Glen Kersten

Glen Kersten and his wife were just married when they rented a small house that turned out to be owned by Frank Lohnes. Mr. Lohnes also owned a music store called Dearborn Piano & Organ. Glen joined the sales team and was introduced to the Rodgers Organ, an instrument he would be connected with for the better part of 60 years! He became the top salesman for Rodgers in the 1960s and moved up to the Rodgers Eastern Regional Sales Manager position before serving as the manager of the Engineering Division. He worked closely with the company’s co-founders, President Rodgers Jenkins and chief engineer Fred Tinker. As Director of Custom Products, Glen was on the team that developed the company’s first digital organ, and a custom five manual organ in 1974 which was placed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. That organ and Glen’s team are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for that year under the category of innovations. He used his knowledge of the instruments to write the company’s sales training manuals and conduct several dealer seminars. In 1977 Glen opened his own dealership, Kersten Music Corp., in Seattle, focusing (not surprisingly) on the Rodger’s brand of instruments, receiving several sales awards and “top ten” dealer positioning.