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RIP Kevin Ward - TAI Audio


Ron Meyer

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Kevin Ward passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer.  Many of you knew him as the sales manager at TAI Audio.   I first met Kevin about 25 or 26 years ago while working at Audio Services Corp in Los Angeles (now LSC)  Kevin was the rental department manager there.  He moved on from there to working production sound for a few years before moving back to his home town of Orlando FL.  He then went to work at TAI Audio.   Kevin and I stayed friends over all of the years.  We shared a love of old American Hotrods.  

 

I would have to say that Kevin was partially responsible for my success in this business.  Back when he was the rental manager at ASC, he would come into my office and in a typical Kevin way, he would say something like  "The good news is I just booked a 12 week rental for a thumper system, the bad news is I need one built in 10 days"   or   "The Oscars are this weekend and I need boom poles with a coiled cable inside and I need the Lectro plug on transmitters to provide 12T mic power".  Yep, we did the first ones and Kevin was the idea guy behind them.   It would be an understatement to say he pushed me to be a better tech and engineer.  I can't tell you how many times this happened and how many products came out of his desire to please his customers.  RIP Kevin.

Ron Meyer

PSC

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I am very sad to hear of Kevin Ward's passing. His humor and sharpness was very apparent and appreciated while he was at ASC. I truly feel our industry just lost someone special. I had a great time working with Kevin at ASC and a lot of good ideas, products and people got there start there.

 

Mike Riner

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Kevin Ward boomed "Whats Eating Gilbert Grape" for back in the early 1990's. It was in the days of two man crews so we spent a lot of time together. He couldn't have been a better companion. He was always calm and appropriate, had a very dry sense of humor, and tried to make everything go as smoothly as possible. Full of stories and ideas he had a natural engineers way about him that he got from his father. He loved his family and spoke of them often. We spent a beautiful fall in Austin Texas, had a great time going out hearing music and generally hanging around the bars on 6th street. He was one of the good ones, so long and my best to you and yours.

With Respect and peace, David Brownlow

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Very sad to hear about Kevin. He hired me at ASC many years ago now, and was a great mentor to me. As a boss he was patient, and really took the time to explain the fine points of production sound to someone coming in from a different audio world.

As a production audio problem solver, I can't think of anyone better. I can't tell you how many meetings he had with sound mixers who had been asked to record in the most difficult environments and situations. Kevin was always able to help them come up with the most effective ways to meet their challenges. I had some big shoes to fill.

Kevin quickly became more than a boss, he became a really good friend. We worked hard and played hard in those years. My face and ribs often hurt from the laughs we had at work, and from the laughs over the multiple beers we often shared after...

You always said you would probably get hit by a truck Kevin. A metaphor I think of life ending too soon.

You'll be missed pal!

 

Brian James 

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry to post in an old thread... Kevin and I worked together at TAI for about a year in 1999 and he was one of the nicest, funniest guys I had ever met. We did a few NAB shows as well. Thought of him just yesterday and found out that he had passed, truly heartbroken. Rest in peace old friend.

schoeps

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