Legendary sound engineer Patrick Spence-Thomas died of natural causes in Toronto on Oct. 12 at the age of 75.

Born in South Wales on March 4, 1933, Spence-Thomas came to Canada in 1954 during the Cold War to work on the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the Arctic. It was in 1962 that he launched his audio career at F.R. ‘Budge’ Crawley’s pioneer Ottawa prodco Crawley Films. Two years later, he purchased a Nagra III recorder and became a freelance sound recordist for programs including CBC News Magazine and This Hour Has Seven Days.

In 1967, he opened Spence-Thomas Audio Post on Toronto’s Jarvis Street, just south of the old CBC headquarters.

‘He started with a studio literally held together with tape and bailing wire, including a homebuilt mixing desk,’ says his son Richard, who joined the company in 1983 as a machine-room operation/tape loader and is now its chief engineer and GM. Patrick Spence-Thomas’ minimalist facilities allowed him to charge low prices, attracting many young filmmakers.

But gradually the equipment improved. By 1971, his shop had relocated to Charles Street, moving right across from the headquarters of CTV, for which it was doing plenty of jobs. Meanwhile, Spence-Thomas did sound work for Ivan Reitman’s early feature Foxy Lady (1971), Paul Almond’s Journey (1972), and Gerald Potterton’s The Rainbow Boys (1973).  

His company has continued to grow to this day, offering three audio-for-picture studios at its 70 Richmond Street East location. Last year, Richard won a best sound Gemini Award for Riddle Films’ Gospel Challenge: The Concert, which aired on VisionTV.

Patrick Spence-Thomas had retired much earlier – back in 1990 – but he still dropped by the studios to regale clients with his many stories. ‘He loved to celebrate – any excuse for a party,’ says Richard.

And as per his instruction, his family and many friends threw ‘a damn good party’ in his honor at Toronto’s Academy of Spherical Arts on Nov. 2.