Craig Georgi, Polk's First Employee, Passes Away

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 10/26/2011

Baltimore - Craig Georgi, Polk Audio's first employee, passed away at age 63.

Craig Georgi, Sept. 14, 1948 – Oct. 22, 2011

Georgi worked at Polk for 30 years before retiring in 2008.

When the company was founded in 1972, Georgi was hand-winding coils for crossovers in his bedroom at Le Chateau, an old mansion in Baltimore where he and the company's co-founders lived and worked, Polk said. Georgi moved on to managing production and manufacturing at the company's Baltimore headquarters and in its manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico.

Polk sales and marketing VP Ben Newhall commented on Georgi's passing by saying Polk and parent DEI Holdings "are deeply saddened to hear of Craig's passing," but he also said, "We are equally proud of the innumerable contributions he made to both the company and the speaker industry as a whole. He brought heart to Polk Audio with a knack for problem-solving combined with an unshakable work ethic that set the foundation for our continued success. His influence is indelibly stamped on our culture."

During retirement, Georgi spent much of his time with family, bicycling and working on an annual fundraising golf tournament benefitting the Home of Guiding Hands, which provides services to more than 425 individuals with developmental disabilities in San Diego's East County, where Georgi lived with his wife and family.

A private service will be held in San Diego on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 2 p.m. The family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Craig's favorite charities: The Home of Guiding Hands (http://www.guidinghands.org), The Challenged Athletes Foundation (http://www.challengedathletes.org) and The Salvation Army (http://donate.salvationarmyusa.org).