On December 1, NAMM’s Dan Del Fiorentino shared the following:
We were informed by our dear friend Norm Zimmerman that Dave Gantz passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. He was 69 years old.
Dave watched the Beatles on television and instantly he knew that he wanted to play bass. Dave had many interesting adventures in music throughout the 1960s, including attending Woodstock. He later found a job at Steve’s Music in Canada which resulted in a fulfilling career in music retail. One of the factors of this success was Dave’s friendship with the founder, Steve Kirman. Steve was more than a boss and mentor to most of the staff, he was a friend. When Steve passed away, Dave, like so many in the store, took it upon themselves to grow and develop the store using the same attention to customer service and integrity as Steve had exemplified.