Hundreds of people came to St. Philip Neri church this week to bid farewell to a man who has served as a constant force in the Empire community for much of his short life.

Roy Taghon of Empire, a church organist,
was killed in a snowmobile accident January 20.

Roy Taghon, who served as organist at the church since he was a teenager, died Sunday in a snowmobile accident near Empire. He was 42.

Taghon was recognized for his musical talents, his love of snowmobiling and an upbeat personality.
“He got to do the two things he loved best, the day he died — play at church and ride his snowmobile,” his father Dave Taghon said Tuesday night.

Catholics in the southwest part of the county knew Taghon as the mild-mannered, congenial organist and music director at St. Philip and most recently Holy Rosary Church near Cedar. Taghon began playing the keyboards at a young age and took on litgurical music as a teenager.

Ann and Jim Miller got to know him after moving to Empire 12 years ago — first from weekly Mass, then at the gas station/convenience store his family owned.

“Whenever I’d see him at the post office or go up to him after church I’d say, ‘Roy, you’re my favorite organist and musical director.’ And he’d politely say, ‘Mrs. Miller, I’m your only organist and musical director.’”

The Rev. Michael Janowski, pastor of St. Mary in Lake Leelanau and most recently Holy Rosary and St. Philip, recognized Roy as not only a gifted musician and vocalist, but someone he could count on.

“He loved his music and that came through the way he played,” said the priest who was assigned the Cedar and Empire parishes last summer along with associate pastor Donald Libby. “I relied on him to do a lot of things. Roy helped in any way he could and was always looking to see what he could do to make things easier.”

Holy Rosary secretary Donna Peterson knew Taghon’s first loves were music and his snowmobile.

“I spoke with him after 8:30 Mass Sunday,” said Peterson, who is also in the choir at the church. “He was talking about his plans to go out (on his snowmobile) after Mass at St. Philip.”

Taghon played four Masses at the two churches last weekend and headed to the Empire airport, where a group of six to nine riders could be found most any winter Sunday afternoon.

“He loved to ride in Leelanau County,” said friend and uncle Dave Novak. Ten years his senior, Novak and Taghon shared a love of snowmobiling and spent a lot of time together. “I was spared Sunday. It was one of the few times that I didn’t join them.”

In a “good” year, Novak said Roy would put 5,000 to 6,000 miles on his sled. A high for most riders is less than 1,500.

ROY TAGHON is shown playing the organ at
Saint Philip Neri Church in Empire in 2004. He
was a longtime organist at the church, and
more recently at Holy Rosary Church as well.

One of his favorite trips, with longtime friend Tracy Egeler, was up to the Happy Hour near Gill’s Pier for a perch sandwich. Taghon and Egeler were known to ride the trail between Empire and Thompsonville as often as four to five times a week.

Taghon was highly competitive, earning several Michigan Snowmobile Drag Racing Association titles and was known throughout the state for his abilities. Shortly after news of his death broke, more than 14 pages of condolences and messages were posted on hardcoresledder.com, a website for snowmobile enthusiasts.

Taghon loved speed, but he also approached riding like he did playing the keyboard — attentively and with an attention to detail — which makes it difficult for fellow riders to comprehend his accidental death.

“He was the guy who stopped at every stop sign,” Novak said, adding that his nephew had “zero tolerance” for alcohol and riding.

This attention to detail was also evident in his job at the family’s convenience store and gas station, which in recent years had been purchased by Blarney Castle Oil. Taghon was known for his ability to remember the names of summer visitors and what they had done eight to 10 months earlier.

For these reasons and countless others, Taghon will be missed by both of the communities in which he was a mainstay.

“I talked with him after he had played a funeral,” Miller said. “He said, ‘There’s a better place.’”