[1/4] Augustus Owsley Stanley III, aka "Bear," was born OTD in 1935. Perhaps best known for making the LSD that fueled the Summer of Love (thus inspiring the Steely Dan song "Kid Charlemagne"), Bear was much more than that. [📸Amalie Rothschild] 
[2/4] As sound man and mentor to @GratefulDead, Bear began the practice of taping the band every night so they could learn from their own performances. #Deadheads turned that into a global community. Bear's Sonic Journals also captured many other bands with astonishing clarity.
[3/4] Bear's innovative concepts for the @GratefulDead's sound system (based in his experiences of #synesthesia, and culminating in the awesome-sounding but impractical "Wall of Sound" in 1974) transformed modern concert sound for the whole rock-touring industry. [📸Kirk West]
[4/4] I once spent a couple of days with Bear, and as an #autism historian, I say with confidence that Bear was #neurodivergent. He used the gifts of that - the precision, the endless iteration in service of perfection - to make the world better for us all. [📸Alvin Meyerowitz]
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