He was later transferred to Los Alamos Laboratory, where he unknowingly contributed to the Manhattan Project and subsequently the atomic bomb Fat Man.

He took apprenticeship under John Swinford and Walter Holtkamp and made frequent trips to Europe to study European organs.

[8][7]: 1  In 1943, at age 17, he secured a job in the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory with the help of his physicist uncle, Joyce Stearns, who also worked there.

[7]: 2 [9] Soon after graduating high school, Fisk was drafted[2] to Army Air Corps, where he worked as a Link Trainer mechanic.

[4][8][6]: 88 While at Los Alamos, Fisk was assigned as an electronics technician and a lab helper in the Bomb Physics division.

As a member of the 9812th Special Engineer Detachment, Fisk was part of a unit that collected knowledgeable people to conduct research.

However, due to his father's declining health and his commitment to his would-be future spouse Ann Lindenmuth, he rejected the offer.

[2][6]: 89 [9] At Stanford, Fisk also studied under the American organist Herbert Nanney and became an apprentice of the organ builder John Swinford.

[1]: 1 The Boston Globe and The Diapason attributed Fisk's decision to leave physics to the unease he felt for contributing to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But bear in mind that this is not basically something to be proud of, and if you feel like offering a prayer for the human race, now is a good time.

[12] Fisk continued working part-time as an apprentice under John Swinford in Redwood City, California,[4][13] while studying under music professors Putnam Aldrich and George Houle.

[17] In 1961, the firm relocated to more spacious premises at 105 Maplewood Avenue, Gloucester, Massachusetts[2][12] a former factory that once manufactured rope and fishing nets.

[19] C. B. Fisk, Inc. and Andover Organ Company employed notable organists Barbara Owen, Fritz Noack, and John Brombaugh.

[24] Fisk died on December 16, 1983, aged 58 years,[3] due to a liver autoimmune condition, at Philips House, Massachusetts General Hospital.

[4] The revitalization of tracker action was a part of the Organ Reform Movement, of which Fisk was cited as a major participant by The American Organist.

[1]: 77–82 Jones Boyds, an organist at Stetson University, wrote that Fisk had mixed views on the organ being used in an orchestral setting, citing Fisk's remarks: "[T]he fortunes of the organ and of the orchestra are to an extent mutually exclusive and my personal view is that the one instrument takes the place of the other [...] There is a human craving, musically speaking, for a towering musical effect.

Opus 25 marks the last electric organ Fisk would ever make: all of his later works predominantly feature tracker actions.

[16] Fisk's first major work, completed in 1961, was a two-manual, fully mechanical-action organ for Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore (op.

Andrew Johnson, an organist at Mount Calvary Church, described the organ as being "clear", "responsive", and as appearing to "shape the player".

[26] In 1964, Fisk built the first modern mechanical organ, of three manuals, in King's Chapel on Tremont Street (op.

Organist George Bozeman wrote in The Tracker that it provided a "vivid, rich sound, and a crystalline clarity that reveals the color and texture of each stop".

[38] In American Record Guide, William Gatens wrote that the organ sounded "thin and strident" and felt "dry" compared to Fisk's later works.

[11] At first, Fisk made an attempt to renovate a pre-existing E. M. Skinner organ in Appleton Chapel, a smaller chancel of the church.

Despite Fisk's efforts, an organ tuned for the chancel turned out to be unbalanced for the larger chapel, and vice versa.

55) that was inspired by Johann Silbermann's work at Old West Church, reusing casework from an earlier Thomas Appleton organ.

"[42] In 1976, Fisk and Fenner Douglass installed a French classic-style organ at the University of Vermont's then-newly constructed music building (op.

The main facade was inspired by the Robert Clicquot organ of St. Louis des Invalides in Paris, featuring five pipe-containing towers.

[42] In 1979 (or 1978)[43] Fisk built a large four-manual, mechanical-action organ for the House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,[4] tuned in unequal temperament.

The four Brustpedal cantus firmus stops were copied from the Compenius organ located in Frederiksborg Castle in Copenhagen.

The Resonance division of the organ, which operates at high pressure, was made easier to play by using Fisk company's servopneumatic lever mechanism.