When Joseph Whiteford retired in 1968, Gillett was offered the opportunity to buy controlling interest in the firm, he then became president and tonal director. In later years, he became a vice president and head tonal finisher. Four years later he was hired at Aeolian-Skinner where he learned the art of voicing and tonal finishing, working under G. Gillett's first job was with Lewis & Hitchcock of Washington, D.C. His interest in organ building also started with the study of the organ. After moving to Washington, he studied piano and organ with Lewis Atwater, who was organist at All Souls Unitarian Church and Washington HebrewД¬ongregation. He started piano lessons at six years old with Dorothy Mulroney, organist at the auditorium. Gillett's musical interest started at age four when his parents began taking him to organ recitals at the Municipal Auditorium in Springfield Massachusetts. He was in the Army Air Corps, stationed in Midland, Texas, where he served as a chaplain's assistant, playing organ for services on 'folding field organs and the mighty Hammond' (his words). His mother remarried and they moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended Wilson High School and later the University of Maryland, where he attended for three years before being called for military 'Don' Gillett was was born April 8, 1919, in Southwick Massachusetts. From Organ Database Builders editor Stephen Hall, May 6, 2019.

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