The words “energetic, passionate and dynamic” are not always used to describe an 80-year-old addressing a crowd of younger college students and staff.

Yet as he opened his mouth on Feb. 8, German-born piano tuner Franz Mohr proved he deserved every word of that description.

Mohr, formerly Steinway’s chief concert technician before his retirement, came to Cornerstone to share his testimony and promote his book, “My Life with the Great Pianists,” which has been published in 8 languages.

“I am not a concert pianist,” he said, to discourage any false hopes that he would play, “but I am a piano tuner … a tuner who loves Jesus.”

Born in Germany in 1927, Mohr was a teenager during the peak of World War II.

He said that when the American bombers flew over his hometown in Rheinland County on Nov. 16, 1944, about 90 percent of the population was killed in 20 minutes.

Mohr was separated from his parents for more than a month, until their reunion on Christmas Day, 1944. Later his two brothers were killed in the war.

Through the horror of what he witnessed, Mohr said his heart burned with hatred against the Americans, whom he thought had no reason to decimate his hometown, and against the Nazis, who deceived so many people.

“Can you imagine what went on in those gas ovens?” Mohr asked, his voice trembling. “The children … when they couldn’t breathe anymore?”

“My dad always said, ‘If we touch the Jewish people, we touch the apple of God’s eye,’” Mohr said.

For a while, Mohr did not want anything to do with religion— although his parents remained devout Catholics.

One day, Mohr stumbled across a meeting being held in a private home.

“I saw a bunch of people sitting at the kitchen table with Bibles open,” he said. “‘What a weird gathering of people!’ I thought. Dr. Arthur McFarlane was leading it.”

McFarlane soon took an interest in Mohr’s spiritual well-being.

“To this day I see his loving face in front of me,” said Mohr. “‘No matter what you think,’ he said, ‘I love you and Jesus loves you. I am going back to England and I am going to pray for you.’”

According to Mohr, McFarlane was certain that his young friend would write to him one day and tell him he had become a Christian.

Although still not convinced, Mohr accepted the doctor’s gift of a Bible, and began to read it.

He went for a restless walk one late night, with the image of McFarlane’s face still stamped on his mind, and watched daylight appear in the eastern sky.

“I got excited,” Mohr said, “and [later] fell on the side of my bed and didn’t know how to pray. All the prayers I had learned in church and school didn’t work for me.

“All of a sudden I was drawn to the cry of Calvary,” he said. “‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

That night he became a Christian. Within days his whole outlook had changed, and the Word of God became his only food. He set aside everything—books and newspapers alike—to read the Bible.

Before his conversion, Mohr had fallen in love with a woman named Elisabeth whom he had met on a dance floor.

After reading 2 Corinthians 6, he realized that he could not carry out his plan to marry her unless she, too, knew Christ.

He had given her a Bible and asked her to read certain parts every weekend. When he went to approach her to tell her about 2 Corinthians, she had something to tell him first.

“I have been reading the sixth chapter of John over and over again this week,” she said. “I gave my heart to the Lord.”

The two married eventually. Mohr’s dream was to continue as a violinist, but the career damaged his wrist and he soon had to seek work in other places.

He took his first job as a piano tuner in Dusseldorf in 1954. Eventually he traveled on a ship to America, where he reconnected with his mentor, Arthur McFarlane, who rejoiced to hear of his new faith in Christ.

Mohr became Steinway’s chief concert piano tuner in 1968, and immediately gained exposure to some of the greatest musicians in the business.

One of the musicians he met was Artur Rubinstein.

“As a German I was extremely nervous to tune for Rubinstein,” Mohr said. “He had lost over 50 people in his immediate family to the Holocaust.”

Despite his inner tension, Mohr said their first meeting went well, and they grew to be close friends.

Another pianist Mohr tuned for was Vladimir Horowitz. Mohr eventually became the only tuner Horowitz would allow to touch his Steinways.

Mohr shared that one night he was with Horowitz at a performance in Rochester, NY.

“Just before we were on stage,” Mohr said, “Horowitz opened the door and pointed out to the stage, [saying], ‘Franz … the loneliest place in the world.’”

All Mohr could think was that he wished Horowitz would realize that there is a place lonelier still.

Although he never had the chance with Horowitz, Mohr was able to lead Horowitz’s wife Wanda to the Lord as she was dying.

After Mohr’s speech, Donna Bohn, fine arts division chair, shared her appreciation for his boldness in witnessing to everyone he met.

“God has blessed him with opportunities to share Christ,” said Bohn. “At the same time we need to pay attention to when we have opportunities to do the same.”