WURLITZER organ enthusiast Jack Nesbit has died, aged 72.

The retired engineer, of Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, had a passion for music - playing the accordion, the Wurlitzer theatre organ and piano.

He was an early member of the Langbaurgh Theatre Organ Society, and was involved in rescuing the Wurlitzer organ from the Granada Cinema, Bedford, and relocating it to The Pier Ballroom at Redcar, east Cleveland, in 1977, and its subsequent removal to the James Finnigan Hall, Fabian Road, Eston, near Middlesbrough, in 1981.

Weighing seven tons, and having 600 pipes, the organ had to be dismantled, numbered, and transported piece by piece to Eston.

The console was so heavy that Mr Nesbit's engineering skills were then tested to design and make a "wheeled dolly" capable of bearing its weight, and mobile enough to allow the immense instrument to be moved by hand for each performance.

Mr Nesbit, in association with other accordion players, ran the Middlesbrough Accordion Club at The Coronation Hotel, Acklam, until 1998, at which time he and colleagues combined with the Accordion Workshop Group, which still meets at Stainton Village Memorial Hall.