With Rolf's passing, this is turning out to be a sad month. Unfortunately, I have to add another name whose memory we need honor. Arnold passed away on May 1, 2013 at the age of 85 at his home in Pacific Grove.
Regards
Don
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With Rolf's passing, this is turning out to be a sad month. Unfortunately, I have to add another name whose memory we need honor. Arnold passed away on May 1, 2013 at the age of 85 at his home in Pacific Grove.
Regards
Don
Nice article and photos here: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_cu...away_24816.asp
For posterity, the obit from the local newspaper:
Arnold Wolf, fomer head of JBL audio, dies
Was Herald Opinion page contributor
The Monterey County Herald
Herald staff report
Posted: 04/26/2013 05:20:12 PM PDT
Updated: 04/26/2013 11:11:05 PM PDT
Renowned industrial designer Arnold Wolf, 85, a former president and CEO of the JBL audio company, died Tuesday at his home in Pacific Grove.
Among his accomplishments was design of the iconic Paragon loudspeaker system for JBL in 1957. It was featured at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of the 2011-12 exhibition "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way." The Paragon, 9 feet wide, remains one of the most collectible audio components.
Popular in orange
Later, during Mr. Wolf's presidency of JBL, the company produced the L100 loudspeaker, which was to become the world's best-selling speaker. Helping to make it a great commercial success was the groundbreaking grill design. Breaking from traditional speaker cloth, he helped design a striking foam cover in a sculptural grid pattern that proved to be especially popular in orange.
He retired to Pacific Grove in 1987 and recently became a regular contributor to The Herald's Opinion page.
"Though his views were not universally popular, they were extremely well-argued and extremely well-written," said Herald Editor Royal Calkins. "Arnold was exceedingly talented in so many fields, truly brilliant."
The cause of death remained undetermined Friday.
San Francisco born
He was born in San Francisco on April 30, 1927. In the early 1930s, his family moved to the East Coast, eventually settling in New York City, where he attended the Bentley School in Manhattan and the Bronx
High School of Science, graduating in 1943.
In 1942-43, he performed as a radio actor in a number of network programs. When the family moved to Los Angeles, he went to work as a draftsman and perspective sketch artist at the RKO film studio. He left to enroll at Los Angeles City College, completing three semesters before being called for military service.
After basic training in the Air Force, he was assigned to the Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., as the writer and assistant producer of the band's weekly national radio program.
Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at UC Berkeley. His studies centered on dramatic art, with a minor in historical decorative arts.
New career
He took part in numerous student theater productions. After graduation, he became director of the adult education theater program in the Berkeley school system and an instructor in theater arts at Saint Mary's College (1952-53) and at UC Berkeley (1953).
Mr. Wolf then changed course and began a career in the field of industrial design, founding his own firm, Arnold Wolf Associates, in Berkeley, which spanned the years 1957-70.
During that time, his most prominent client was James B. Lansing Sound in Los Angeles, for whom he designed a wide array of loudspeaker and electronic products.
In 1969, JBL went through a change in ownership and the new parent company was faced with the problem of finding a chief executive for the reorganized business.
The choice eventually settled on Mr. Wolf, who accepted the position of president in 1969. That required him to transfer his industrial design practice to an associate and to move his family to Hollywood. He remained with JBL until 1980.
In 1981-82, he served as a member of the Fellowship Awards panel (Design Arts Division) at the National Endowment for the Arts. During the 1984-85 academic year he took the post of professor and chairman of the Design Department at CSU Long Beach. He maintained his design practice until 1987.
Known for designs
He was a founding member and fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America. His designs received numerous awards and have been shown in a variety of exhibitions, including the Atomfair International Exhibition in Brussels (1958), the Third Biennial of Industrial Design, Ljubljana (1968), California Design Exhibitions 9, 10 and 11 at the Pasadena Art Museum (1965-71), and the 14th annual Design Review at The Brooklyn Museum.
He is survived by his daughter, Vivian Wolf of Tustin, and sons Michael Wolf of Irvine and Gordon Wolf of Los Angeles.
Mission Mortuary in Monterey is in charge of arrangements.
Sad to hear of Mr. Wolf's passing, an icon in industrial design for JBL and others. We are so lucky to have his words in the library and other articles.
Didn't know he retired to Pacific Grove, I visit there often, wonder if he ever played golf at the Municipal course there? Probably a lot of JBL speakers in the Montery, Carmel and Pebble Beach area.
RIP.
Sounds like a man of diverse talents who gave some of that talent to JBL. Probably couldn't happen in today in Harman's corporate culture.