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Frank Ashdown leads a singularly unique life.

A recently retired medical doctor, Brother Ashdown spends Tuesday and Friday of every week at his home in Alamogordo, N. M., composing organ music. Wednesdays and Saturdays, however, find him in an entirely different state — literally and figuratively — as the produce manager for the Bishops' Storehouse in El Paso, Texas.

Photo by James Welch

Frank Ashdown at the organ in Palo Alto, Calif.

Brother Ashdown became introduced to the organ at the preternaturally young age of 13 when he was called to be his ward's organist in Amarillo, Texas. Although he'd been taking piano lessons from the time he was 6 years old, he quickly realized how different from each other the playing of the organ and piano are.

"One has to develop the technique of playing the pedals with both feet while at the same time playing with the hands," he said. "You have to be able to develop an independence of the feet from the hands so that the music in the pedals can move along simultaneously with music from the hands.

"The technique of playing the organ is a little different with the hands than it is on the piano because all of the notes have to remain sustained. You don't have a damper pedal to sustain the notes, so you have to learn to do a lot of finger substitution on the keyboards of the organ."

An early exposure to playing the organ spawned a deep affinity for the instrument within Brother Ashdown that has lasted a lifetime.

"I like the majesty of the organ music," he said. "It has a way of expressing profound thoughts that seem to be unique to the organ. I like the fact that it can play a range of music from very soft lyrical music to loud, majestic music. It gives one a broad range of expression."

Composing organ music is such a passion for Brother Ashdown that it quickly outgrew hobby status and became a full-fledged second career, pursued concurrently with a 35-year medical practice as a general internist. His compositions have been featured on National Public Radio as well as performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on "Music and the Spoken Word." Some of his most notable works include "Golden Trumpet," a piece of organ music that evolved from a choral arrangement he and his father Don Ashdown collaborated on in honor of the 2002 dedication of the Lubbock Texas Temple, and "Requiem for the Challenger, 1986," a piece penned in the aftermath of a tragic space shuttle crash in the United States in that year.

After retiring from medicine last year at the age of 65, Brother Ashdown palpably missed the dynamic of doctor-patient interaction. Having never married and without children, he had the requisite time on his hands to accept a two-day-a-week welfare mission to the El Paso Bishops' Storehouse, which is a 90-mile drive from Alamogordo.

"I assist the Church members who come in for their commodities," he explained. "I'm the produce manager, so I do a lot of inventory of the produce that we have and ordering of vegetables, fruit, milk, bread and tortillas for the days following.

"I find it to be wonderful work. I really enjoy working down there."

As the site manager of the El Paso Bishops' Storehouse, Don Merrill supervises Brother Ashdown's work.

Brother Merrill said: "Frank doesn't wear (his accomplishments) on his shirt, saying, 'I'm a medical doctor and a great organist.' I don't think any of that other stuff makes any difference to him. He's just a very nice, down-to-earth fellow who does what needs to be done. Frank's a real asset."

The oldest of seven children, Brother Ashdown has resided in Alamogordo for more than three decades.

"I like the slow pace of life," he said. "It's a very pleasant climate, beautiful mountains, and it's the sort of environment that lends itself to creative activity like composing."

Brother Ashdown has served in many different callings and capacities in the Church throughout the years. One thing that has remained steady, though, is his home teaching companion — for the past 25 years, it's been his father who retired to Alamogordo in 1984 and is now widowed. They live in separate homes, but both reside in the Sacramento Mountains Ward.

"I think Church activity here is much like it is in other places," he said. "But we tend to have more than one calling because sometimes our numbers are few, and we don't tend to take the Church for granted. As a result, we really cherish the people that we know."

jaskar@desnews.com