No title link. Note the John S. Simonton Memorial Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, PO Box 1146, Oklahoma City 73101.
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In Memoriam: John Stayton Simonton, Jr.
June 24, 1943 - Nov. 25, 2005
Oklahoma City - Founder and president of PAiA Electronics, Inc. (OKC)
John Stayton Simonton, Jr. died at his home in Arcadia, Okla. on
Friday, Nov. 25 after a yearlong battle with esophageal cancer. He was
62 years old.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii to John and Eva Simonton, John Simonton grew
up in New Orleans, La. graduating from the Sam Barth School for Boys
and the Metairie Park Country Day School. In 1965 while finishing his
engineering and psychology degree at Louisiana Tech University in
Ruston, La. he met and married Linda Brumfield Simonton.
After completing his degree in 1967, John moved to Oklahoma to work for
the first computerized jet engine test facility at Tinker A.F.B.
In 1968, John founded PAiA Electronics, Inc. in Oklahoma City, a
company dedicated to providing synthesizer kits to the do-it-yourself
electronic musician. John Simonton has designed hundreds of products
including the Gnome MicroSynthesizer, the SMPL System SMPTE / MIDI /
Machine synchronizer and the PAiA Programmable Drum Set, which is
credited with being the first commercially available user-programmable
percussion box.
Many music artists received their first exposure to synthesis with
PAiA's modular systems. Many engineers, scientists and technicians had
early exposure to their professions through his trade journal articles.
His work with starved tube circuitry produced the TubeHead series of
preamplifiers and his most recent project was PAiA's Theremax theremin.
A widely read author and contributor in the electronic popular press,
John was also the publisher of Polyphony magazine, which was first
published in 1975 and later renamed Electronic Musician. Electronic
Musician eventually sold to Mix Publications of Berkeley in 1985. John
was also the founding partner in High Technology, Inc. the first
computer store in Oklahoma in 1976, which became the first wholesale
distributor for Apple Computer, Inc. in 1977.
Deeply dedicated to doing what was right, John was a mentor and
inspiration to many do-it-yourselfers encouraging them to pursue
avocations and careers in engineering and music.
He is survived by wife Linda Simonton, daughter D. Stayton (Staci)
Craig, son John S. Simonton III (Trey), granddaughters Nikki Craig and
Callie Simonton, and grandson Christopher Kai Simonton.
A memorial service to celebrate John's life will be held at 6 p.m.,
Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Omniplex Science Museum in Oklahoma City. In
lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the John S. Simonton Memorial
Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, PO Box 1146, Oklahoma
City 73101.
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