Augustus Owsley Stanley III (Bear) was more than just a pioneer of LSD production. Many articles announcing his March 13th death would have you believe that this was his only worthwhile contribution to the world. To believe that is to ignore his incredible intellect and his contributions to the worlds of art, style, and music.

Without Bear, this world would be without many classic recordings of some of the pioneers of Psychedelic Rock & Roll as well as the contemporaries that shared a bill with those artists. What would the Grateful Dead have become without Bear attaching a tape recorder to the soundboard at some of their earliest shows? Music from Bear's "Sonic Journals" will likely be coming out to the public in new releases for years to come.

Not only did Bear record music, but he also innovated the way that music could be captured and displayed in a live concert setting. Bear pioneered the use of multi track recording live as well as the use of multi-directional microphones to reduce feedback. His contributions to music are far too many to mention in this article!

Bear's contribution to art and style can be seen on everything from bumper stickers to shoes and everything in-between. Bear along with Bob Thomas created the famous Skull logo for the Grateful Dead. This logo was first seen on the cover of the 1973 album Bear's Choice, which was a tribute to the recently passed Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. This logo was originally designed to adorn the Grateful Dead's equipment and distinguish it from all the other bands during the setup and tear down of festival sets. The logo has gone on to represent so much more. Bear is also the inspiration for the famous dancing bears logo as they represent his early career as a professional ballet dancer.

In his later years Bear worked tirelessly on his art which he made into carvings, enamel and castings. This art has been collected and exhibited with pride by thousands of people all over the world.

Bear was a man of many thoughts and experiences, many of which can be found in his essay writings. It is with great sadness for a fallen legend and innovator that I write this obituary but it is with great joy and respect that we at 4WORD present to you a daily article on a different essay, musical offering, or aspect of his artwork for many days to come. Most of what we will be offering you will be in Bear's own words as only he could say it.

We cannot possibly tell you about all of Bear's contributions or his incredible family history as that would be a full time job, but we encourage you to take what we give you as a starting point. Much has been written on the life and history of the Bear!

We can only hope that this is just another adventure for Bear and now he's inventing new ways to harness sound in the great beyond. we'll all be listening for thunder to sound a little bit better from now on!

Tags: Art, music, style, Grateful Dead, LSD, Owsley Stanley, Bear