Thomas Peake

Thomas Peake died on September 21st following a fall while hiking in the Grand Canyon.  The following evening, bits flew raced around the interent as word spread of this horrible news.  I first heard from Brendan Digel, who relayed Dara O'Niel's Facebook dispatches about the search for him Monday night and Tuesday morning.  Shortly thereafter Jon Kincaid sent me brief word that Thomas had passed, and mentioned a Facebook page with more info.  I talked to Allan Ross in New York and he sent me the link to the Thomas Peake Memoriam Page on Facebook.  The National Park Service made a press release.  Check out these sobering descriptions of the Lava Falls Route that Thomas was attempting.  The next morning, the world continued to wake up to this sad news.  Dave Slusher had a nice post, in which he linked to the Facebook image gallery. 

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Thomas is one of the original Great People on this planet.

Many people knew Thomas from his involvement at WREK.  In the mid-80's Arthur Davis led WREK in a determined shift to more adventurous programming.  Thomas came on board in the late 80's and continued what Arthur had started.  Through a variety of official roles, Thomas was really our philosopher king for a few years, and his energy and enthusiasm for the programming and the radio station was infectious.  There are so many great little things that happened during his tenure -- the WREKology "zine" program guide, shepherding of new shows and show hosts, fundraiser concerts by nationally known bands ... There was a powerful DIY ethic in Thomas and it really came out beautifully during his tenure at WREK -- both from him and as a result from everyone around him.

Here's an opinion piece that Thomas wrote in the early 90's:
http://www.cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/wrek/opinions/opinion1.html

To work at WREK for any appreciable amount of time is to discover that the world of music is far more vast than you ever imagined.  Another staffer of the same period, Markus DeShon, came up with the concept that Music Is Sacred, in that music (real music) fundamentally represents deeply personal human expression and should be revered appropriately.  Well, not the stuff on commercial radio, that exists just to separate fools from their money!  As a lot of us did, Thomas dove into WREK and discovered a huge cultural cornucopia, including music well beyond our own shores and certainly beyond rock.

Another thing that Thomas did was put out feelers to the Atlanta music community, pulling it closer to WREK, and suckering a lot of the musical talent in town into helping do WREK shows or otherwise making WREK even better.  It really can't be overstated how integral WREK was to the Atlanta music scene in the 80's and early 90's, and a lot of that was due to Thomas and his positive energy.

Thomas was incredibly productive.  I have deep respect for people whose hearts and minds are in the right place but also manage to Get Things Done.  There is so much rhetoric, especially now that the internet has given so many of us a voice, and there seems to be little action to go with it.  My years at WREK taught me the DIY ethic, and Thomas was the epitome of that, because not only did it make things happen, but he did it well.  Lots of people have their heads screwed on right but can't get their ASS in gear.  Thomas' ass was moving, constantly.  And always with that goofy happy style of his.

I would like to ask his parents this:  how did you do that?  How did you raise a young man to be that smart, that engaged in the world, that overwhelmingly positive and warm to everyone he met?  It's just so completely remarkable.  For many, to be politically and culturally aware these days is frankly to be depressed.  Because there is so much evil and wrong around us, it's hard to see the joy and wonder sometimes.  But Thomas was as politically and culturally alive as any of us, and he was completely happy.

Here are some great quotes about Thomas from the last few days:

Ben Davis on the Facebook page:  "I learned [from Thomas] that it was very punk rock to be friendly to people."

Dara O’Neil quoted in the AJC article: "There was definitely something wrong with you if you didn’t like Thomas."

Jon Kincaid in a short tribute during his Personality Crisis show on WREK: "Thomas always had a smile on his face, and after you met him, you always left with a smile on yours."  (stream link, tribute starts 5:15 into the third segment)

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Probably half of the people who know Thomas know him through his tenure at WREK as a Georgia Tech student.  He was one of a handful of people (I would argue two, with Arthur Davis) who really elevated WREK into the awesomenews stratosphere.  During that time, Thomas produced countless radio shows, from his early weekly shows on punk rock early in his career, to the occasional Sunday Specials in which he would focus on a particular artist or genre.

A lot of those radio shows got taped by you Thomas fans out there, and you probably still have them.  I want you to help us share them with the world.

Dave Slusher and I have created The Thomas Peake Podcast, found at www.PeakeCast.org.  We will take everything we can find, digitize the audio into MP3 form, and make it available on the internet as a podcast.  You can subscribe to the podcast, or download and listen on your computer, or download and burn your own CDs.

We already have the first show up.  The one thing we could dig up right away was Thomas' appearance on WREK just 5 years ago.  In 2004, WREK moved from its old Coliseum studios to new digs in the center of Georgia Tech campus.  To celebrate the 27 years that WREK had been at the old location, and give alumni one last chance to see the joint, I put together "alumni weekend" at WREK, where we took over the station and I invited past WREK staff to come in and spin records.  Thomas had a one hour segment ... and I totally knew he would play the Colorblind James Experience!  Go to www.peakecast.org to hear it and subscribe.

That's just a sample of what we hope to provide in the PeakeCast.  But we need your help.  If you know that you taped some of Thomas' radio shows, GO FIND THOSE RECORDINGS NOW PLEASE.  Go to www.peakecast.org and follow the instructions for submitting them to us.  Dave and I will be collecting them and will then take care of digitizing and relaying all this musical goodness out to everyone else in the Thomas-o-sphere.

We realize that Thomas himself probably had the best collection of these tapes, but we're certainly not going to bother Dena and family just yet.  However, if Dena or any of Thomas' family are reading this, know that we are ready to receive whatever you find when you are ready.

Thanks for reading, and stay righteous.

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Update Oct 2010:  it's been a year now.  The PeakeCast has published eight episodes and we have lots more to come.  This weekend we will remember Thomas with a day of hard work on the Beltline, improving a segment that starts just north of Memorial Drive.  We miss him.

 

Comments

[Adam]

[Edit by Chris: this was posted after we'd gotten the news of Thomas being missing but before we knew he was gone. I've since reworked the above post.]

I remember meeting Thomas at WREK in the late 90's. He seemed like a great guy; hope he turns up in good shape.

[Dave]

This is seriously bad news. The world is a measurably worse place now.

[David Naugle]

I have a copy of his bright lights cassette I will digitize and post if you want.

[ashley raiteri]

Dave, I have lost my Bright Lights cassette, if you would not mind digitizing that would be awesome.

One Blog about the trail had this ominous warning. But I know Thomas was a veteran hiker and I doubt this was anything other than bad luck.

"The Ranger’s log warned matter-of-factly: "Lava Falls Route is not for the faint of heart. Be fully prepared for self-rescue."

Chris, the facebook group is public and open, so you only need a facebook id in order to write on it.

I was hoping someone could dig up some old audio, the man was a Giant, and I am sure he made as big an impression on everyone as he did me.

[Chris C.]

Thanks Ashley.

My contribution to all this is that I'm working on gathering audio snippets of Thomas on WREK. I'll post a note on the Facebook wall thing (via my girlfriend's account) about this.

And I have a copy of that Bright Lights comp too, will have to dig it up. But I don't have the ability to digitize cassettes, so David I may call on you for that.

[Chuck Buck]

News of Thomas’ death, as if arriving by Pony Express, reached me today in Southern California, darkening my horizon — a somber solar eclipse over the Pacific. I am enthralled, however, to read these heartfelt posts from those whose connection to Thomas was through music. Mine was through his copywriting, rather his writing of copy — his extraordinary capacity to take complex subjects of a technical nature and synthesize them into bite-size digestible ideas. Thomas was a gifted writer and, refreshingly, he was so very accessible. His Christmas presents were relevant and unique and I will miss his imaginative approach to gift giving. I will miss the unassailable logic he brought to the writing assignments that I would commission. I will miss his clearly written sentences and convincing arguments he artfully crafted in his choice of words, structure of sentences and ordering of paragraphs. I will miss the squeaking of his rocking chair as we spoke long distance. I will the warmth and sincerity in his voice, “Hello, this is Thomas…”

[Chris C.]

Thank you Chuck for your remembrance.

[Chris C.]

I just remembered -- WREK's theme of "Quality Diverse Radio" was created by Thomas. Back in the day, we had all read Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance and its thorough dissertation in what exactly "quality" meant. Thomas took that to heart and applied it to WREK. 20 years later and it still works.