Vater Percussion President Ron Vater Dies @ 63

Deen Castronovo: A sad day for the Drumming community.. Ron Vater @VaterDrumsticks passed away. Ron and ALAN took a chance with me back when I was an up and coming drummer and I love them both like brothers. Rest In Peace Ron. Love you and miss you brother…

Ron Vater 1/25/1957 – 1/25/2020

Ron Vater’s life was immersed in drumming and drumsticks from childhood. He spent many days of his youth at his grandfather’s store, Boston’s legendary Jack’s Drum Shop. Jack Adams (Joan Vater’s father) would bring Ron and his brother Alan along with him to see many of his friends’ concerts when they came through Boston including, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Elvin Jones and many more.

His late teens and early twenties saw Ron working at C. Vater Music Center in Norwood, Massachusetts where Ron was a life-long resident. Ron, along with Alan, would help run the store with their father, the late Clarence “Clarry” Vater. It was while working at this store that the Vater drumstick business was essentially conceived. They experienced a drumstick supply issue from a well-known manufacturer at the time, and Ron and Alan took it upon themselves to rent machine time locally and start turning their own drumsticks for the store, just as Jack Adams had done at his store in the early 1950’s.

The Vater brothers made their drumstick manufacturing a full time endeavor in the mid 1980’s. They were soon working with leading brands in the industry, producing drumsticks for Pearl, Tama, countless drum shops across the USA and so on. It was at that time that Vic Firth himself asked the Vater family to manufacture hickory drumsticks for his own brand. Ron and Alan worked closely with Vic, side by side, at their factory designing many of Vic Firth’s models that still exist in the market today. That then lead to the design and manufacturing of Zildjian drumsticks and many others brands, until the proper Vater brand was launched in 1991. While the family continued to manufacture for others, as they still do today, the Vater brand became their main focus.

View the entire tribute @ this location.