The late Jeff Kaplan with his daughter, Vivien. ANNAPOLIS, MD—Tour engineer/production manager Jeff Kaplan was killed on January 7, when he was hit by an SUV following his own car accident on Route 50 in Annapolis, MD.
Kaplan, 43, lost control of his 2013 Subaru around 2 a.m., crashing into the highway median. When Kaplan got out of his car, he was standing in a lane and was hit by Aaron Nedd, 30, who was driving home from work. Kaplan was pronounced dead at the scene. The stretch of highway where the accidents occurred does not have roadway lighting.
Kaplan worked with acts ranging from pop (Michelle Branch, Thomas Dolby, Plain White Ts, Fiction Plane) to hip-hop (Snoop Dogg) to alternative (Brand New, Jimmies Chicken Shack, G. Love and Special Sauce) to metal (Buckcherry, POD, Unwritten Law, A Day To Remember), among others.
Kaplan leaves behind his 7-year-old daughter, Vivien. “He loved her so much,” Vivien’s mother, Melanie Loughry, told the Capital Gazette. “He was always so supportive of her theater and her singing and her education. He really believed in her and was a really good, supportive father.”
Online, tributes poured in for the fallen engineer. “RIP Jeff Kaplan, he was one of the nice ones,” tweeted Vans Warped tour producer Kevin Lyman, while on Instagram, Kevin Skaff and Alexander Shelnutt of A Day To Remember, the band Kaplan had been working with most recently, wrote lengthy remembrances as well.
An online memorial fund was set up for Kaplan’s daughter, Vivien, with a goal of raising $75,000.
Jeff Kaplan Memorial Fund
www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/gx77/jeff-kaplan-memorial-fund
