Roy Pritts, who did a little bit of everything in audio, from working as a consultant in audio forensics in Colorado to performing with such musicians as John Denver, The Carpenters, Elvis Presley and many others, passed away last month at the age of 70.
Pritts enjoyed numerous occupations over his career, most notably establishing the Music Technology/Recording Arts program at the University of Colorado at Denver in 1971 and helping to create the graduate program in Recording Arts in 2002. He taught audio engineering, electronic music and music composition until his retirement in May 2006.
During his tenure, Pritts served as the Resident Dean of the College of Music from 1984 to 1989. He also taught audio engineering courses at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the University of Miami, the Institutes of Cinematography in both St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Moscow State University (Russia), the Technical Universities of Gdansk (Poland) and Prague (Czech Republic), Taller de Arte Sonoro (Venezuela) and the University of Lulea-Pitea (Sweden).
The Pritts Collection of historical audio technology is on display at the National Center for Voice and Speech in Denver. A scholarship to benefit Recording Arts graduate students is being established in Pritts’ name through the University of Colorado Foundation. Individuals and organizations can donate by sending a check with Roy Pritts Fund on the memo line to: ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists), PO Box 6808, Denver, CO 80206.
