TAMPA, FL — Jerry Freed, founder of Gator Cases, died Nov. 13, 2014 after a bout with cancer. He was 74. Freed had been an entrepreneur and innovator in the audio and MI industries before launching Gator Cases with his daughter Crystal Morris here in 2000.
The company had a modest start with a small initial offering of molded plastic guitar cases, but soon expanded into case and bag solutions for the broader MI and AV industries. Gator Cases now offers more than 1,000 different solutions made from vacuum-formed plastics, rotational-molded plastics, wood, fabric and EVA materials.
After college, Freed spent several years selling and representing Roberts Electronics, which co-branded consumer reel-to-reel tape recorders OEM’d by Akai. Freed then went on to also launch a line of guitar amplifiers by Califone, another division of Roberts, and left after Califone was purchased by Rheem in 1967.
Eventually Freed co-founded International Music Corporation (IMC), first as a supplier of percussion products and then getting involved in developing and distributing guitar brands. By the mid-1980’s, IMC had rekindled its relationship with Akai and Akai Professional was born to create keyboards, samplers, drum machines and both analog and digital multi-track recorders for home and pro users. This was followed by IMC’s acquisition of Charvel/Jackson guitars.
In 1989, Freed left to form Freed International, marketing and representing various leading M.I. brands, before founding Gator Cases in Tampa with his daughter Crystal Morris in 2000. Freed is survived by his wife Gail, his daughter Crystal, and his grandchildren Tray and Ryan.
