Roger Alan Modjeski (RAM) 1951 - 2019

I suppose that Roger's having lived in Santa Barbara had something to do with his prior history as a collaborator with Harold Beveridge, when HB was developing and building his direct-drive ESL speakers, also in Santa Barbara.  In any case, inside the chassis' of both of the amplifiers that drive my Beveridge 2SWs is inscribed "RAM 1979", in magic marker.  In recent years, RAM admitted to me that those were his marks.  He is also known to have designed the Beveridge preamplifier, of which he was most proud. From where I sit, he was a relatively young man, and he will be missed by all of us for the depth of his knowledge, his unique skillset, and his kindness to most all of us.
In my opinion, you're quite correct, bdp, a direct driven ESL cannot be beaten. The only set-up that comes close is an ESL driven by an OTL.

@tomic601 Roger didn't really specify any charitable foundations for donations, but I know he was very fond of KQED, the music department at Santa Barbara City College, and Jelly's Place Animal Rescue and Adoption in San Pablo.

For a little more history on Roger, he met Harold Beveridge at Stanford where Roger was going for his Masters and teaching there. He left after a year and went back home to Richmond, VA where he opened Audio Art, his high end store. He became a dealer for Beveridge among other well known brands and a couple years later Harold Beveridge hired him as his Chief Engineer. So Roger picked up and moved to Santa Barbara where he lived for 37 years. The photo on my website is from 1985 at his condo. Ironically the photo was taken at his half-life when he was 34 years old and 4 years into Music Reference.

The Beveridge RM-1/RM-2 is indeed a masterpiece. Direct coupled with a servo, 12 tubes, two MM phono inputs, and a slew of other features. Roger told me he pulled out all the stops in that design. The RM-2 power supply was built with four outlets on the back and designed to have the RM-1 preamp, RM-3 active crossover, and the OTL amps plugged into it. While assumed by many, Roger told me that he did not design the OTLs, but tested all of them and did put his signature on the ones that passed his requirements. To Roger's dismay and against the best efforts to convince him otherwise, Beveridge was not a stickler for quality control and parts reliability. This ultimately led to their separation.

The San Francisco Audio Society that awarded Roger with their lifetime achievement award recently received a note from Michael Fremer when he heard the news of Roger’s passing:

"I knew Roger for many years, at first only through phone calls and emails. I was fortunate to have met him years later through the San Francisco Audiophile Society and so happy to have shared that time with him. He was always a reluctant manufacturer, as I point out in my review of the RM200 MKII that I own and use as a tube reference, but so generous with his time and knowledge (https://www.stereophile.com/content/music-reference-rm-200-mkii-power-amplifier). Not surprisingly, the amp measures as well as it sounds, or as John Atkinson concluded: ’As did the original version of the Music Reference RM-200 amplifier, the Mk.II edition offers superb measured performance for a tubed design, particularly in terms of midband distortion and the ability to drive low impedances. And I remain impressed by the quality of its output transformers.’ We all knew he had a terminal illness and he talked about it with me when I last visited in the fall. I just didn’t think he’d pass this quickly. He will be missed by all. What a lovely man."

Indeed, we are missing him and the fallen warriors before him.
@clio09 Thanks for the ideas on donations !

Roger was an excellent teacher, researcher, inventor, and designer.  I'm using an RM-10 MkII Class A in a system where few sane people would consider a little 25 Watt stereo amp that weighs 14 pounds.  It has won my heart and a spot in my primary stereo system, beating out 100 Watt solid state and tube monoblocks to power floor standing speakers.  I sure hope Roger got the message I sent to him to that effect on Thanksgiving, about six years after buying the amp.

I guess we all have to let go of Roger, and that's very sad.  The best tribute I can think of to give him is to praise his amp, and not let go of that!