The Grateful Dead's longtime collaborator Owsley 'Bear' Stanley has been killed in a car accident in Australia.
The 76 year old died at the weekend (12-13mar11) after he was involved in a crash near his home in Queensland.
Stanley's car is said to have swerved off the road and hit a tree on Sunday (13Mar11). He died at the scene while a female passenger was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
A family statement, released by former Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead tour manager Sam Cutler, reads, "We are extremely saddened to report that Owsley 'Bear' Stanley, our beloved patriarch, died in an automobile accident near his home in Far North Queensland, Australia. The family asks for privacy while we deal with this tragedy."
Stanley was well known as a producer of hallucinogenic drug Lsd in the 1960s, but he rose to fame working as a sound engineer for Grateful Dead, with a brief stint as the band's manager and financier.
He is credited with developing high-fidelity sound systems for rock music and he also worked on live recordings for a number of other artists including Janis Joplin, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash.
Stanley emigrated from his native U.S. to Australia in the 1980s. He is survived by his wife Sheilah and four children.