MI industry veteran Mark Dronge passed away at the age of 83 on May 11.
From NAMM’s Dan Del Fiorentino: Mark was the President of DR Strings and a veteran of the music products industry, having been involved since he was four years old in his father’s retail store! Mark recalled the accordion boom of the 1940s in his father’s store, which was sold in 1948. The money his father made in selling the store funded the Guild Guitar Company’s launch in 1952. His father formed Guild when Mark was fourteen and he developed a great interest in the business. He worked for his father after college before he formed his own company, DR Strings.
I do believe Mark was the last survivor of the 1966 television broadcast from the NAMM show, which was in celebration of our 65th anniversary. Here is Mark’s segment when he was 27 years old.
https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/65th-annual-namm-show-1966-interview-mark-dronge
