FAIRPORT HARBOR, OH — Tommy Stephenson, longtime sales manager for Burbank, CA-based TMB, died Feb. 21, 2017. He was 53. Stephenson was the first employee to be hired by TMB founders and partners Marshall Bissett and Colin Waters after they formed the company to distribute entertainment production supplies in the mid-1980s.
Born in Cleveland, OH in 1963, Stephenson graduated from Mentor High School in Mentor, OH in 1981. While studying marketing and business administration at Kent State University, he also nurtured a passion for rock ‘n’ roll, performing with a band, White Night, which achieved some recognition for its album release, Etched in Steel.
After making his way to the West Coast with a band mate and their two guitars with dreams of rock stardom in their eyes, Stephenson held a variety of jobs, including a retail position at Federated Group, where he met Colin Waters, who was then a music store co-worker.
After a stint on the road with Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Stephenson moved back to Los Angeles, working for TASCO and touring with Barry Manilow, David Lee Roth, Poison and the McAuley Schenker Group.
By then, Colin Waters and Marshall Bissett had formed TMB, and Stephenson joined the fledgling company as its first employee, soon joined by Warren Mays and others as the company expanded.
PLSN profiled Stephenson in April 2008, after TMB had grown and opened offices in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London and Beijing. To read the story, CLICK HERE.
He is survived by his children, Christian and Megan; his mother, Carol; his sisters, Laura Gerhardt and Sue Stephenson; two nephews and a niece. He is preceded in death by his father, Don Stephenson.
Services are planned Feb. 25 at Kirtland Bethel Bible Church in Kirtland, OH. For details, contact Davis-Babcock Funeral Home, Whilloughby, OH; www.davisbabcock.com.
For more on how TMB will celebrate the life of its first employee, go to: http://plsn.com/wp/main-news/22115
