a central theme in Lou’s life. In addition to his instrument work, he was a choral singer in school and church choirs from childhood. He served as choir director at Augusta Stone and Bethel Presbyterian Churches, started handbell choirs at both Augusta and Bethel, and directed the handbell choir at Covenant Presbyterian Church for 16 years. He was a member of Schola Cantorum of Waynesboro, where he also served on their board, and performed in multiple musicals at Mary Baldwin College. Lou and Ruth were also avid contra dancers.

Lou had a scholarly streak as well. An interest in shape note music led him to help develop a comprehensive database of shape note songs. He also assisted in projects to create singable period-appropriate editions of songs from Shakespeare’s plays and translations of medieval French troubadour songs.

His many friends and family members remember him as patient and gentle, thorough and methodical, loving, and always ready to lend a helping hand. These traits prompted him to spend 25 years as chair of the Shenandoah Presbytery’s iCARE partnership, which recruited sponsors for the Gore Home for Children in Ethiopia.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 22, at 2:00 p.m., at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Staunton, Virginia.

In lieu of flowers, Lou’s family encourages donations to iCARE (payable to Shenandoah Presbytery, P.O. Box 1146, Harrisonburg, VA 22803 – use iCARE in memo line) and Schola Cantorum of Waynesboro (P.O. Box 253, Waynesboro, VA 22980).