Naperville Municipal Band remembers its 'sound man'

Not even a complete lack of power could hold back the sound of the Naperville Municipal Band if John Lord was backstage.

And he always was.

Lord, the man responsible for bringing the band's music from the stage to fans' ears for more than 40 years, died Dec. 31 at the age of 86 at Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora.

Remembering his friend and fishing buddy Monday, band director Ronald Keller told of a concert several years ago at Knoch Knolls Park on Naperville's far south side. The park did not have electricity, meaning singers would not have microphones and likely wouldn't be heard.

"To this day, I have no idea how he did it, but John wired up a complete sound system with an amplifier and speakers and he ran the darn thing off his car battery so everyone could hear us," Keller said. "The guy just had a knack for fixing things on the go while other guys stood around scratching their heads."

Lord moved to Naperville in 1957 with his wife, Ann Good Lord, where she would announce the band and do several onstage bits with band members. During one of the last concerts of the 1957 season, the band lost its sound engineer and Lord stepped right into a volunteer position he would go on to hold for more than 45 years until 2003.

Aside from being the band's sound man for its weekly summer and winter concerts, he was also a board member.

"For John, the band was his love, just part of his life," Keller said.

Friend and bandmate Bill Albrecht said Lord also recorded and produced two vinyl albums and one CD of the band's music.

"John was so good with his electronics, he could (audio) record a sunset," Albrecht said Monday. "He was ahead of his time."

Born and raised in Elgin, Lord graduated from Elgin High School in 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army and served for four years during World War II. He served in the Third Army, 4th Armored Division, 37th Tank Battalion, A Company. He also did battlefield intelligence, and was in Czechoslovakia at the end of the war.

After the war, he headed an intelligence team tracking Nazi war criminals in France.

"That certainly was John," Keller said. "You could talk to John about a situation and just see the wheels turning in his head, always figuring out what to do next."

Lord is survived by Ann and three children, Steven, Catherine and Douglas, and seven grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today, Jan. 6, at Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Home, 515 S. Washington St. in Naperville. There will be a visitation at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home, followed by an 11 a.m. service.