The Audio Engineering Society mourns the passing of Garry Margolis. Garry was an influential figure in professional audio, noted for his substantial contributions to both the industry and the AES. Garry’s death on December 6, 2022, following a severe Covid-19 infection. He will be sorely missed.
A Life Fellow of the AES, Garry was Member number 5814, first joining the Society in 1964. He was a steadfast member of AES leadership, serving as a member of the Board of Governors 1996-1998 and again from 2000-2005. Garry served at AES President in 2001 and as Treasurer 2009-2018. His AES work included serving on the Awards, Conference Policy, Education, Laws & Resolutions, Regions & Sections, Technical Council Audio for Cinema and 145th Convention Committees. He also served on the AES Los Angeles Section leadership committee.
Garry received his AES Fellowship in 2012 with the citation, “in recognition of his many years of activities in audio engineering, having worked in areas as diverse as loudspeaker development and digital audio coding.” In 2019, in honor of his contributions to the Society, Garry joined the elite group of 22 AES Members who have received the AES Distinguished Service Medal “in recognition of more than 20 years of dedicated service to the Society as a Section Officer, Governor, Treasurer and President.”
Garry’s storied career included his serving as North American Technical Liaison Director for Philips Intellectual Property and Standards in Eindhoven, Netherlands, representing their interests in the areas of Super Audio CD, DVD-Video, MPEG multi-channel audio, and digital cinema encryption/conditional access. He was Vice President, Marketing for JBL professional products outside of North America and was Director of Sales for UREI, previously holding positions as International Sales Manager and Applications Engineer for JBL. He was responsible for the sound and projection facilities at UCLA’s Motion Picture/Television Division, where he led courses in music recording, production sound, and re-recording, and was Chief Engineer/Program Director for KFMU-FM in Los Angeles. Late in his career he worked as technical and marketing consultant in the areas of audio, video, and digital cinema. Outside of the AES, Garry served as Vice-Chair of the Audio subgroup of SMPTE’s DC-28 digital cinema study group and was a member of the DC-28 Encryption/Conditional Access subgroup. He was a member of the Apple Consultants Network and held Apple certification. He was also noted for his work as an audio historian.
Garry’s publications include senior authorships of papers in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society and the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, as well as articles in High Fidelity, db Magazine, Recording Engineer/Producer, Rangefinder, and Professional Photographer.
Garry, a lifelong resident of California and UCLA graduate, was an accomplished violinist and avid photographer.
The AES extends its deepest condolences to Garry’s family and his devoted and beloved life partner, Liane (Lia) Enkelis. Memorial plans have not been announced.