By George Petersen

IT’S JUST SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS AS YOU GET OLDER. Your friends start dying. I’m just returning for a funeral for a good friend Joe Desmond, a well-known industry figure with more than a quarter-century in pro audio and M.I. sales. Joe passed away on January 16, after being diagnosed with liver cancer last fall.
After college, this native Bostonian went west to California for his first job as a Guitar Center salesman. Moving rapidly he soon had opened and managed stores in California and Illinois before starting his own company, which exported rare guitars to Japan. In 1987, Desmond went to work for Furman Sound in Northern California, and during his 17-year tenure there, becoming a major force in bringing the company from “Furman-who?” to a position as an industry leader.

A couple years ago, he left Furman to found Joe Desmond & Associates (www.jdagear.com), a rep firm and import business located in nearby Rohnert Park, Calif., handling top suppliers such as Adamson, Aphex, BBE, Danley, ETA Systems, FBT, G&L Guitars, Nady Systems, One Systems, Raxxess, Rolls, sE Electronics, X2 Digital Wireless and others. Joining Desmond in the operations at JDA was his wife Pam, who he met at the NAMM Show in 1982, back when she was working as an ad executive at BAM (Bay Area Music) magazine.

Held in Joe’s local church, his memorial service was packed with friends and and an impressive turnout of industry associates–many of whom traveled quite a distance to attend. Among those were Bob Reardon (of SE Electronics), Marvin Caesar (of Aphex), Dave Angress (Guitar Center), Lynn Martin (American Music & Sound/Allen-Heath USA/Focusrite USA/Hagstrom guitars/etc.) and many others. The service was beautiful, with great music and clean audio from the system Joe had donated/installed in the sanctuary. One memorable moment was a moving poem written/read by Joe’s daughter Jillian and a wonderful eulogy by one of Joe’s friends, who recalled that in his final days, Joe talked about the fact that his spirit will always be with us. And somehow, I think Joe was right on this one…

When not working on MIX stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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