In Memoriam: Alex Dengler – Marine, Audio Adventurer, and Inspiration

January 29th, 2017 by David Weiss

“Music will be my legacy.” – Alex Dengler

Back in 2014, I heard from a friend who wanted to connect me with someone interesting. He knew an aspiring young audio professional who was an ex-Marine looking for a studio job: Alex Dengler. Alex was a veteran and a Valedictorian – in 2013 he finished at the top of his class at Five Towns College.

Bu there was something big standing in the way of Alex’s dream of recording music full time. Cancer, in all its randomness, invaded his life shortly after he completed his U.S. Marine enlistment in 2006. He had experienced live combat in Iraq, so Alex knew how to fight. Year in and year out, through multiple remissions and recurrences, he battled cancer with everything he had.

Alex Dengler bridged music and the military in a uniquely uplifting way.

Our mutual hoped I could refer Alex to an open position at an NYC-area studio, but after one inspirational phone call with him I had a better idea. I invited Alex to write an article about the personal connections he had made between military service and audio engineering, and hoped that in the process he could broadcast his availability to many more opportunities than I had at my fingertips.

How had his time in the Marines prepared him for a life dedicated to music – something he was fiercely devoted to as his country? Alex came back to me with a piece far beyond what I expected, “Music as Survival: A Marine’s Military-Spec Studio Checklist.” You should read it now. It’s motivating and emotional, practical and actionable. This is more than just a page to bookmark and share – it’s worth printing, posting on the wall, and re-reading often. Especially on those dog days when everything isn’t going your way.

I hadn’t heard from Alex in a while, so last week I Googled his name in hopes of finding that he’d gotten the studio job he craved. But my spider sense was telling me something else: Alex had passed away only three days before. Just a month shy of his 31^st birthday, cancer finally overwhelmed him.

I talk about people who are “in the trenches” for audio all the time. It was really true of Alex Dengler, a man who proved to be fearless in the face of gunfire and extreme adversity, all of it ultimately in the name of audio. We can continue his fight by reading his words, and making music – the best music we can make – our legacy too.

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