We regret the need to pass along word that Nathaniel "Tip" Lamberson (also known as "N.D. Lamberson"), flutemaker from Oskaloosa, Iowa, passed away at his home in Oskaloosa on September 13, 2005. He was 83.

I remember him as having a warm and generous heart, a marvelous wit, and for being a wonderful conversationalist. After retiring from flute making in 1985, he went to working with pipe organs – and I remember how he positively glowed when he talked about those pipes (I guess they're actually just a different kind of flute, when you think about it…)! He will be very much missed. (J.S.P.)

Alton McCanless:

...I found him to be honest and generous all the 18 years I was associated with him. He passed on all his tooling and machinery to me in 1986 when he retired... Tip was a brilliant engineer and researched acoustics and scales thoroughly communicating with John Colrman and Art Bonade. He also began studying pipe organs in the early 80's and actually installed one in his Episcopal church in Oskaloosa. It was a used one purchased from a church in NW Iowa and he installed all of its 1100-plus pipes ....

Tip gave the following presentation at the 1996 Iowa Flute Festival at Grinnell:

My first brush with music was when I took piano lessons from my aunt who lived next door. I didn't get too far with this (keyboard just wasn't for me), but it stirred my interest in music generally. Later on, my uncle gave me his Meyer System flute. This was the old style six hole wood grenadilla body with several side keys and an ivory headjoint.

About that same time the school system hired Ivan Kennedy to be a full time band director. He actively recruited students so I took that old flute to the first audition. It was some time before Ivan would stop laughing. I didn't know that there was such a thing as the Boehm system. He soon convinced my parents that I should have something else. They purchased a student model Conn for me.

Later, I spent on summer session at Interlochen which necessitated a better instrument - a closed hole Haynes. I recall the cost at that time was $185. My teacher there was Laurent Torno, then principal with the St. Louis Symphony. I asked Mr. Torno about becoming a professional musician. His advice was to forget about it and study engineering, which I did.

I have been interested in musical instruments since I was a kid. My first attempt as a maker was when I put cardboard keys on an ocarina or sweet potato. This was because the ocarina had no provision for half steps other than cross-fingering. This was not the greatest but did do the job after a fashion.

During noon hour in high school, I and several others lunched at a local cafe. Then, soda straws were [made of] rolled wax paper, not plastic. And by flattening the end and cutting a few holes I had a primitive oboe. Later, at Interlochen, I would use a shorter version, no holes, as a reed on a friends English horn. Worked quite well.

In high school, I attended several national contests with the band and orchestra. Then came college. I enrolled in freshman engineering at University of Arizona, where I was second flute in the Tucson Symphony. My sophomore [year] was at Iowa State -- WWII had begun and this meant heavy schedules and no time for music. The hiatus lasted until the '60's. At that time I was invited to play in the Central College Community Orchestra. I dropped out last year... old fingers could no longer keep up with the young students sitting next to me.

Early during my time with the Orchestra I felt it time to upgrade from the Haynes. At that time I was traveling as Chief Engineer for a small manufacturer in Oskaloosa. This would take me to various cities where I would visit stores. I quickly found out that one just does not find a good hand made flute in the average retail store. You could find a few under the counter but at a premium price.

On a trip to Boston, I visited Haynes and Powell. At Powell, Dick Jerome showed me around and handed me a couple of flutes to try. One I really liked. The checkbook came out. But no -- "we will be glad to put your name down, no obligation, and we will get back to you in four or five years...!" WELL -- as one in the manufacturing business, this was unheard of. What to do?? Make my own.

To get on with that I would need tools and raw materials. I contacted a tool distributor in Story City that I had contact with before. When I mentioned why I needed the equipment he suggested I contact Pearl West of Iowa City who had the same plan. Pearl had not gotten very far [at that point].... Besides he was working on a copy of a Haynes standard model. I [also] knew that there were already efforts along this line in Elkhart but to my knowledge no one was pursuing the French Model market. We elected to head [in] this direction. I went ahead with the tool purchase and continued development in my basement.

Pearl was of great help. One time while doing some work with headjoints he invited Betty Bang (now Betty Mather) to his house to help with evaluation of a few trial heads. Pearl also provided some raw materials and parts - posts, ribs, tubing and the like. I used these materials along with hand made parts to put together a prototype which eventually became Serial Number 1. From this I had something to evaluate for intonation, which turned out to be way off. My Haynes, on the other hand, was very good through at A435. By comparing measurements with the wave lengths of the equal temper notes of the scale, I was able to come up with a set of dimensions for Ser. No. 2. This was a great improvement with only minor changes thereafter.

Initially, while all this was going on, we purchased the Platz oboe and moved it to Oskaloosa. At that time Alton McCanless came on board and moved to Oskaloosa making the Oboes. Pearl took care of the marketing of these.

In the mean time, I proceeded with the tooling, this time for the open hole French Model. Having had experience in the tooling field, I made all of the equipment except for the oval die to punch the lip plate blank. Cost was an important [issue], as was the time element. Silver is a very easy metal to work with but I knew from experience that a professional tool maker would build equipment that would be very expensive and last at least a millennium. The answer was to develop a system of die inserts - rather than a system of dies. A typical die consists of a heavy base - the die set - on which is mounted the cutting or forming parts. With the die insert system only one die set is required, with interchangeable cutting or forming parts. The whole process took only a few weeks and a lot less money than had I farmed out the tools.

When the flute finally came to fruition, even though there was a sellers market, for some reason sales were too slow to keep ahead of costs. Thus, Pearl and I would go our separate ways - he taking the oboe and splitting what was left. Alton elected to stay in Oskaloosa. I put my name and city on the instrument and from then on was a success.

In all there were 730 flutes made in Oskaloosa. Not all were complete: Pearl bought one unfinished; one customer wanted a raw body only, no holes. Most were solid coin silver, although Alton and I made 26 red gold flutes and 35 white gold ones. There were also 11 flutes that I had made in conjunction with Jack Moore of Elkhart. Jack had a backlog at that time and I didn't. These were labeled "MOORE-LAMBERSON".

[Lamberson} No. 1 now belongs to the Historical Society of Iowa (the Smithsonian was reluctant to take it), and resides in Des Moines. The last, No. 730, is a red gold flute with an extra Cft. I made this one when it became apparent that I was not able to compete with the Asians who realized that there was a sellers market. By that time I was working alone so I gathered up what materials were left over and for the first time built a flute entirely on my own - #730. I turned the tools and leftover materials to Alton. After the usual start up struggle he is now, I am pleased to report, making a "go" of it. He is doing great work and I wish him well.

Other than Pearl West, there is only one other effort in this field I know of [based in Iowa}. This was two fellows near Iowa City who called themselves Gyld Winds. I do not know the fate of this endeavor.

MORE WORDS FROM FRIENDS, REGARDING TIP LAMBERSON:

It was in the fall or spring of 1968 when we first moved to Florida when Tip Lamberson called me about his new flutes and would I try one and give him my opinion. My teacher Nelson Hauenstein gave him my phone number and told him that I was interested in trying out new instruments. Nelson and Tip were both at Interlochen, Michigan way back when they were students. Of course I said yes I will do this for you. I can't remember what the minor changes that I suggested but I found that this was going to be a very fine instrument. I don't know how many flutists were sent this prototype, but I knew that this flute was going to be a real winner. He told me that he was going to made flutes because only a few flute makers in America made the professional models. It was a real gap because so many flutists had to wait their turn when ordering a new flute and it was an approximately a three year wait. I believe that within that year or more Tip called me again and asked me if I would like to try his new flute which he was making. He sent two flutes one was a .014 and the other was .016. I opened the package, played his flute and you can guess my reaction to it. One of my students also played his flute and was stunned with the scale, the sound. the flexibility, and the quality. I ended up buying his #57 and my student bought his #58. We were more than happy with this instrument. I still have my Lamberson Flute. When Tip stopped making flutes, I worried about him, but he needed something new to make and this time it was church organs. I saw him at the many National Flute Association Conventions. He began attending the NFA Conventions as an exhibitor in 1975 until 1985. He attended the 1998 Convention in Phoenix, AZ. He was a fine flute maker and he was a close friend. He was a flutist, he cared about his trade and was one of the first flute makers that made improvements in the mechanism and improved the scale. Those who knew him are many. We will always thank him for his craftsmanship and for his ideals. Thank you Tip Lamberson! -- Sarah Baird Fouse, 9/23/05

From Ralph Andrews 9/18/2005 - three stories and a poem:

I tried the Lamberson flute at a MENC convention and needless to say I was very impressed. It was just a little different from anything else on the marketplace. So was its maker. If you remember Robert Frost's poem about marching to a different drummer, Tip was THE different drummer.

Tip and Goldilocks

Goldilocks is a white gold flute with yellow gold keys. I asked Tip to make it but he hesitated. He thought the yellow gold keys on a white gold body would look too gaudy. He called it his Getzen model. At a convention where his stock of instruments was low he asked to borrow one of mine to put on display. I handed him both my Lamberson flutes and he took one but handed Goldilocks back. It mattered not that everybody else liked Goldilocks---he did not.

The Cocktail Lounge

Tip loved to tease. It was gentle, not hateful tease. I remember arriving at the Flute Convention and cruising the place looking for people I knew. Tip sees me coming into the cocktail lounge and gets up, stands on his chair, and yells "Uh oh, he's back, watch your purses and wallets. Lock up your wives and daughters, he's back!" Then he laughed, climbed off his chair, and invited me to sit at his table.

Quonset Hut

On my first visit to Oskaloosa I couldn't find the N.D. Lamberson company. Then I saw two guys, Tip and Alton, running around outside waving at me. They had seen a VW beetle with a Florida plate and knew it had to be me. In the course of conversation Tip suggested they might move to more suitable quarters. I expressed a bit of foolish folklore that states that when your move something it isn't the same. Alton asked "Does this mean we have to take the blasted termites with us?"

There were giants on the earth
They are still here
They live unseen among us
Though their bodies are our size
Their virtues and vices remain giant sized
Fools feel fear when one comes
The wise weep when one leaves
There are giants on the earth
by Ralph Andrews

And from Jack Moore, 9/20/2005 -

B Tip had many friends in the flute world. I knew him as a fellow who was very serious about his work, and, using his training as a musician and engineer, he set about creating an outstanding flute.

I visited his Oskaloosa shop in the early 70's at the time that I was considering starting my own business. Sensing some hesitation on my part, he said, 'What are you waiting for? Go for it; I can help." Thereafter, he was very supportive, and he was always generous in sharing his information, knowledge, and raw materials. For that, I will always be grateful.

We enjoyed many happy times at numerous NFA Conventions. After exhibit hours, I always looked forward to having a cold beer with Tip to hash over events of the day. Some of the stories that we related to each other were true!!

Tip will be missed, but his legacy will live on.

Jack Moore